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Here is my JetBackup review including a breakdown of its backup features, my experience using the backup plugin including tests, and my overall recommendation.
What is JetBackup?
JetBackup is designed to be an all-in-one website backup platform, not just a backup plugin. Their free version does the essentials, e.g. manual backups and restores. Their paid version includes scheduled backups, backups to remote locations like Google Drive, website migrations, and premium 24/7 support. However, I’ve only tested and reviewed the free version.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (based on 1000+ reviews on wordpress.org)
Active Installs: 40K+ active installations according to the plugin page on wordpress.org
Key Features
- Take as many backups as your server can hold
- Option to take a full backup or partial backup of files or database
- Restores
- Downloadable backups
- Import option
- You can view the backup logs and restore logs including RAM and CPU usage
- Ability to customise backups by excluding certain folders
- Supports WordPress multisite
All Features
Here are all the features that JetBackup offers:
- Full backups
- Partial backup (files or database or both)
- Full restores
- Downloadable backup
- Import backups
- Backup cancellation
- Manage backups
- Backup customization
- Live progress
- WordPress multisite/network support
- Website migrations (Paid)
- Scheduled backups (Paid)
- Multiple scheduled profiles (Paid)
- Upload to FTP/SFTP (Paid)
- Import from FTP/SFTP (Paid)
- Upload to Dropbox (Paid)
- Import from Dropbox (Paid)
- Upload to Google Drive (Paid)
- Import from Google Drive (Paid)
- Upload to Amazon S3 (Paid)
- Import from Amazon S3 (Paid)
- Email notifications (Paid)
- Customize backup naming (Paid)
- Backup retention options (Paid)
- Store backups to the cloud, not your server (Paid)
- Take backups in background mode to reduce server load (Paid)
- Emergency 24/7 support (Paid)
My Experience
Below you’ll find my personal experience and thoughts about the JetBackup plugin.
Setup Simplicity
Very easy to set up. Just install the plugin > go to JetBackup > Backup > choose Full Backup or Custom Backup to do a partial backup of the database or files.
Best JetBackup Settings
I left all JetBackup settings as default. However, if you use cheap shared hosting with low resource limits, e.g. RAM, CPU, etc., then you might need to change some of the settings, e.g. reducing the number of rows to backup, increasing the request frequency, etc.
Backup + Restore Tests
Below you’ll find my backup and restore tests using a small site and a large site.
Small Site Backup + Restore:
- Website = www.maxjacobs.com.au
- Website Size (compressed/archived) = 213.4MB
- Hosting = Rocket.net
- CPU Cores = 32
- RAM = 128GB
- Backup Storage Location = The backup was stored on my own server at wp-content/uploads/jetbackup/
- Backup Duration = 1 minute and 1 second
- Peak Memory Usage (backup) = 85MB
- CPU Usage (backup) = 12.9 / 10.58 / 9.89
- Backup Success: = 100%
- Restore Duration = 1 minute 16 seconds
- Peak Memory Usage (restore) = 12MB
- Restore Success = 100%
Large Site Backup + Restore:
- Website = huskygifts.com
- Website Size (compressed/archived) = 2.8GB
- Hosting = Rocket.net
- CPU Cores = 32
- RAM = 128GB
- Backup Storage Location = The backup was stored on my own server at wp-content/uploads/jetbackup/
- Backup Duration = 7 minutes and 32 seconds
- Peak Memory Usage (backup) = 146MB
- CPU Usage (backup) = 5.97 / 5.64 / 5.05
- Backup Success: = 100%
- Restore Duration = 2 minutes and 44 seconds
- Peak Memory Usage (restore) = 28MB
- Restore Success = 100%
Resource Usage & Performance Impact
JetBackup itself seems quite performant. It was able to take a full website backup and complete a full website restore for a small website (~200MB) in just over 1 minute. I think this is a great result.
JetBackup also did not slow down my website. i.e. all server resources were kept well within limits, which means it did not negatively affect my website for visitors.
CPU Usage was well within comfortable limits sitting at ~40% for www.maxjacobs.com.au and ~18% for huskygifts.com.
RAM Usage peaked at 85MB for www.maxjacobs.con.au and 146MB for huskygifts.com, which is well within the available 128GB of RAM.
Because JetBackup stores the backup on your server, make sure you have enough space for it.
Ease of Use
The backup and restore function was very easy to use. The plugin’s dashboard inside WordPress was simple with all settings preconfigured. If you use cheap shared hosting, then you might need to play around with the settings so that your server resources don’t get maxed out.
However, JetBackup claims to be able to work with cheap shared hosting environments, so it’s possible you won’t need to configure much.
Reliability
I think the backup and restore function of JetBackup is very reliable for small and large sites, at least from my tests. However, it is only useful if you are using their plugin. Their full backup doesn’t take a backup of all files and folders, only the essential files and folders inside wp-content. It would be nice to have the option to take a backup and export all files and folders, which gives you the option to manually restore your site if needed without relying on their plugin.
This isn’t specific to JetBackup though, many other backup plugins don’t take a backup of all files and folders either. I believe this is because they assume users are going to restore their site using the same backup plugin that took the backup. This means none of the other files or folders are essential because they likely haven’t changed between the initial backup and the restore.
In other words, JetBackup is reliable for taking a backup that can be easily restored. However, the downloaded version is an archive format created by JetBackup, which can only be used with JetBackup, e.g. for migrations and importing. Because of this, JetBackup has the option to extract your backup, which extracts the .sgbp file into a sortable folder of files. However, the extracted version only contains essential files and folders within the wp-content folder, which isn’t very useful if you want a true backup that contains all files. So, at least for me, the extract feature wasn’t useful. What would be very useful is to have the option to back up and extract all files and folders.
JetBackup Support
Initially, I reached out to support from the JetBackup website about my issues downloading a full backup, and they responded in 7 minutes. I think this is an amazing response time for a support ticket over email and the weekend!
However, they assumed I had 24/7 premium support, which I did not. So after a few emails back and forth, they realised I should only have free support and directed me to the WordPress.org plugin support forum. Their response time via free support was still very quick though within 1 work day.
JetBackup Pricing & Plans
JetBackup has a few pricing options for end users including:
- JetBackup WP Starter = Free
- JetBackup WP Solo = $19.95/year
- JetBackup WP Admin = $49.95/year
- JetBackup WP Pro = $99.95/year
I used the free option. If you want the ability to take scheduled backups and store them in the cloud, not on your server, then the Solo plan is for you. If you want the ability to migrate, then you’ll need the Admin plan. However, I think it’s possible to migrate using any plan if you just download the file and import it into the other site.
JetBackup also offers licensing for those managing multiple servers, e.g. hosts, including:
- JetBackup MC Monthly = $19.95/month
- JetBackup MC Yearly = $199.95/year
Pros:
- Fast and reliable manual backups and restores
- Full backup and partial backup option
- Option to extract backup
- The free version is all you need for manual backups and restores
Cons:
- The full backup option does not take a backup of all files and folders, only essential files and folders in order to restore your site using their plugin. I prefer to have the option to download a copy of all files and folders so that I have a true backup that I can manually restore if needed without relying on any one backup/restore plugin.
My Verdict
Use JetBackup if:
- You are on a budget and want a free backup plugin that works
- Your server has enough available disk space
- Your server has enough RAM and available CPU
- You only need essential files for a restore
Don’t use JetBackup if:
- You want the best (use Blogvault instead)
- You have no room on your server. Backups are stored on your server
- You have low resource limits for RAM and CPU
- You want a true backup that contains all files
JetBackup Alternative
Start by reading my guide to the best WordPress backup plugins.
However, the above guide is summarised by the below two statements:
- The best free JetBackup alternative is UpdraftPlus.
- The best free JetBackup alternative is
BlogVault .
