SiteGround Backup Guide: Everything About Automatic Backups
How to use SiteGround's automatic backup system and restore your data
Contents
Why Regular Website Backups Are Critically Important
Regular website backups are one of the most important precautions you can take to protect the time, effort, and investment you have put into building your website. Websites can be damaged or lost through many causes that are difficult to predict or control, including plugin updates that break site functionality, malware or hacker attacks that corrupt files and databases, accidental file deletions by administrators, or hardware failures on the hosting infrastructure side. SiteGround recognizes the critical importance of data protection and has built an automatic daily backup system that runs continuously without requiring any manual action from users. This system makes restoring your website to a previous working state fast and straightforward whenever an unexpected incident occurs.
- Plugin updates can instantly break site functionality
- Malware and hackers can corrupt files and databases
- Accidental file deletions happen more often than expected
- Backups enable fast recovery after unexpected incidents
- SiteGround creates automatic daily backups without configuration
Types of Backups Available on SiteGround
SiteGround provides several types of backups to accommodate different data protection needs. The primary type is the Daily Backup, an automatic backup created every single day that covers all website files and MySQL databases associated with your hosting account. Additionally, SiteGround offers On-Demand Backups that users can create manually at any time, which is particularly useful immediately before making significant changes to a website. Off-site Backup storage copies data to separate infrastructure away from the primary server, providing maximum protection against localized hardware failures or datacenter incidents. Having multiple backup types available gives users flexibility in how and when they recover data depending on the specific situation they encounter.
- Daily Backup automatically covers all files and databases
- On-Demand Backup created manually before major changes
- Off-site Backup stores copies on separate infrastructure
How SiteGround's Automatic Daily Backup System Works
SiteGround's Daily Backup system operates fully automatically every day without requiring any action from the user. The system creates a complete copy of all website files and every MySQL database in the hosting account during a scheduled window each day. SiteGround retains up to 30 backup copies on GoGeek and developer plans, giving users the ability to restore their website to any point within the past 30 days. Even on entry-level plans, multiple days of backups are retained. Having 30 backup copies available is particularly valuable in situations where a problem is not discovered immediately but is identified days or even weeks after it first occurred, as you can roll back to a state before the issue appeared.
- Automatic daily backup without any manual intervention
- Covers all website files and every MySQL database
- Retains up to 30 backup copies on GoGeek plan
- Restore to any point within the past 30 days
- Suitable for both small sites and large production websites
How to Restore Your Website from a Backup on SiteGround
Restoring your website from a backup on SiteGround is done through Site Tools > Security > Backups, which displays a clear list of all available backups with their corresponding dates and times. Select the backup from the date you want to restore from, then click the restore button. SiteGround provides options to restore everything at once, covering both files and the database together, or to restore selectively, such as only the database or only specific file directories. It is always advisable to download a copy of your current state before initiating a restore to avoid losing any recent changes. The restoration process itself typically completes within a reasonable time frame depending on the total size of your website and its database.
- Go to Site Tools > Security > Backups
- Select the backup from the date you want to restore
- Choose full restore or selective file/database restore
- Always download current state before restoring
- Restoration completes in a reasonable time frame
Creating On-Demand Backups on SiteGround Manually
In addition to the automatic daily backup system, SiteGround allows users to create On-Demand Backups at any time through Site Tools, providing a precise backup point exactly when it is needed. This capability is especially valuable in specific situations such as immediately before performing a major WordPress core update, before installing an untested plugin or theme, or prior to making significant customizations to site code or database structure. An On-Demand Backup gives you a restore point that corresponds precisely to the moment before your changes began, which is more targeted than relying on the automatic daily backup that may have been created hours earlier. The number of On-Demand Backups you can store depends on your hosting plan, so check the details on siteground.com.
- Create On-Demand Backups anytime through Site Tools
- Create before major WordPress core updates
- Create before installing new plugins or themes
SiteGround's Backup Retention Policy and Storage Duration
SiteGround's backup retention policy varies by hosting plan, with higher-tier plans offering more extensive retention. The GoGeek plan, which is the top tier in the Web Hosting series, retains daily backups for up to 30 days, meaning you have access to 30 individual daily snapshots of your entire website. The GrowBig plan also offers substantial backup retention, and even the entry-level StartUp plan includes daily backups with meaningful retention. Cloud Hosting and Dedicated Server plans have their own backup configurations with additional options. Always verify the current retention details on siteground.com as policies can be updated. A 30-day daily backup retention is considered generous coverage that satisfies the needs of the vast majority of WordPress websites regardless of size.
- GoGeek plan retains up to 30 daily backup copies
- All plans include daily backups as standard
- Higher plans offer more comprehensive retention policies
- Check current details on siteground.com for accuracy
- 30-day retention satisfies the needs of most websites
What Is SiteGround's Off-site Backup and Why It Matters
One thing that surprised us: off-site backup refers to storing backup copies in a separate physical location from the primary server where your website runs. SiteGround stores backup copies in separate data centers, providing the highest level of protection against catastrophic data loss scenarios such as fires, flooding, or large-scale infrastructure failures at the primary datacenter location. While such events are rare, having off-site backups delivers the highest possible level of confidence that your data is truly safe and recoverable regardless of what happens at the primary server location. SiteGround users benefit from this level of protection automatically without needing to pay extra or configure a separate off-site backup solution through a third-party service.
- Backups stored in a separate datacenter from primary server
- Protects against catastrophic datacenter-level incidents
- Provides maximum confidence in true data safety
- Works automatically without extra setup or cost
Summary: How Comprehensive and Reliable Is SiteGround's Backup System
SiteGround's backup system is one of the platform's most compelling strengths, delivering automatic daily backups covering both files and databases, retention of up to 30 backup copies, flexible On-Demand Backup creation, and Off-site storage for maximum data safety. The entire system operates automatically without requiring any action from the user, giving your WordPress website a robust safety net that is always in place. Whether you are running a small personal blog or a high-traffic business website, having this level of automatic backup coverage provides genuine peace of mind. For the latest information on backup features and hosting plan details, visit siteground.com or get started through /go/siteground.
- Automatic daily backups covering files and databases
- Up to 30 backup copies retained on GoGeek plan
- Flexible On-Demand Backup available anytime
- Off-site storage for maximum data security