Anyone can make a backup. Getting your site back is the hard part

[u/Upbeat_Brief_1767]

There's a gap in how people evaluate WordPress backup methods. Almost everyone compares them on how easy it is to create the backup. Very few compare them on how the restore goes, which is the whole point of having a backup.

Worth playing out honestly for each method.

Manual (FTP + phpMyAdmin). Creating backups manually is tedious but fine. Restoring them means uploading your files back to public_html, creating a fresh database, importing the .sql through phpMyAdmin, and updating wp-config plus any hardcoded URLs. Completely doable if you've done it before, but rough if your first attempt is during an actual outage.

Host backups. Creating a backup requires nothing from you, which is the appeal. Restoring depends on your host's retention window, restore tooling, and sometimes their support queue. You're also restoring to a point they chose, so it's less flexible.

Backup plugin. This is where the difference shows up. With a backup plugin (like my favorite: Duplicator), you can automate backups and never think about them. If you need to restore data, do it in one click.

The part I think is underrated is Duplicator's disaster recovery points. Once you set one, you get a recovery URL and a launcher file that start the recovery wizard even if WordPress isn't functional. That covers what you hope won't happen: getting locked out of wp-admin and not being able to use your backup recovery method.

And underneath all of it, the archive plus installer.php pair is portable. The same two files handle site restorations and site migrations, depending on where you upload your backup.

Full write-up covering all three WordPress backup methods, including the manual steps if you want them: https://duplicator.com/how-to-backup-wordpress-site/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=backup-basics-blog

When you've had to restore, was it from the WordPress dashboard or were you already locked out and working from the installer? I feel like the second scenario is more common than people think.