WordPress Wisdom

Plugin Name: Updraft Plus
Functionality: Backup/Restore WordPress
Rating on WordPress Directory: Five stars
Number of Installs: 2+ Million
Price: Free for Basic / Premium $42/year
Plugin Link: https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/
Website Link: https://updraftplus.com/

Welcome to the first series of #WhatThePlugin! In this series, I will be reviewing and giving feedback on the many plugins WordPress has to offer. There are millions of plugins in the WordPress directory and while a lot of them are very useful. there are some that are useless. I’m here to help you distinguish between the two. First up: UpDraft Plus.

Summary

I spoke about UpDraft Plus in a couple of previous posts, so I’m excited to have this plugin be the first of many plugins that I review. But in summary, it is a plugin that helps with backing up and restoring your WordPress site. If you want an easy and convenient way to keep your files backed up and safe, this plugin is for you.

Setup

Setting up the plugin is pretty straight forward. Once the plugin is installed, all you need to do is go to the UpDraft settings and start the backup. By default, it is configured to backup everything on your site. You can do the backups manually or configure it to perform backups automatically (Though if you want it to run at a set time, you will need to get the Premium version).

When you complete the backup, it will give you an option to download the contents so that you can save it onto your computer. You also have an option to restore using the contents that were backed up. If you want, there is also an option to configure the backup to automatically go to cloud storage like Dropbox or One Drive. The backups can also be encrypted, however, this is only available as a premium feature.

Performance

Performance on the Plugin itself is fairly decent. The backup performs quickly and overall does not have any effect on the speed or performance of my site. However, I don’t have much content on this site yet, so it may be different on a site with a lot of content on it.

Issues

The one main issue that I have with this plugin is the inability to configure the backups to go to the cloud drive. In particular, I would like for my backups to go to my Google Drive. In order to do that you have to complete the authentication process with Google and then once it’s successful, the plugin should pick up your cloud drive. However, I keep going into a loop with the plugin asking me to authenticate with Google. Not sure what the issue is but is a pain to download and re-upload the backup to the cloud when there’s a feature to do that for me and it doesn’t even work.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I very much enjoy this plugin and one of the few free plugins that I find useful. It has a lot of useful features in the free version, with a lot of additional features and support in the paid version. If you need a quick and easy way to preserve your website, this plugin is the way to go.

***Note: this review is of my opinion only. I was not compensated in any way to review this plugin and none of the links in this review are affiliate links.