Jetpack Backup

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It’s no secret that CSS-Tricks is a WordPress site. And as such, we like to keep things WordPress-y, like enabling the block editor and creating some custom blocks. We also rely on Jetpack for a number of things, which if you haven’t tried, is definitely worth your time as it’s become a linchpin of this site for everything from search and security scans to social integrations and it’s own set of awesome blocks, like the slideshow block.

But one powerful feature we haven’t talked much about is Jetpack Backup and whoo-boy is it awesome. Sure, code is pretty easy to back up — we’ve got GitHub for that. But what about your assets, like images and other files? Or, gosh, what about the database? These things are super important and losing them would be, well, devastating!

Enter Jetpack Backup. It copies all that stuff, offering two plans, including one for daily backups and the other for real-time backups. Most sites can probably get away with daily backups, but it’s nice to know there’s a real-time option, especially if you’re running an active site, like forums where updates happen regularly, or some eCommerce shop where restoring lost orders would be crucial.

Another thing that makes Jetpack Backup great: it’s sold à la carte. So if backups are all you want from Jetpack, then you can get just that and that alone. But if you need additional features, like all the ones we use around here, then they’re easily accessible and enabled with a few clicks.

You even get a little activity log which is nice to not just see what’s happening on your site, but because it’s another way to pinpoint where things might have gone wrong.

Ugh, Geoff screwing everything up as per usual. 😝

So, yeah, check it out! If you want a deep dive into how it all works, here’s Chris walking through our setup.