Do I need to install anything on my website?
No. BackupYourSite is agentless: we connect over SSH from our servers, and nothing is installed on your site or written to your server's disk. Your site's performance is completely unaffected. (A WordPress plugin is coming for hosts without SSH — see the WordPress Plugin page.)
Which sites can BackupYourSite protect?
Any WordPress site and any PHP application reachable over SSH — cPanel shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers. WordPress database credentials are detected automatically; for custom PHP apps you enter them once.
Where are my backups stored?
In encrypted offsite storage that we deploy and manage, completely separate from your hosting, with each customer isolated in their own namespace. You never need to create cloud accounts or manage storage keys.
How do I know a backup actually worked?
Every archive is integrity-checked and every database dump must carry MySQL's own completion marker before a run may report success. Failures alert you immediately, and the daily summary email even lists enabled sites that didn't run at all — the silent failure other systems miss.
How do restores work?
Pick any stored backup and restore files, database, or both, with one click. Archives are verified before anything on your site is touched — a corrupt set is refused with your site unchanged. Restores are double-confirmed and permanently logged.
Can I restore if my site is completely down?
Yes — that's the point. Because nothing runs on your site, a white screen, hack or broken update doesn't affect your backups or your ability to restore. As long as the server accepts SSH, one click brings the site back.
Is my data secure?
SSH keys, passwords and database credentials are encrypted at rest and never displayed back — the dashboard only shows whether one is stored. Backups live in isolated offsite storage. You grant access with a public key you install yourself; we have no way to reach a server you haven't granted.
What happens to old backups?
Each site has a retention window (up to 15/30/60 days by plan). Older backups are cleaned up only after a fully clean new backup — a failing night can never delete your last good copy.
What does the free trial include?
The Trial plan is free for 30 days, no credit card: 1 website, 1 GB of managed offsite storage and 7-day retention — the same agentless backups, verification and one-click restores as the paid plans. If you don't pick a plan, backups pause after a grace period and your stored backups are kept for 30 days.
I run an agency — can my clients see my brand?
Yes. The Agency plan includes full whitelabel: your brand name, logo and accent colour across the whole console.
Do you support WooCommerce?
Yes — a WooCommerce store is a WordPress site with a busier database, and the full nightly file + database backup covers orders, products and customers alike.
How is this different from UpdraftPlus or other backup plugins?
Plugins run inside WordPress on your server: they consume your site's resources, can time out on large sites, and stop working exactly when the site itself is broken. BackupYourSite runs entirely from the outside, verifies every archive, and keeps working when your site doesn't. Different architecture, different guarantees.