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BackupBuddy in 2025: The Backup Tool That Grew Up With WordPress
Feb
I love building on WordPress for one simple reason. It ships fast.
You can launch a store, a blog, a booking site, or a full brand site in days. Then you keep stacking wins. New pages. New plugins. New themes. New sales.
But speed has a cost.
One bad update. One hacked plugin. One hosting crash. One human mistake. And the whole thing can fall over.
That is why WordPress backups are not “nice to have.” They are profit protection.
And that brings us to BackupBuddy.
BackupBuddy was a long-time, paid WordPress backup plugin from the iThemes world. Today, it lives on under a new name and a new plan. If you search for BackupBuddy now, you will keep running into Solid Backups and two branches: Legacy and NextGen.
This article breaks down what BackupBuddy is now, what it does well, what changed, and how we use it like entrepreneurs who take risks—but do not gamble with the one thing that keeps cash coming in: uptime.
What BackupBuddy is now called
Let’s get the naming clean, because the internet is messy.
- BackupBuddy is the old product name.
- SolidWP is the brand that replaced iThemes.
- The product that used to be BackupBuddy is now positioned as Solid Backups — Legacy.
- The forward-looking product is Solid Backups — NextGen, which is cloud-first.
That shift matters because it changes how backups run, where the work happens, and how restores feel when things go wrong.
Why backups are a business tool, not an IT chore
Backups are not only about disasters.
Backups also help you move fast.
We use backups to:
- Roll back a bad plugin update
- Test a redesign with less fear
- Migrate a site to better hosting
- Build a staging copy
- Recover after malware cleanup
- Prove what changed, and when
In other words, backups are a growth tool.
They let us take smart risks.
The two BackupBuddy paths: Legacy vs NextGen
Solid Backups — Legacy (the BackupBuddy-style plugin)
Legacy is the classic model.
The plugin runs on your web host. It creates backup files on your server, then sends them to a destination you choose.
This is the BackupBuddy mindset many of us learned first:
- Make a full backup
- Store it off-site
- Restore if needed
- Use it for migration
Legacy still has real value, especially when you want a portable ZIP file you can move around.
Solid Backups — NextGen (cloud-first)
NextGen flips the model.
Instead of doing heavy work on your server, it pushes most of the backup work into SolidWP’s cloud setup. SolidWP describes NextGen as moving your database and changed files into their cloud each time a backup runs, which reduces the extra space and strain on your hosting box.
That is a big deal for:
- Shared hosting
- Busy WooCommerce stores
- Sites with huge media libraries
- Teams that manage many sites
NextGen is also managed in a centralized dashboard, instead of living only inside the WordPress admin area.
The quiet change that caught many people: Google Drive
If you used BackupBuddy years ago, you may have relied on Google Drive as a destination.
SolidWP announced that Google Drive destination support was being removed for the Legacy product, and noted that as of October 25, 2024, new backups would no longer be added to Google Drive destinations (with existing files already stored there unaffected).
That single change is a perfect lesson.
Backup plans must survive vendor changes.
We cannot build our safety net on one third-party integration and hope it lasts forever.
Pricing: what it costs to run backups like a grown-up
Let’s talk money, because this is business.
SolidWP lists Solid Backups — NextGen at $99 per year for 1 site, including 20 GB of included storage on that plan level.
They also list Solid Suite at $199 per year for 1 site, also showing 20 GB included storage at that level, and bundling Security Pro and Central tools alongside NextGen backups.
That price range is not “cheap.” But it is also not expensive when you measure it against:
- Lost revenue during downtime
- Labor time to rebuild a broken site
- Lost SEO rankings after a crash
- Reputation damage when customers see errors
We do not insure the cheap stuff.
We insure the stuff that makes money.
What a good BackupBuddy-style setup looks like
Whether you run Legacy, NextGen, or both, the real win is the system.
Here is the setup we aim for.
1) Back up on a schedule that matches revenue risk
- Static brochure site: daily can be fine
- Blog with daily posts: daily, plus pre-update backups
- WooCommerce store: daily at minimum, often more
- Membership site: frequent, because user data changes nonstop
NextGen is built around daily incremental backups, which fits most real businesses well.
2) Store backups off-site, always
If backups live only on the same server as your website, they can die together.
That is not a backup. That is a copy.
For the Legacy world, SolidWP’s Stash Live is designed to offload backups away from your host and store them in their Stash system, with daily “snapshots” and at least daily backups when enabled.
3) Keep a “disaster restore” path that does not depend on WordPress
This is where old-school BackupBuddy earned its fans.
When your WordPress admin is down, you still need a restore path. Legacy workflows have long leaned on a separate restore script and a complete backup file for that “site is on fire” moment.
Even if you love cloud tools, you want a restore method that works when your dashboard does not.
Because that is the moment you do not get a second chance.
4) Test restores like you test payments
Most people test backups by looking at a green “success” notice.
That is not testing.
Testing is restoring.
A simple habit that pays off:
- Once a month, restore a backup into a staging site
- Confirm pages load
- Confirm admin works
- Confirm media is present
- Confirm checkout works, if it is a store
If you never test a restore, you do not know if you have a backup. You only know you have hope.
How we choose between Legacy and NextGen
We make this decision based on friction and failure points.
We lean NextGen when:
- The site is big and growing
- The host is tight on resources
- We manage multiple sites
- We want simple “set it and trust it” daily coverage
- We want storage and backup work off our server
SolidWP positions NextGen as cloud-first and designed to reduce the load on your hosting environment.
We keep Legacy around when:
- We need a portable backup ZIP for migration
- We want deep control over what goes in the backup
- We have older workflows built around classic BackupBuddy-style restores
- We have edge cases where a plugin-based backup fits better than a service layer
It is not either-or for everyone.
A “belt and suspenders” approach is common during transition periods. We run both until we trust the new system under real pressure.
What makes BackupBuddy-style tools different from “host backups”
Many hosts offer backups. Some are good. Many are not built for speed.
The biggest problem is control.
When something breaks, we need:
- A clear restore point
- A fast restore
- A way to restore to a moment before the incident
- A way to download a backup if we need to move
A backup tool that lives with your WordPress business tends to fit your needs better than a generic host snapshot workflow.
We do not outsource control when control is the product.
The restore mindset: speed beats perfection
When a site goes down, the goal is not a perfect forensic analysis.
The goal is to get revenue back online.
A smart restore plan looks like this:
- Restore to the last known good point
- Confirm the business flow works (forms, checkout, login)
- Patch the root cause after revenue is stable
- Rotate keys, reset passwords, update plugins
- Add guardrails so it does not repeat
Backups turn chaos into a checklist.
That is priceless.
Migration: the hidden superpower
Backup tools are also migration tools.
Every time we move hosting, change domains, or rebuild a server, a clean backup system saves days of work.
In the BackupBuddy era, this was a core reason people bought it. That has not changed. The brand changed. The need did not.
If you are an entrepreneur, migration is not optional.
You will outgrow hosts. You will rebrand domains. You will split sites. You will merge stores. You will build staging.
Backups make those moves cheaper and safer.
The risks to watch for
No backup tool is magic. A few risks show up again and again.
1) Storage math
Backups get big fast.
Media libraries grow.
WooCommerce tables grow.
Log files grow.
You need:
- Enough remote storage
- A retention policy (how many backups you keep)
- A plan for pruning old backups
2) Plugin conflicts
On some sites, backup plugins can clash with caching layers, security rules, or server limits.
That is one reason cloud-first models are gaining ground.
3) “Set it and forget it”
This is the most dangerous mindset.
Backups are not a one-time install.
They are an operating habit.
If money flows through your site, backups deserve a weekly glance.
The simple backup playbook we use
Here is the plan that keeps us calm.
Daily
- Automatic backups
- Off-site storage
- Email alerts or dashboard signals for failure
Weekly
- Pre-update backup before plugin/theme updates
- Quick check that recent backups exist
Monthly
- Restore test into staging
- Review retention and storage
- Confirm the recovery path still works
Quarterly
- Re-check tools, pricing, and vendor changes
- Confirm we can still restore even if the host is down
This rhythm is boring.
Boring is good.
Boring is what keeps the cash register ringing.
Momentum That Survives Mistakes
BackupBuddy earned its name by making WordPress backups feel doable.
In 2025, that spirit is still here. It is just wearing a new shirt.
The smart move is not chasing tools.
The smart move is building a backup system that matches how we build businesses:
- fast
- bold
- resilient
- and ready for the worst day
Because we take risks to grow.
But we do not gamble with our foundation.
