Plugins are one of the most important aspects of any WordPress website. From backup to migration, a plugin ensures your WordPress website is faster and performing accurately.
Even though the internet is full of different types of plugins, such as WPvivid, UpdraftPlus, BlogVault, etc., there is one plugin that stands out from the crowd.
Yes, we are talking about the Duplicator plugin.
Are you looking for the best Duplicator plugin review to determine whether it’s the right migration and backup plugin?
Duplicator plugin will allow you to create on-demand WordPress backups as per your schedule. You can store these backups on cloud services or locally. However, we recommend saving them on off-site cloud storage for more security.
In this expert Duplicator review, we will go through all of its features, pros & cons, and pricing. By the end of this guide, you will be able to know if it’s the right plugin for your WordPress website.
If you’re looking for a simple and affordable manual backup plugin, Duplicator is by far the best WordPress plugin in 2024.
Apart from offering a free version, Duplicator also has premium pricing plans, known as Duplicator Pro.
If you choose to invest in Duplicator Pro, you can save your backups automatically on external sites like Google Drive, Dropbox, and more.
But the capabilities of Duplicator don’t stop at backup, or we wouldn’t have written a review about it. It can also help you with the migration or cloning process to a new location. It reduces 99% of the manual effort associated with WordPress migration, something which we found eye-catching.
It also comes with an installer interface that can streamline the process of installing backup files on a new host.
Finally, you can also use Duplicator to create a localhost copy of your website. If your chosen hosting service doesn’t feature integrated staging areas, using Duplicator is a simple way to clone that functionality.
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Table of Contents
A General Review of Duplicator
With Duplicator, you will never face problems creating complete WordPress backups. You can keep the database and files secure without any loss of data.
If you use the Duplicator free version, you can create manual backups anytime. But if you have the Duplicator Pro, you can schedule the backups. This way, your website will be backed up automatically at the specified time.
Duplicator has excellent backup features, some of which we believe will benefit your WordPress website a lot. For instance, it includes archive encryption for advanced security, recovery points, WordPress multisite support, and more.
Compared to other WordPress backup plugins, Duplicator will safely store all of your website’s data files to popular cloud services like Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, OneDrive, and FTP.
Thanks to this feature, you will be able to access and launch the backup anytime, anywhere. However, you need to have a solid internet connection.
If you need to restore the backup, you can do it easily without any extensive technical knowledge. The Duplicator Recovery Wizard will help you with this process.
Another reason why we recommend Duplicator is its reliability and lack of downtime. Let’s say you want to move your WordPress website to a new server or host. In such cases, Duplicator’s migration wizard will help you.
Apart from that, Duplicator features server-to-server imports, a streamlined installer, large site support, customizable pre-configured sites, and more. All of these will ensure you face no hiccups during the migration process.
Moving your WordPress website to a new domain is also seamless with Duplicator. The advanced algorithm allows Duplicator to detect the new URL and its pathing automatically creating a complete package of website database and files. You can import this package to your new domain, minimizing broken links during migration.
While Lite version will allow you to create manual backups anytime. You can also migrate and clone your website between hosts and domains without any server downtime.
However, Lite version has multiple limitations compared to Duplicator Pro. For starters, you cannot schedule your backups on the free version. The recovery points are also missing.
If you need access to advanced features, you need to upgrade to a paid plan. Purchase Duplicator Pro using our disccounted link and enjoy a seamless backup and migration experience.
Why Use Duplicator Plugin?
While you can create a backup of your website and migrate it manually, it’s extremely overwhelming and time-consuming. Believe us when we say the process is full of technical jargon.
Smart business owners like you should not waste time doing such processes manually. This is where the Duplicator WordPress plugin comes into the picture. Let’s take a look at the Duplicator features to assess its effectiveness in fulfilling your needs.
Simple and Straightforward
Unlike other backup and migration plugins that boast complicated options and settings, you don’t see anything like that in Duplicator.
The process is simple and easy. Even people from non-technical backgrounds can install and use Duplicator without any complexity.
To get started, go to the Duplicator plugin option from the left side of your WordPress dashboard. Then, click on the Create New option.
Duplicator will give you step-by-step on-screen instructions to choose the perfect storage location, backup files, file name, and many more customization options.
Upon configuring the backup, Duplicator will start scanning the web pages or the blog pages to ensure everything’s in order.
The scanning process won’t take more than a few minutes. However, the scanning time will depend heavily on your system requirements. Make sure you don’t close this window during the scanning process.
Once the scanning process is completed, Duplicator will provide you with the analysis. If it finds any error, it will show a warning so that you can take the necessary measurements to fix the issue.
Once you confirm everything is good to go, you need to click on the Build button, and Duplicator will start creating a backup ASAP.
Create a Backup of Your WordPress Website
As mentioned earlier, Duplicator is the best WordPress backup plugin in 2024. Business owners looking for a reliable and professional WP backup plugin can benefit from Duplicator.
It can create backups of all important WordPress files. This includes other WordPress plugins, templates, themes, database table filters, etc. In short, your website will always remain secure with Duplicator.
If you need help choosing the fastest and best WordPress theme, make sure you read our blog.
Schedule Automatic Backups
Available exclusively for Duplicator Pro users, scheduling automatic backups will help you save time and effort. Why consider manual backup when Duplicator can handle all the steps?
If you’re a busy business owner, you cannot rely on manual backups. Besides forgetting to create the backups, you may also encounter many problems that can force you to restore your website to its original condition.
This is why we strongly recommend Duplicator to schedule your backups automatically. Thanks to its features, you can always restore your website to its most recent condition.
The best thing about Duplicator is that it can initiate automatic backups of your website at certain times, like hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly. You can choose a suitable option according to your needs.
For instance, if you run a WooCommerce business and handle sensitive data, you need to choose the hourly backup option. This way, Duplicator can restore the changes easily.
Create Custom Backups
Sometimes, you don’t need a full backup of your website. Not only will it take more space, but also more time for implementation.
In such cases, you can ask Duplicator to create a backup of the database or media only. You can also leverage the benefits of custom backup options, where you can choose the specific files for the backup process.
We recommend creating a backup of the core WordPress files, wp-content folder, configuration files, etc. It’s less resource-intensive than backing up all WordPress files.
Duplicator can prove to be a flexible option for businesses that have multiple websites. This way, Duplicator can fulfill your different backup needs.
When you exclude irrelevant or less important files from the backup process, you can speed up the process. This is true, especially when you have a very complex website.
If you’re worried about running short of storage, you can create partial backups too. Not only can you save important files, but also avoid additional storage fees.
Store Your Backups
This is one of the most important aspects that will influence your decision to invest in the Duplicator plugin. Without knowing how Duplicator stores your backups, you cannot make an informed decision.
The good news is that you will get plenty of storage options to choose from with the Duplicator plugin. While some backup plugins store the backup files in local storage, Duplicator supports cloud storage services.
This means that you can create and store your valuable backups on different cloud services such as OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3.
Duplicator also supports S3 Compatible Cloud Storage like Cloudflare R2, Wasabi, and BackBlaze B2. As long as the web server supports SFTP or FTP connection, you will face no problems storing your backups.
The cloud storage will make the backups accessible 24/7. You can also share the backed-up files with your team members despite their location and time zone.
However, remember that you may run out of storage soon. If you don’t want to pay for additional storage, set a limitation on the maximum number of backups. Once Duplicator reaches this limit, it will delete the old backup files.
In other words, you will always have a backup of your recent update without running out of storage. This is beneficial for large enterprises.
Recovery Points and 1-Click Restore
Duplicator not only makes the backup process easy but also the restoration process quicker. As long as you choose the relevant backups to restore, Duplicator can handle the other complicated tasks on your behalf.
Whether you have a minimal or complex website, the process can be completed within a few minutes. This ensures your WordPress website doesn’t suffer from lengthy downtime.
But what will you do if you don’t want to restore your entire website? Simply restore the parts you want, such as any particular file or any specific database file.
Don’t forget to set the recovery points. The recovery points will revert your WP website to the previously saved settings and files. As a result, you can quickly restore your website to the most recent point.
Email Alerts
In case a backup fails, you need to know about it as soon as possible. The sooner you know about the problem, the sooner you can fix the issues and resume the backup process.
Duplicator will send you a notification every time it creates a backup. It will also let you know when you encounter a problem or glitch. This will help assess the problems with backup without any manual checking.
If you’re using automated and scheduled backups, this feature will come in handy. However, make sure you turn on the email notifications.
Duplicator will send the notifications to your WordPress admin email. You can change the receiver’s email from the plugin settings.
You can also send notifications to multiple email addresses, ensuring that relevant individuals are aware of the situation.
However, sometimes you may notice that the notifications are going to the spam folder instead of your inbox. To address such issues, we highly recommend using an SMTP service provider. It will improve email deliverability rates and fix other issues.
Migration Wizard
We talked about Migration Wizard before, but now let’s be thorough about it. If you own a website, you may know manual migration is extremely overwhelming and time-consuming.
You need to move the WordPress plugins, themes, databases, files, and many more essential items. The downtime during manual migration will also affect your website traffic and potential visitors. The best way to combat such a problem is by automating the migration process.
Duplicator features a simple wizard that will help you migrate your website to a new host, local server, new domain, or a live site. This step-by-step process can also migrate your website to another shared WordPress website.
All you need to do is follow the instructions visible on your screen. Make sure you create the migration package, download the files on your computer along with the installer script, and you’re good to go.
Upon saving the files, you can upload them to the new host or server and use the migration wizard feature. Duplicator will automatically unzip the files and install them.
But what will you do if you’re planning to migrate between managed hosting? In such cases, Duplicator also has your back.
It supports almost popular manged WordPress hosting providers like WPEngine, WordPress, LiquidWeb Managed WordPress, GoDaddy Managed, and more. You can migrate the packages from one server to another directly.
Duplicator can also showcase its time-saving abilities, especially when you need to create multiple WP websites with the same content, theme, settings, and plugins.
Multisite Support
If you want to create a backup of an entire WordPress multisite network, Duplicator can also assist you in such cases.
Thanks to its features, you can backup sub-sites and multisite networks within a certain WordPress multisite network. Are you planning to install a sub-site as a standalone WordPress website? You can do it too.
Duplicator is designed in such a way that it can work seamlessly with large websites. This is helpful for large enterprises with complicated websites and countless files.
You can create a backup easily, despite the content and data stored on your website. Duplicator can also import direct packages from any URL. As a result, you don’t need to save the packages to your system first. This is extremely beneficial during a large website migration process.
Duplicator Pros and Cons
We have shared all the features of Duplicator. You may assume that Duplicator is undoubtedly the best backup and migration plugin. However, it’s not.
Duplicator also has disadvantages. While it’s certainly the best backup plugin, you still need to know about its shortfalls, too. This way, you can make a more data-driven decision.
Pros
- Duplicator Pro can create a full backup of your WordPress site, including all of your files, databases, themes, and plugins
- You can schedule Duplicator Pro to automatically back up your site on a regular basis.
- Duplicator Pro supports WordPress Multisite
- You can store your backups in the cloud, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Amazon S3.
- Duplicator can create a copy of your website for development or testing purposes
- Duplicator Pro also includes easy site migration, multisite support, and a professional and supportive community
Cons
- Duplicator Pro doesn’t provide real-time backups
- For very large websites, the generated backup files could potentially exceed server upload limits
- If you’re unfamiliar with cPanel or FTP, the learning curve may get steeper
Pricing
Unlike many backup plugins, Duplicator provides a free version along with premium plans. While the free version won’t be as effective as the paid plans, it’s good to see that they are at least offering it.
The Duplicator Lite is the perfect choice if you’re looking for a free manual backup plugin. However, if you fail to create a manual backup of your website, you may end up losing all the valuable data items.
This is why we recommend choosing Duplicator paid plans. It provides four different pricing plans:
Basic: $49.50/year
Plus: $99.50/year
Pro: $199.50/year
Elite: $299.50/year
Along with these affordable pricing, you will also get 100% no-risk money-back guarantee with no questions asked.
So, try Duplicator PRO Without any second thought and you can also cancel the service within 14 days of your purchase and get your money back.
How to Install Duplicator Plugin?
The installation process of Duplicator is quite simple. When we installed the plugin for the first time, the whole process took less than 5 minutes to complete. Duplicator also has a plugin installation guide suitable for beginners and professionals alike.
You can download Duplicator Lite version directly from the WordPress site or WordPress depository. Just click on the Download option, and the plugin will start downloading automatically.
Keep in mind that the files will be downloaded in Zip format. But you don’t need to use WinRar or any other Zip file extraction software. This is because you can install Duplicator directly from this file.
Next, you need to visit the Plugin section on your primary WordPress dashboard. When you click on the Add Plugin option, a new dashboard will open.
From there, you need to choose the Zip file, and WordPress will automatically extract the information. Once completed, you can activate the Duplicator Lite plugin. You can also upgrade it to Duplicator Pro directly from the dashboard.
We suggest you download and install Duplicator Pro using our discounted link as this will save you some bugs.
Click on the ‘Get Duplicator Now’ button. Upon clicking on it, you will redirected to the pricing page. Then, choose the suitable plan according to your budget and needs.
Wrapping UP: Is Duplicator the Right Plugin for You?
After reviewing Duplicator thoroughly, we strongly believe it’s the best backup plugin you can choose for your website in 2024. No matter how many backups you want and at what intervals, Duplicator will never disappoint you.
We hope this expert Duplicator review helped you determine its capabilities, features, strengths, and weaknesses. Make sure you visit our website and choose the right Duplicator Pro plan as per your needs.
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