What happens after you create your own website on WordPress? People start finding you online, hundreds of people read your blog and you get a dedicated fanbase! Well, that’s how it works in dreams and in Hollywood. The reality is quite different. Firstly you will be swamped with updates and management issues. You will feel the need of learning PHP and MySQL, or at least hiring someone who knows them both.
WordPress is the dream platform for most website developers and bloggers. But is WordPress as easy as we think it is? Or does it involve hidden maintenance tasks that can only be performed by the experts?
Today we will answer all of you questions along with actionable advice that will help you maintain your website and maybe even create a new one within a couple of minutes.
The most important aspect of your WordPress site is its database. WordPress uses PHP to update its database and pull necessary information from it as well. So if you know PHP you get brownie points as a developer and admin. If you don’t, you don’t need to worry anymore, it’s not the 90s!Here are a few plugins that will always give you necessary database support, keep your databases updated and backed up without regular manual inputs.
- Well, we agree, this is one of the paid services that can add to your website maintenance charges. This plugin is quite awesome because it automatically updates your backups to Dropbox, Rackspace Cloud, FTP, Amazon S3 and Stash. You may have to pay a bit for this service, but since it is not a subscription –based service, you don’t have to deal with bills and payments every month. BackupBuddy can also duplicate, migrate and restore your website content if you sign up for the premium forums.
- BackWPup Possibly the best aspect about BackWPup is its automatic update scheduler. You can set up the update frequency, time and location as per your convenience. The Pro version of this plugin comes with priority support and tons of other cool features.
- A free plugin that can take care of all your database woes; BackWPup can create complete WordPress backup and also store it on the cloud. This updates your database directly to your amazon S3, Rackspace and Dropbox accounts.
- BackupWordPressBackupWordPress compartmentalizes cost and task for all website developers.
- This is one of the most self-satisfying plugins ever created in the history of WordPress. The BackupWordPress can schedule your file backups and backup locations according to your preference. You can store your backups to Google Drive, FTP and Dropbox seamlessly. The extensions are separate for each service and you can choose to pay for only the ones you need.
- VaultPress VaultPress lets you backup all your website data, including your images to secure locations. Some of their advanced packages also offer security scans. These are quite updated and take into account the most recent updates of WordPress security.
- VaultPress was founded by Matt Mullenweg. Yes, the very same genius who founded WordPress. The trial/beginner version of this plugin is free (like most stellar WordPress plugins). The paid services start from a meagre $3.50 per month.
- WP-DB-BackupSo if you have a website where you don’t use images, videos and other media files much WP-DB-Backup is the one plugin you should go for. This is the easiest one to operate when it comes to database backups. This one also supports automated backups and database restoration services. If you don’t have access to your phpMyAdmin, you should definitely check out WP-DB-Backup for automatically updating your WordPress database.
- Believe it or not, WP-DB-Backup still ranks among the best database maintenance and backup services that cater to WordPress users. The only challenge you might face with WP-DB-Backup is it caters to only WordPress databases. Unlike the previous plugin we mentioned here, this one requires you to update and backup your media files manually.
- Duplicator Its backup features are noteworthy as it includes options for pre-determined backups. You can decide the time, location and frequency of the backups. If you already have a backup solution for your website, adding Duplicator to your repertoire of plugins will be a good idea.
- Quite like its name, it can duplicate more or less all content from the front end of your website to your database. The Duplicator is one of the most popular plugins that can meticulously export all your website content to WordPress sites.
- UpdraftPlus also comes as a premium version that has add-ons for migration of data and cloning websites. You can search your database with keywords and replace content using the add-ons provided for the premium version. It also has other cool features including multi-site support and priority support. Although the price may seem to be on the higher end for some, we guarantee that it is worth it!
- This plugins is always ready to give you on-demand backups. These are routine, scheduled backups that happen at a pre-determined time only. The backups are automatically updated on S3, Google Drive, FTP, SFTP, email and Dropbox. Other cloud services are also entertained, but these are usually more popular among UpdraftPlus users.
- This is one of those high-end backup plugins that makes updating and database backup a walk in the park. UpdraftPlus has its trial version where you can enjoy limited features that will help you backup and restore your WordPress MySQL database in a jiffy. You can choose to store the backup on your personal computer or a cloud service like the ones mentioned here before.
There was a time when all WordPress users needed to know PHP and other languages to access their MySQL databases. The admin required a working knowledge of PHP for updating the website database. But now, these plugins provide an intuitive UI for everyone, including the ones who do not know anything about PHP to run successful and popular websites.
Author Bio: Sujain Thomas is a well-known author who has been working on WordPress database support for a decade now. She has her own team of editors and website reviewers who make it much easier for website developer newbies to design and maintain their websites.