How to Back Up a WordPress Website in Ireland: A Practical Guide for SMEs

Your WordPress website is often the face of your business. It holds your content, your contact forms, your e-commerce catalogue, and in many cases customer data. Losing it-to a failed plugin update, a hacked hosting account, or a botched migration-is more disruptive than most business owners expect until it happens.

The problem is that too many Irish businesses assume their web host is handling backups reliably. Many hosts do provide some form of backup, but the terms typically look like this:

• Backups retained for 7–30 days only
• Restores may cost extra or be limited in frequency
• “Backups are provided as a courtesy”-i.e., not guaranteed
• Managed WordPress hosts (like Kinsta, WP Engine) are generally better, but still recommend independent backups

This guide explains what you need to protect, how to set it up, and what to look for.

What a WordPress backup must include

A WordPress site is made up of three distinct components. A proper backup must cover all three:

1. The database This is the most critical part. Your WordPress database contains every post, page, comment, user account, plugin setting, and WooCommerce order. Without the database, your site is a shell.

2. Theme and plugin files Your active theme (including any customisations) and all installed plugins. Losing these means rebuilding your site’s appearance and functionality from scratch.

3. The wp-content/uploads folder Every image, PDF, video, and document you’ve ever uploaded to your site lives here. For many Irish businesses, this represents years of product photos, blog images, and downloadable resources.

A backup solution that only exports the database (common with some quick-and-dirty approaches) will not get your site back.

Option 1: UpdraftPlus (free, self-managed)

UpdraftPlus is the most widely used WordPress backup plugin in the world, with over 3 million active installations. The free version is capable enough for most small Irish business sites.

What it does:

• Backs up files and database separately on a configurable schedule
• Sends backups directly to remote storage: Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, OneDrive, or SFTP
• Lets you restore directly from the WordPress admin panel (no FTP required)
• Supports manual backups before major updates

Setup for Irish businesses (recommended):

1. Install UpdraftPlus from the WordPress plugin directory
2. Go to Settings → UpdraftPlus Backups → Settings
3. Set your schedule: daily database backups, weekly full backups
4. Choose remote storage: Google Drive is the easiest to connect for most users
5. Set retention: keep at least 4 weeks of backups
6. Run a manual backup immediately and confirm it appears in your Google Drive

Cost: Free for core functionality. The premium version (approximately €70/year) adds multisite support, more remote storage options, database search-and-replace on migration, and priority support.

The gap: UpdraftPlus is a self-managed tool. If your hosting account is compromised (i.e., the attacker gains access to your WordPress admin), they could potentially delete your UpdraftPlus backups too. Sending backups to an independent account (a separate Google account, not the one used for your daily work) reduces this risk.

Option 2: BlogVault (managed, recommended for reliability)

BlogVault is a managed WordPress backup service-you install a plugin, connect your site, and BlogVault handles everything from there. It stores backups on its own infrastructure, completely independent of your hosting provider.

What it does:

• Daily automated backups stored on BlogVault’s servers (not yours)
• Incremental backups-only the changed parts of your site are backed up each time, making it fast even for large sites
• One-click restore from any backup point
• Staging environment-create a copy of your live site to test updates safely
• Merged backup-you can migrate to a new host using BlogVault

Why it’s better for Irish SMEs who don’t want to manage it themselves: Unlike UpdraftPlus, BlogVault doesn’t require you to configure remote storage, manage API keys, or worry about whether the backup actually ran. It just works.

Pricing: From approximately €7–€9/month per site on annual billing. Higher plans include real-time backup (instead of daily), malware scanning, and unlimited sites.

GDPR note: BlogVault stores backups on AWS infrastructure. For Irish businesses storing customer data in WooCommerce or contact forms, check BlogVault’s current data storage region and their Data Processing Agreement before using.

Option 3: Your hosting provider’s backup (as a supplement, not a sole solution)

If you’re on a quality managed WordPress host-Kinsta, WP Engine, Pressable, or a well-regarded Irish host-their built-in backups may be reliable enough as a second layer. But they shouldn’t be your only layer for a few reasons:

• If your hosting account is compromised, the attacker may also be able to delete or corrupt hosted backups
• Hosting provider backups are in the same infrastructure as your site-if that infrastructure has an issue, both may be affected simultaneously
• Restore processes vary: some require a support ticket, some have limits on how often you can restore

Use your host’s backup as a convenient fast-recovery option. Use UpdraftPlus or BlogVault as your independent, offsite layer.

What about WooCommerce stores?

If you run a WooCommerce store, the stakes are higher. Your store contains:

• Customer names, email addresses, and billing addresses (personal data under GDPR)
• Order history
• Product data, prices, and inventory
• Payment records (though payment details themselves are handled by your payment gateway)

All of this is stored in your WordPress database. A proper backup covers it-but there are additional considerations:

GDPR obligation: Under Article 32 of the GDPR, you must be able to restore personal data in a timely manner following a technical incident. If your WooCommerce store loses customer data and you can’t restore it, you have a GDPR breach to report to the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) within 72 hours.

Recommendation for WooCommerce: Use BlogVault (or UpdraftPlus Premium) with daily backups and at least 30 days of retention. Test a restore at least once a quarter.

GDPR considerations for Irish WordPress sites

Even a simple brochure WordPress site that has a contact form is collecting personal data-at minimum, the name and email address of people who contact you. That makes you a data controller under GDPR.

Article 32 requires you to have:

• Technical measures to protect personal data (backup is one of these)
• The ability to restore access to that data after an incident
• A documented, tested process

For most Irish small businesses with a WordPress site, this means:

• Daily automated backups of the full site
• Backup stored independently of the hosting environment
• Documented restore process (write down the steps, even briefly)
• Test a restore at least annually (before a site update is a natural time to do this)

Before any WordPress update: the pre-update backup

One practical tip that saves enormous amounts of grief: run a manual full backup immediately before any major plugin update, theme update, or WordPress core update.

With UpdraftPlus: Settings → UpdraftPlus Backups → Backup Now. Takes 1–5 minutes. Means that if the update breaks something, you have a clean restore point from minutes ago.

With BlogVault: it backs up automatically before updates if you use its managed update feature.

This is the single highest-ROI habit any Irish WordPress site owner can develop.

Recommended setup for most Irish SMEs

Checklist

• Install UpdraftPlus or connect to BlogVault
• Configure daily database backups and weekly full backups
• Send backups to storage independent of your hosting (Google Drive, S3, BlogVault servers)
• Set at least 4 weeks of backup retention
• Run a manual backup and verify it exists in remote storage
• Test a restore on a staging environment before you need it in an emergency
• Document your backup and restore process briefly (especially if you’re covered by GDPR for WooCommerce data)
• Set a calendar reminder to test restores quarterly

For more on backup strategy for Irish businesses, see our Irish business backup guide. If you also use Xero, Shopify, or Google Workspace, see the relevant guides in our blog.