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UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin

By David Anderson / Team Updraft

Site Administration & Utilities / Site Migration & Cloning

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin Review - In-Depth Analysis

UpdraftPlus is a trusted plugin for backing up, restoring, and migrating WordPress websites. Schedule backups or run them manually with ease. Migrate your site in minutes.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

7.72/10

User Rating

4.8/5 (based on 8672+ reviews)

Active Installations

4,000,000+

Update Frequency

Outstanding It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

7.07 / 10 (High Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

UpdraftPlus is the most popular backup and migration plugin for WordPress, actively installed on over 3 million websites. It allows you to easily backup your site to various remote storage locations, including Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon S3.

With UpdraftPlus, you can restore your website in just a few clicks, selecting which components to restore. Migrating your site to a new host or domain is straightforward, with built-in tools to replace old strings and minimize broken links.

The free version provides essential features, while the premium version offers advanced options like automatic backups before updates, incremental backups, and additional storage options. UpdraftPlus is designed for reliability and ease of use, ensuring your website's safety and accessibility.

Comparing to Alternatives

UpdraftPlus competes in one of the most crowded categories on WordPress.org, with dozens of backup and migration plugins vying for attention. It remains a market leader due to its longevity, wide storage integrations, and generous free feature set, but newer tools like WP STAGING and Duplicator have carved out strong niches around staging and migration simplicity.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Broad range of remote storage destinations including Google Drive, Dropbox, and S3
Clear, transparent backup process with detailed on-screen progress
Strong free version that covers most small-to-medium site needs
Trusted by users managing multiple sites for quick restores and migrations
Long track record and large, active user base

Weaknesses

Free version excludes non-core database tables, which can produce incomplete backups for plugin-heavy sites
Occasional restore failures reported despite successful backup creation
Long history of security vulnerabilities, though consistently patched

User Sentiment Analysis

With 94.2% of ratings at 5 stars and only 3.3% falling into the 1-2 star range, sentiment toward UpdraftPlus is overwhelmingly positive. Users consistently praise its reliability, simplicity, and generous free tier, though a small minority report frustrating restore issues.

Positive highlights

"It just occurred to me to check on it's recent tasks and there they are, as good as gold" — johnsh55
"I manage 20 WordPress sites and Updraft Plus gives me the confidence that I can restore any of my sites in less than 10 minutes" — pshea1128
"Reliable backups, reliable restoration—even with a changed URL" — dfahbi
"UpdraftPlus is an excellent WordPress backup plugin – reliable, easy to use, and essential for peace of mind" — ummahserve
"You could have zero technical knowledge... and still set up automated backups in under two minutes" — zestyvivica

Common complaints

A user reported that a backup appeared successfully saved to Google Drive but failed to restore when needed, causing significant downtime and lost trust
The free version excludes non-core database tables, which can result in unusable restores for sites relying on plugins outside WordPress core

Weaknesses

History of 15 recorded vulnerabilities, including several high-severity issues like authentication bypass and PHP object injection
Restore reliability has been questioned in isolated but serious incidents
Free version limitations around database backup scope aren't always obvious to users until a restore fails

Who Should Use This?

Best for

UpdraftPlus is ideal for site owners and agencies who want a dependable, easy-to-use backup solution with strong cloud storage support and a proven track record. It suits users managing multiple sites who need fast, straightforward restores and migrations without a steep learning curve.

Not ideal for

Users running plugin-heavy sites who rely solely on the free version should be cautious, as non-core database tables may be excluded from backups. Given the plugin's lengthy history of patched vulnerabilities, security-conscious users should ensure they're always running the latest version and consider the Pro tier's added protections.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers scheduled backups, multiple remote storage destinations (Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, and more), and manual or automatic restore functionality — a notably generous feature set compared to many competitors' free tiers.

Pro version (70 - 399 USD / year)

UpdraftPlus Premium typically adds full database and file backup coverage (including non-core tables), multisite support, incremental backups, migration tools, advanced reporting, and priority support, making it a natural upgrade path for larger or plugin-heavy sites.

Final Verdict

UpdraftPlus earns its strong reputation through a combination of ease of use, a genuinely useful free tier, and consistent reliability for the vast majority of users. The overwhelmingly positive rating distribution reflects real-world satisfaction, particularly among site owners who value transparency during backups and straightforward restores across single or multiple sites.

That said, the plugin's long vulnerability history and the rare but serious restore failures reported by some users are worth weighing carefully. Sites with complex plugin ecosystems should consider Pro to avoid free-version database gaps, and all users should keep the plugin updated given its patched-but-notable security track record. Compared to alternatives like WP STAGING or Duplicator, UpdraftPlus remains a safe, well-rounded choice for most WordPress backup needs.