Howto Backup Your WordPress Website (A Step-by-Step Guide)

Why You Must Back Up Your WordPress Website

To backup up your WordPress website is one of the most important steps you can take to protect your online presence. Websites can fail for many reasons — a plugin update can crash your site, your hosting server might experience downtime, or your site could be hacked without warning.

A proper backup ensures you can quickly restore your site and avoid losing valuable data, time, and all your hard work. Think of it as an insurance policy for your website — you hope you never need it, but when something goes wrong, you’ll be relieved you have it.

WordPress Website Backup Prerequisites and Recommendations

Before you begin your WordPress website backup, make sure you have the following in place. These small steps can save you hours of frustration later.

Hosting Control Panel Login Details

You’ll need access to your hosting control panel which could be cPanel, Plesk, or xneelo Control Panel (KonsoleH).

Why? Because sometimes, when you install or update a plugin, it may not align perfectly with your server’s settings or your WordPress configuration. This can cause your website to crash. Having access to your control panel means you can fix issues quickly — for instance, by disabling a faulty plugin, restoring a backup, or adjusting PHP settings. It is important that you test the login details. If it does not work, then contact you web hosting service provider to assist you.

WordPress Backend Login Details

You’ll also need the login details for your WordPress Dashboard (also called the Backend).

Make sure your account role is set to Administrator, as only administrators can install and manage plugins.

If you don’t have your WordPress login credentials but you do have access to your hosting control panel, you can create a new administrator account from there.

Disk Space

You must have enough free disk space on your server to store the backup and temporary files generated during the process.

A good rule of thumb: ensure you have at least 40% of your hosting space free before running a backup.

Also, check for any old backup files left behind by other plugins — they can take up valuable space.

PHP Version

While Akeeba Backup can technically run on PHP 7.4, it’s strongly recommended to use PHP 8.3 or higher for better speed, stability, and security.

Older PHP versions (below 8.2) are considered vulnerable and can expose your website to potential threats.

👉 Tip: Click here to check if your website is running a vulnerable version of PHP

PHP Memory Limit

Your PHP memory limit should be at least 256MB. You can adjust this setting in your hosting control panel.

If you’re running a large website with many images or plugins, consider increasing this limit even more for smoother backup performance.

WordPress Version

Always make sure your website is running the latest version of WordPress.

Although Akeeba Backup supports WordPress 5.0 and newer, it’s best to stay updated for security reasons.

At the time of writing, the latest WordPress version is 6.8.2.

NOTE: Most of the time, Akeeba Backup installs and runs perfectly without extra configuration. However, if it doesn’t install or complete a backup, these prerequisites act as a helpful checklist to troubleshoot the issue. However, it is crucial to have the web hosting control panel login details.

Backing Up Your Website: Step-by-Step

Step 1: Downloading Akeeba Backup

1. Visit https://www.akeebabackup.com
2. Click Download in the top-right corner.
3. Scroll down and click the Download Core v9.0.6 button (or the latest available version).
4. Save the file to your Downloads folder.

• • The file name should look like: akeebabackupwp-9.0.6-core.zip

Step 2: Logging in to the WordPress Dashboard

1. Open your web browser (e.g., Firefox or Chrome).
2. In the address bar, type your website address followed by /wp-admin.

   • Example: flossnet.co.za/wp-admin or the-website-hoster.com/wp-admin

3. Enter your username and password, then click Log In. If you have previously checked “Remember Me”, then you may be logged in automatically

NOTE: There is a chance that you might not be able to login due to the fact that you might have a custom login URL or additional information is required.

Step 3: Installing the Akeeba Backup Plugin

1. In your dashboard, click Plugins → Add New.
2. Click the Upload Plugin button.
3. Click Browse or Choose File, locate the akeebabackupwp-9.0.6-core.zip file, and double-click it.
4. Click Install Now.
5. Once installed, click Activate Plugin.
6. Refresh your dashboard.

You’ll now see Akeeba Backup added to the left-hand menu.

Step 4: Creating a Backup

1. Click Akeeba Backup from the left menu.
2. When running it for the first time, click Run the Configuration Wizard.
3. Once complete, click Akeeba Backup → Default Backup Profile.
4. The backup will begin. Depending on your site’s size, this could take several minutes.
5. When finished, click Manage Backups.
6. Click Got it! (you only need to do this once).

Example: If you back up the FLOSSNet website on 3 November 2025 at 13:15, your backup file might be named:
site-flossnet.co.za-20251103-131526sast-Ytsy12Dyy.jpa

The jpa format is an Akeeba proprietary format.

Step 5: Downloading Your Backup

Your backup file is stored on your server, but it’s best practice to also keep a copy on your computer or an offsite storage service like Google Drive.

⚠️ Note: These backup files can only be opened or restored using the Akeeba software — not Windows, macOS, or Linux file explorers.

Enabling Browser Download (Once-Off)

1. Click Akeeba Backup → System Configuration.
2. Scroll down and set Allow backup archive downloads through the browser to Yes.
3. Click Save & Close (top right).

Downloading the Backup

1. Go to Akeeba Backup → Manage Backups.
2. Click Download, then click Download again to confirm.
3. Click OK, then Save File.

Your backup is now safely stored on your computer!

Deleting Akeeba Backups

This step assumes that you are logged into your website’s backend. Delete a backup after you have downloaded the backup.

1. Go to Akeeba Backup → Manage Backups.
2. Click inside the checkbox of the backup(s) you want to delete.
3. Click Delete Files. This will delete the actual files. You will notice that a dustbin appears under Status for the files you have deleted.
4. Click Delete if you want to delete a backup entry. If the backup file has not been deleted, but the entry is deleted, the backup file will still reside on the server

About Akeeba Backup

Why Akeeba Is Not in the WordPress Repository

Akeeba Backup CORE for WordPress was delisted from the official WordPress Plugin Directory by the developers themselves.

Here’s why:

1. Misleading Reviews:
   Many users left one-star reviews falsely claiming that the free “CORE” version wasn’t really free. Akeeba’s developers explained that whether a product is free or paid is an objective fact — but WordPress staff refused to remove the inaccurate reviews.

2. Technical & Deployment Issues:
   The WordPress Plugin Directory still uses an outdated Subversion (SVN) version control system. For complex plugins like Akeeba, SVN made testing updates before release difficult and unreliable.

Because of this, Akeeba now distributes both the free (CORE) and paid (PRO) versions only through their official website.

👉 You’ll need to manually download the plugin from Akeeba’s website

Why We Use Akeeba Backup

There are many WordPress backup plugins out there — like UpdraftPlus, BackupBuddy, and Duplicator — but we’ve been using Akeeba Backup since around 2008, back when it was designed for Joomla.

When Akeeba’s developers released a WordPress version, we naturally adopted it.

We use the Professional version because it allows for automated scheduled backups and supports offsite storage such as Google Drive — an essential safety feature.

With the free version, you’ll need to log in and manually create your backups. These backups are stored on your hosting server, but you can download them anytime for safekeeping.

Akeeba backs up everything — your database, files and folders, themes, plugins, and media files.

Final Thoughts

Your hosting provider might already create daily or weekly backups — but these usually cover your entire web space, including emails and databases. When you need to restore a specific site, this process can get complicated. Sometimes the website files and the database don’t match up perfectly, which can lead to errors.

By maintaining your own Akeeba Backup copies — especially offsite — you ensure that your website can be restored quickly and cleanly whenever you need it.

We’ve been supporting WordPress users for years and use proven tools like Akeeba Backup to ensure your site is secure and recoverable.

Ready to Backup Your WordPress Website?

Backing up your WordPress site is not just recommended; it’s mandatory for peace of mind. If you encounter any issues with the prerequisites, or if you prefer a professional to manage your automated WordPress website backups, our team is here to help.

Would you like to explore our managed backup service?