Every website admin knows that backing up your website is important. The worst case scenario is not being able to restore a crashed or hacked site. Good backups are like health insurance and we can’t recommend it enough. But, like health insurance, there are a lot of options. There are many ways to take different types of backups. cPanel backups are one of those backups.
cPanel, by nature, is a user interface to help you manage websites given to you by your web host. It’s designed to help you juggle maintenance tasks, backups being one of them. However, they can be tricky and are less reliable. cPanel backups are prone to failures and are difficult to store. Sometimes restores fail when the backup is too big. These issues can cause more problems for your site.
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Should you use cPanel to backup your site?
Using cPanel for database backups or for your files might seem like a good idea at first. But the process has many flaws.
- cPanel backups can be slow and clunky
- They often fail with large sites
- Restoring from cPanel backups can fail and become a nightmare
- You might end up losing more time than saving it
The only good thing about cPanel backups is that they are free.
But there are many free backup plugins out there. These plugins are much better than cPanel. They offer more features and better reliability.
However, if you value your site, it’s best to invest in a high-quality option. CpanelresellerWebhosting, for example, offers reliable and easy backups. It ensures your website stays safe without the hassle. Investing in a good backup solution now can save you a lot of trouble later.
Using cPanel’s Backup Wizard
The first method to backup your site is the cPanel Backup Wizard. This tool is built right into cPanel. It’s an easy way for beginners to start. The interface is simple and user-friendly.
However it has its limitations.
First, it struggles with large backups. As your site grows, backups can fail. Even restores are unreliable with big sites. This makes it hard—if not impossible—to get your site back up quickly.
Second, you have to do everything manually. This means you need to remember to back up your site regularly. If you forget, you risk losing crucial data.
Taking a backup
- Once you login, click Backup Wizard in the Files section
- Click Backup to initiate the backup process.
- Choose between Full Backup or Partial Backup. Partial backups include the file (Home Directory) or Database. and select the backup destination.
- Click Generate Backup and download the generated full backup file from the link provided.
Restoring a backup
- Login to cPanel and click Backup Wizard.
- Select what you want to restore: root files, database, full site, etc
- Click Choose File, select the file and click Upload.
Using cPanel’s Backups feature
Another way to export your site is with cPanel’s Backup feature. This tool is different from the Backup Wizard. While the Backup Wizard guides you step-by-step, the Backup feature gives you more control. You can select specific parts of your site to back up, like files or databases.
The big difference is that you get more control over what you want to backup. You can choose between taking a cPanel database backup or files (commonly called home directory). But, we do not recommend partial backups. They are more likely to fail when you try to restore the backup. Additonally, it shares the same limitations as the Backup Wizard. It struggles with large backups and can be time-consuming. Restoring data is also unreliable with bigger files. Plus, you have to remember to run backups regularly. This manual process can be risky if you forget.
Taking a backup
- Log in to your cPanel account and click Backup in the Files section
- Click Download a Full Website Backup and select the final destination.
- Click Generate Backup when you’re done.
- For partial backups, choose one of the different types of backups – the home directory or the database.
Restoring a backup
Note: There is no option to restore your full site. Your options are to restore your site in parts – home directory and database.
- Log into your cPanel account.
- Go to the Files section and click Backups.
- Scroll down and choose the type of backup you want to restore.
- Click Choose File and then find your backup file on your computer.
- After selecting the file, click Upload to start the restore process.
Final thoughts
cPanel backups are unreliable, time-consuming, and prone to errors, especially for larger or high-traffic sites. They require manual intervention and come with high storage costs and management hassles. For a more reliable, automated, and efficient backup solution, use CpanelresellerWebhosting