Backups explained: the cheapest insurance your website will ever have
What website backups should look like, where they should live, and the restore test that separates real backups from false comfort.
Nobody thinks about backups until the day they need one. Here is what a sane setup looks like — it costs almost nothing.
What can actually go wrong
A bad plugin update white-screens your site. Someone deletes the wrong folder. A payment dispute turns into a hacked admin account. Hardware fails (rare, but not never). Each of these is a non-event with backups and a business-ending one without.
The three properties of real backups
1. Automatic: human memory is not a backup system
2. Off-server: a backup stored on the same server dies with the server
3. Restorable: you have actually done it once
The layered setup that works
- File versioning: Kairalmas file manager keeps 24-hour file versions — one-click undo for 'I edited the wrong file'
- Scheduled full backups: a WordPress backup plugin, daily or weekly
- Your own copy: monthly download to your laptop or Google Drive
The restore test (do it once, sleep better forever)
On a quiet evening: create a subdomain, restore your backup there, click through the site. Now you KNOW it works and you know how long a restore takes. Ten minutes, once a quarter.
The cost math
Backup plugins are free; hosting with versioning is included at Kairalmas from PKR 49/month. Compare that to rebuilding a store's product database from screenshots at PKR 30,000 of freelance time. Insurance this cheap should be illegal — instead it is just underused.