updraftplus | The Blog Pros

April 25, 2023

Why Is WordPress So Hard (And How to Make It Easier)

If you’re comparing different website builders, then you may have come across the sentiment that WordPress is hard to use.

WordPress is the world’s most popular website builder powering over 43% of all websites on the internet. However, some people complain that WordPress is more difficult to use than solutions like Squarespace and Wix.

In this article, we’ll address the myth of why WordPress is so hard, and share the tricks, tools, and techniques you can use to harness the full power of WordPress without any difficulties.

Why is WordPress So Hard?

Over 43% of all websites on the internet are built on WordPress. This might make you wonder:

Why are so many people using a difficult platform?

Unlike website builders such as Squarespace, WordPress is completely open source, customizable, and flexible. You can use WordPress in any way you want, which might sound confusing for new users.

This is particularly true if you’ve previously used a website builder like Wix.com. These platforms typically have limited features and control exactly how you use their tools. This might make it seem like that they’re easy to use, but they are also very restrictive.

With the right techniques, tools, and information, WordPress is just as easy as any website builder, but without any of the restrictions.

By choosing WordPress, you’ll get the freedom to use any web host and domain provider, so you can update, customize, and extend your WordPress website in exactly the way you want.

In the official WordPress repository alone, you’ll find over 60,000 free plugins that can add all sorts of features to your website. Think of plugins like apps in your iPhone except they’re for your websites.

When it comes to designing your site, you can use any free or premium theme, or even use drag & drop page builders to create a completely unique design.

There are no provider terms and conditions to follow, and you own all the content on your site.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at why nearly half of all website owners in the world ignore the myth that WordPress is hard to use and choose WordPress as their platform.

WordPress Isn’t Hard (But Here’s How to Make it Even Easier)

At WPBeginner we don’t believe that WordPress is hard. However, if you don’t have the right tools, tricks, and know-how, then WordPress can feel more complex than it actually is.

With that in mind, let’s see how you can make WordPress easier. You can use the links below to jump to any section of the post.

Choose the Right Web Hosting Provider
Install Must-Have WordPress Plugins
Find the Perfect WordPress Theme
Use a WordPress Page Builder
Use a WordPress SEO Plugin
Use Tools to Improve Site Speed and Performance
Set up an Automated Security Plugin
Set up Google Analytics
Use Comment Filtering and Moderation
Never Edit Your Theme Files Directly
Keep Your WordPress Site Up-To-Date
Automate Your WordPress Backups
Learn WordPress
Consider Hiring a WordPress Maintenance Service

Choose the Right Web Hosting Provider

By choosing the best WordPress hosting, you can set your site up for success. The right host will provide exactly the features you need to build and run a successful WordPress website, even if you have no previous experience.

Some hosts even perform crucial WordPress maintenance tasks such as creating backups, adding security plugins, and installing updates. This will make WordPress feel effortless.

For example, Bluehost is a well-known WordPress hosting provider that automatically installs and set up WordPress for you when you sign up.

From time to time, you may encounter problems or have questions.

A good host will offer support over email, phone, live chat, and other channels so you’ll have no problems getting your site back on track.

As the world’s most popular CMS, there are lots of companies that offer WordPress hosting. For that reason, we’ve done the research and created a list of the best web hosting companies to help you find the provider that’s right for you.

Here are the top WordPress hosting companies that we recommend:

Bluehost – great for beginners – includes free domain.
Hostinger – growing fast in popularity due to affordable prices, fast speed, includes free domain.
SiteGround – premium WordPress hosting provider, uses Google cloud. Slightly higher prices.
WP Engine – enterprise managed WordPress hosting provider, great for large sites.

Install Must-Have WordPress Plugins

The best part about WordPress is that you can easily add any feature to your site using plugins, without hiring a developer.

There are eCommerce plugins to help you create an online store, plugins that turn WordPress into a membership site so you can sell courses, add smart lead generation forms to grow your business, improve your SEO rankings, and much more.

In fact, there are over 60,000 free plugins in the official WordPress repository alone, so you’ll have no problems finding a plugin that meets your exact needs.

The official WordPress plugin repository

To help you get started, here’s our expert list of the must-have plugins for your WordPress website.

Our top 5 free WordPress plugins that we always recommend include:

WPForms – best drag & drop online form builder for WordPress.
AIOSEO – best WordPress SEO plugin to boost your SEO rankings.
MonsterInsights – easily see your website analytics to make data-driven decisions.
Duplicator – easily create regular backups for your website.
SeedProd – drag & drop page builder to create custom website designs without any code.

Find the Perfect WordPress Theme

WordPress themes control how your site looks and acts. There are themes designed for specific markets like WooCommerce themes and membership site themes, but also multi-purpose themes that you can customize to fit almost any type of site.

Just like plugins, there are countless free themes to choose from. In fact, there are over 10,500 free themes in the official WordPress repository alone.

You’ll find even more on top WordPress theme providers websites.

This includes Elegant Themes, Astra, StudioPress, and more.

An example of a premium WordPress theme marketplace

It’s important to choose a theme that looks good, has the features you need, and is also high quality. To help you make the right decision, see our guide on how to select the perfect WordPress theme.

If you’re looking for theme recommendations, then check out our expert pick of the most popular and best WordPress themes.

Use a WordPress Page Builder

When building your site, you’ll create posts and pages using the WordPress block editor.

If you’re using a block-enabled theme such as Divi or Astra, then you can also add content using the full-site editor.

This editor allows you to completely change the theme layout and add new sections to your website without writing any code.

This is a great start, but it can be very basic and has a limited number of features.

We still recommend using a page builder plugin such as SeedProd. SeedProd allows you to create completely custom page designs and comes with ready-made blocks that you can drag and drop anywhere on your site.

This includes advanced blocks like countdown timers, contact forms, Google Maps, payment fields, and much more.

Why is WordPress so hard? SeedProd can make it easier

After adding a block to your site, you can customize it using the settings in the left-hand SeedProd menu.

This makes it easy to create custom home pages, landing pages, and more.

Why is WordPress so bad? Page builders can make it easier

For more on this topic, please see our guide on WordPress Block Editor vs Page Builders, as well as our expert tips to master the WordPress content (block) editor.

Use a WordPress SEO Plugin

Most visitors will find your site through search engines like Google. To help search engines show your content to the right people, you’ll need to work on your WordPress SEO.

SEO is a huge topic that often includes technical tasks such as adding rich snippets schema markup to your site.

Thankfully, there’s a WordPress plugin for everything and SEO is no exception. There are lots of different WordPress SEO plugins and tools you can use for individual tasks, but we recommend AIOSEO as it’s the complete SEO toolkit for WordPress.

AIOSEO comes with powerful features including breadcrumb navigation, advanced eCommerce SEO support for WooCommerce, local SEO, an internal link assistant, and much more. This means you don’t have to set up and learn multiple SEO plugins.

AIOSEO also scans your pages and posts as you’re writing them and creates a checklist of ways to improve its SEO.

Why is WordPress so hard? AIOSEO can make it easier

For step-by-step instructions, please see our ultimate guide on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress correctly.

Use Tools to Improve Site Speed and Performance

To provide a good experience, your website needs to load quickly.

WordPress is already optimized for speed and performance, but there are lots of tricks and tools that can make it run even faster. With that in mind, we’ve created the ultimate guide to boost WordPress speed and performance that has everything you need to know.

Set up an Automated Security Plugin

WordPress is secure software, but hackers are always coming up with new ways to break into sites and steal data. To help new WordPress users keep their sites safe, we’ve created an ultimate WordPress security guide.

We also recommend using Sucuri, which is the best WordPress security plugin.

Sucuri tracks everything that happens on your site, including failed login attempts and any changes to the WordPress files.

It also scans for malware and monitors whether your site appears on any blocklists, as this may mean there’s a problem with your site’s security.

Why is WordPress so bad? Sucuri is one way to make it easier

If it finds an issue, then Sucuri will notify you automatically. In this way, you can protect your site without having to perform any manual checks, or learn complicated security tools.

To learn how we use Sucuri on our own websites, see our complete Sucuri review.

Set up Google Analytics

As a website owner, your goal is to get people to your site and keep them engaged. That’s where Google Analytics comes in.

Analytics allow you to make decisions based on real data. For example, you can track website visitors and see the content that gets the most engagement. You can then create more of this popular content.

You can also see how long visitors stay on your site and the bounce rate, which is the percentage of users who exit your site on the first visit. You can use this information to increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.

Google Analytics is an important tool, but it can be complicated to set up. For that reason, we recommend using MonsterInsights.

The MonsterInsights Google Analytics plugin

MonsterInsights is the best analytics solution for WordPress users.

It allows you to easily install Google Analytics on your website and then shows helpful reports directly in the WordPress dashboard.

Why is WordPress so complicated? MonsterInsights can make it easier

To learn more, please see our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

Use Comment Filtering and Moderation

All website owners worry about comment spam.

Spambots and malicious third parties can easily flood a site’s comment section with links to malware and low-quality pages. This can hurt your website’s reputation and may even affect its SEO.

You can moderate comments in WordPress directly from the dashboard, including manually approving and blocking comments, or even deleting them completely.

Moderating comments manually can make WordPress more hard

However, moderating every single comment can be time-consuming, especially as your site grows and attracts more visitors.

Thankfully, there are lots of tools to combat comment spam in WordPress. This includes Akismet, which automatically filters all comments through a global spam database.

Moderating comments automatically using Akismet

To learn more, please see our guide to Akismet and why you should start using it right away.

Never Edit Your Theme Files Directly

WordPress is open-source software so anyone can see and edit its code, or even add their own PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. It may sound complicated, but there are lots of reasons to add custom code to WordPress.

For example, you might use a code snippet to completely disable comments, or remove the WordPress version number. Typically, it doesn’t make sense to install a plugin for these small tasks, so WordPress gives you the option to use code instead.

Many WordPress tutorials will provide a snippet and then ask you to edit your theme’s functions.php file.

The problem is that even a typo or small mistake in the code can cause errors or even break your site completely. You also won’t be able to update your WordPress theme without losing the customization.

This leads many people to think that WordPress is hard, when really the problem lies with their custom code.

That’s why we recommend using WPCode.

The WPCode code snippets plugin for WordPress

WPCode is the best code snippets plugin for WordPress and allows you to add custom PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML without editing any theme files.

WPCode also has a built-in library of snippets that you can add to a site with just a few clicks. Even if you’re a beginner with no coding experience, WPCode makes it easy to add custom code in WordPress in a safe way.

Why is WordPress so complicated? WPCode can make it easier

Keep Your WordPress Site Up-To-Date

It’s important to keep your themes, plugins, and core WordPress software up-to-date. Hackers try to exploit known errors and vulnerabilities in outdated software, so if you fall behind then your site could become an easy target.

Some updates even add features that make WordPress easier to use. For this reason, it’s important to update WordPress core, update your WordPress plugins, and install the latest version of your theme.

Some web hosts will install these updates for you automatically, especially if you’re using a managed hosting provider.

Another option is to enable automatic updates for WordPress and enable automatic updates for plugins and themes. With that done, you’ll always have access to the latest WordPress features and fixes.

Why is WordPress so complicated? Automatic updates can make it easier

Automate Your WordPress Backups

WordPress is secure and reliable software, but it’s still a good idea to create regular backups.

Accidents and mistakes happen, such as deleting important content or editing the wrong page. Malicious third parties may also try to break into your site and delete your content.

By creating regular backups, you can always recover a working and error-free version of your website. Even if the worst happens and you lose all your data, you can simply restore your WordPress website from its latest backup.

They may be important, but many website owners overlook backups until it’s too late.

The good news is there are many free and paid WordPress backup plugins that can do the hard work for you. We recommend using a premium plugin like Duplicator Pro as it can create backups automatically.

For added security, Duplicator Pro will save your backups to popular online storage solutions like Dropbox, OneDrive, or Amazon S3. This means you can log into these services from any location, and get access to a working copy of your website.

Learn WordPress

The right plugins, themes, and techniques will help you run a successful WordPress website with ease. In some cases, you can even completely automate important tasks such as making a WordPress database backup or performing a security audit.

For this reason, many website owners don’t take the time to learn more about WordPress. We think this is a big mistake.

By continuing to learn you can often make WordPress even easier to use. With that in mind, here are just some of the free resources you’ll find on WPBeginner:

WPBeginner Blog. This is where we publish our WordPress tutorials, how-tos, and step-by-step guides. We have a huge library of free content, and we’re publishing new information all the time.
WPBeginner Dictionary. Complicated terms and technical jargon can make WordPress seem a lot harder than it is. For that reason, we’ve created a directory that covers all the WordPress lingo.
WPBeginner Videos. Our step-by-step WordPress 101 video tutorials have everything you need to get started with WordPress.
WPBeginner on YouTube. Enjoyed our WordPress 101 series and want to learn more? You’ll find over 900 more videos on our YouTube channel covering everything from SEO, to common WordPress errors and how to fix them, how to embed dynamic social media feeds on your site, and much more.
WPBeginner Engage Group. The largest and fastest-growing WordPress group for non-techies and beginners on Facebook. Here, you can connect with over 91,000 WordPress users, ask questions, and get support from the community.

Consider Hiring a WordPress Maintenance Service

The tips and tricks in this guide will make WordPress feel effortless, even if you’ve never created a website before.

However, if you’re looking for the ultimate hassle-free experience then you can always hire a maintenance service to take care of WordPress for you. This includes creating backups, installing updates, performing SEO audits, upgrading your site’s security, finding and fixing broken links, and more.

These services are perfect for first-time WordPress users or anyone who finds that day-to-day website maintenance takes too much time. If you want to hire a WordPress expert, then see our pick of the best WordPress website maintenance services.

We hope this article helped you see why WordPress is not hard, and there’s a good reason that nearly half of all websites on the internet use WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how much it really costs to build a WordPress website or see the most important reasons to use WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Why Is WordPress So Hard (And How to Make It Easier) first appeared on WPBeginner.

July 28, 2022

How to Backup Your WordPress Site to Google Drive (Free and Easy)

Did you know that you can make a backup of your WordPress site on Google Drive?

If you have a Google account, then you already have 15GB of cloud storage for free. You can use this storage to keep a copy of your site in reserve, just in case something bad happens, and you need a reset.

In this article, we will show you how you can automatically backup your WordPress site to Google Drive.

How to backup your WordPress site to Google Drive

Why Backup Your WordPress Site to Google Drive?

A backup is a copy of your website that’s stored separately, and it’s one of the most important ways to keep your site safe. If something goes wrong with your website, then you can restore a backup with just a few clicks to get it working again.

Even in the worst-case scenario where a hacker breaks into your WordPress website and deletes your data, you can simply restore a backup and get your site back.

Many website owners also create a backup before making a big change to their site, such as editing their WordPress homepage or installing a new theme. If the change breaks their website, they can simply restore a working version of their site from a backup.

By backing up your site to a cloud storage service such as Google Drive, you can restore your site even if your main hosting account got hacked. Also, it won’t take up precious storage space on your WordPress hosting plan.

By creating a Google account, you’ll automatically get 15GB of free cloud storage that you can use for backups and file storage. If you need more space, then prices start at $1.99 per month for an additional 100GB.

How to Backup Your WordPress Site to Google Drive

WordPress does not come with a built-in backup solution. However, there are several great WordPress backup plugins that make it easy to backup and restore your site.

UpdraftPlus is the best backup plugin for WordPress. This free plugin lets you create scheduled backups, so you can automatically back up your WordPress site to Google Drive.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the UpdraftPlus plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once you’ve activated UpdraftPlus, you can configure your backup settings and choose Google Drive as a storage destination.

To do this, head over to Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups in your WordPress dashboard. Then, simply click on the ‘Settings’ tab.

Backup WordPress website to Google Drive

UpdraftPlus makes it easy to save your backups to different online storage services including Dropbox, Amazon S3, Microsoft OneDrive, and many others.

Since you want to backup your WordPress site to Google Drive, go ahead and click on ‘Google Drive’ in the section titled ‘Choose your remote storage.’

UpdraftPlus' supported cloud storage platforms

After choosing Google Drive as your storage location, you’ll need to give UpdraftPlus access to your Google account.

To get started, click on the ‘Sign in with Google’ button.

Now follow the onscreen instructions to give UpdraftPlus access to your Google account.

After reading the disclaimer, you can click on ‘Complete setup’ if you’re happy to go ahead and authorize UpdraftPlus access to your Google Drive.

Once you’ve done that, UpdraftPlus will take you back to its main settings page in the WordPress dashboard.

How to Create an Automatic WordPress Backup Schedule

After choosing Google Drive as your storage location, you’re ready to create an automatic backup schedule.

Still in the ‘Settings’ tab, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the Save Changes button. UpdraftPlus will now automatically backup your site based on your schedule.

UpdraftPlus breaks WordPress backups into two parts: files and database.

Let’s start with files. As part of this backup, UpdraftPlus will create a copy of your site’s code files, plugin and theme files, and images.

To get started, simply open the ‘Files backup schedule’ dropdown and choose how frequently UpdraftPlus should backup your WordPress website.

You can choose from once every month, right through to once every 2 hours.

Create an automated backup schedule for Google Drive

When creating a schedule, think about how often you update or add new content to your site. For example, if you publish two blog posts each week, then you may want to backup your WordPress blog once a week instead of daily.

If you update your site more frequently, then you’ll need to backup more frequently.

In particular, if you run an online store then you’ll typically want to backup your site as often as possible. In this way, you can avoid losing important information such as new orders or a customer’s payment details.

After choosing a frequency for your backups, you’ll need to choose how many different backups UpdraftPlus should keep. This will help you optimize the storage space you use.

You can do this by entering that number into the text field next to ‘…retain this many scheduled backups.’

You can change these settings at any point, so if you’re unsure then you can start by saving a larger number and then reduce it if the backups are using too much space.

Once UpdraftPlus reaches your set number, the plugin will replace the oldest copy with newer WordPress backups.

Next, you need to create a backup schedule for your WordPress database in the ‘Database backup schedule’ section.

WordPress stores all of its posts and pages, comments, links, and website settings in the database, so it’s just as important to create backups of the database regularly as it is the files.

You can tell UpdraftPlus how frequently it should make backups of your database, and how many of them it should keep by following the same process described above.

How to Choose What is in UpdraftPlus Backups on Google Drive

By default, UpdraftPlus will include all your WordPress plugins, themes, and uploads in your Google Drive backups.

In the ‘Settings’ tab, scroll down to the ‘Include in files backup’ section. Here, you can choose whether to include plugins, themes, or uploads in your backup.

To create a complete copy of your WordPress website, you’ll want to leave the default 3 checkboxes selected.

Excluding files from a Google Drive WordPress backup

If you don’t need to include plugins, themes, or uploads in your backups, then you can just uncheck the box next to that setting. Doing so can reduce the size of your backups and take up less space on your Google Drive.

If you leave the ‘Uploads’ box checked, then you can create some rules about the kind of uploads that UpdraftPlus will exclude from its backups.

There are already some exclusion rules. For example, the plugin defaults to excluding all files that have the word ‘backup’ in their file name. To create more rules about the kind of content UpdraftPlus will exclude, simply click on ‘Add an exclusion rule.’

Creating exclusion rules for a WordPress backup

You can then follow the onscreen instructions to create your exclusion rule.

For example, if you wanted UpdraftPlus to ignore all PDF files, then you would start by clicking on ‘All files with this extension’ and type ‘PDF’ in the field that appears.

Adding exclusion rules to your WordPress backup

By default, UpdraftPlus also excludes some files from the wp-content folder.

You can see all of UpdraftPlus’ default exclusion rules in the ‘Any other directories found inside wp-content’ section.

Creating an exclusion rule for the wp content directory

Do you need UpdraftPlus to exclude even more content from the wp-content folder? Simply click ‘Add an exclusion rule’ in this section and repeat the same process described above.

If you’re not sure about what to exclude, then we recommend sticking to the default settings. They are a good fit for most websites.

How to Know if an UpdraftPlus Backup to Google Drive was Successful?

Every time UpdraftPlus successfully creates a backup, it can send an email notification to your site’s admin email address that confirms the backup has been completed. If a backup fails, then you won’t get an email.

In the ‘Settings’ tab, scroll to the ‘Email’ section. You can now enable these notifications by checking the box in this section.

Enabling UpdraftPlus' email notifications

Now, every time UpdraftPlus creates a backup it will send you an email notification.

Once you’ve done all that, click on ‘Save Changes.’ UpdraftPlus will now backup your site to Google Drive automatically.

If you don’t get any emails from UpdraftPlus, then it’s a good idea to check that the plugin is successfully creating backups in your Google Drive.

If you’re using the free version of UpdraftPlus, then you should find a new ‘UpdraftPlus’ folder in your Google account.

Simply open this folder to see whether it contains any WordPress backups.

In the following image, you can see an example of how a few backups may look in your Google Drive account.

If UpdraftPlus is creating its backups successfully, but you’re not receiving the email notifications, then there is most likely a problem with how your emails are configured on your WordPress site.

You can see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending emails to ensure they are sent correctly.

How to Backup Your WordPress Site to Google Drive Manually

Automated backups are a great way to protect your site. However, even after creating an automatic schedule you may sometimes still need to create a manual backup.

It’s a good idea to create a manual backup before making any big changes, such as updating your version of WordPress. You might also create a manual backup after publishing lots of new content.

To create a backup your WordPress site on Google Drive manually, go to Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups. You can then simply click on the ‘Backup/Restore’ tab.

To go ahead and create a manual backup now, you just need to click on the ‘Backup Now’ button. UpdraftPlus will show some basic settings that you can use to configure the manual Google Drive backup.

As with an automated backup, UpdraftPlus defaults to backing up all of your files and the WordPress database. It will also use the same remote storage location that you use for your automated backups. For us, this is Google Drive.

The default settings should be good enough for most websites, so when you’re ready click on the ‘Backup Now’ button.

Creating a manual Google Drive backup for WordPress

Restoring Your WordPress Backup with UpdraftPlus

Creating backups with UpdraftPlus is easy, but the really useful part is the ability to restore them from Google Drive with the same ease.

If your WordPress site was hacked or you just want to start fresh, then the first step is deleting everything and installing WordPress again.

Once you’ve done that, you will need to install and activate the UpdraftPlus plugin again on your new WordPress website. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, head over to Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups page and click on the ‘Settings’ tab.

In the ‘Choose your remote storage’ section, click on Google Drive.

The different remote storage choices for a backup

You can now follow the onscreen instructions to give UpdraftPlus access to the Google account where you saved all of your website’s backups in Drive.

After connecting UpdraftPlus to your Google account, click on the ‘Backup/Restore’ tab.

UpdraftPlus will now scan your Google Drive and list all the backups that it discovers. Once complete, you can simply find the backup that you want to restore and click on ‘Restore.’

After that, choose the components that you want to restore. If you are restoring to a fresh WordPress installation, checking all the boxes is probably the best idea.

After choosing your components, go ahead and click on the ‘Next’ button.

Restoring your WordPress site from Google Drive

UpdraftPlus will now get all the files that it needs to restore the WordPress backup from your Google Drive.

Once it’s successfully imported all the files it needs, you just need to click the ‘Restore’ button. UpdraftPlus will now restore your backup from Google Drive.

This may take a few minutes depending on the size of your backup, and the speed of your Internet connection.

Once it’s finished, you’ll see a ‘Restore Successful’ message at the end of an Activity log. At this point, you can click the ‘Return to UpdraftPlus configuration’ button to return to the settings and finish things up.

That’s it! You’ve now successfully restored your WordPress website from Google Drive.

We hope this article helped you learn how to backup your WordPress site to Google Drive. You can also go through our ultimate WordPress security guide and the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Backup Your WordPress Site to Google Drive (Free and Easy) first appeared on WPBeginner.

March 18, 2022

12 Best WordPress Database Plugins – Expert Pick (2022)

Are you looking for the best WordPress database plugins for your site?

WordPress database plugins can help you clean up your database to improve website performance, assist with website migrations, and more.

In this article, we’ve hand picked some of the best database plugins for your WordPress site.

Why Use a WordPress Database Plugin?

WordPress stores a lot of information in your database, from comments, to posts, user information, plugin data, and more.

Over time your database can become cluttered, which can slow down your website and even cause WordPress errors. WordPress database plugins can help optimize and clean up your database to make sure your site is as fast as possible.

Other WordPress database plugins can help you store and display data, backup your database to keep your site safe, and more.

With that said, let’s show you some of the best WordPress database plugins you can use with your site.

1. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is the best WordPress backup plugin used by over 3 million websites.

It allows you to create a complete backup of your WordPress website and store it safely in the cloud or your computer. You can choose to backup your entire WordPress site and databases or select specific website files.

You can also backup your site and databases to Dropbox, Amazon S3, FTP, email, Google Drive, and more.

The premium version comes with more addons to migrate and clone websites, use database search and replace, access multisite support, and more.

For more details, see our guide on how to backup and restore your WordPress site with UpdraftPlus.

2. WP-DBManager

WP-DBManager is an all in one tool for WordPress database optimization. The plugin is very feature rich, but it’s still beginner friendly.

It lets you optimize your databases, repair and restore databases, create database backups, and delete database backups you’ve created.

Plus, once you configure the initial settings, it will run in the background, so your WordPress database will always be optimized.

3. WPForms

WPForms is the best contact form plugin for WordPress used by over 5 million websites.

It lets you easily create any kind of form for your WordPress website like contact forms, order forms, user registration forms, and more.

There’s a library of over 300+ templates you can use to get started, and every template can be completely customized with the drag and drop builder.

When a user submits a form on your site, all form data is automatically saved in your WordPress database.

WPForms then takes this data and makes it easy to view within your WordPress dashboard. You can see all the contact data, field labels, number of entries, and more. It’s essentially a frontend database of your contact list.

To learn more, see our guide on how to save contact form data in the WordPress database.

You can connect your WordPress forms to Google Sheets or any other email marketing service as well to help improve your workflows and save time.

4. Better Search Replace

Better Search Replace is a useful plugin that can help with moving WordPress to a new domain and various other quick find & replace tasks.

When you’re migrating a website, you usually need to make changes to the database, URLs, media files, and more.

This plugin makes it easy to run a search and replace in your WordPress database. It also has advanced controls, so you can select specific tables, see what fields will be replaced before running the plugin, and more.

It even supports a WordPress multisite network, if you’re migrating an entire network of WordPress sites at once.

5. WP-Sweep

WP-Sweep is a WordPress database plugin that makes it easy to clean up your WordPress database and improve your WordPress performance and speed.

It lets you easily clean up areas like your post metadata, comments, post revisions, uninstalled plugins, and more.

There’s a user friendly settings screen that lets you choose which areas of your database to clean up with a single click.

The plugin also uses the WordPress delete function to remove database data, which helps to ensure there’s no accidental data loss.

6. Formidable Forms

Formidable Forms is a relational database plugin and the most advanced WordPress form builder in the market.

With this plugin, you can upload and collect data through front end forms, then you can display that data on your website in a variety of different ways.

The Formidable Views addon available on the Plus plan lets you display data in a grid, table, calendar, and other formats. This is useful for creating a job board, showing real estate listings, displaying registered users, and more.

All data submitted through the forms you create with the plugin automatically goes to your WordPress database. Then, you can use the backend interface to sort, filter, and search through your data.

You can also allow users to upload images, blog posts, and other forms of data.

Formidable Forms lets you create a frontend database for WordPress with their advanced Views addon.

7. Easy Username Updater

Easy Username Updater is a free plugin that makes it easy to change your WordPress username.

WordPress makes it easy to change your full name from your user profile. But, if you want to change your username, then you’ll need to use a tool like phpMyAdmin to make changes to your database.

This plugin simplifies the process and lets you simply change your username and the usernames of other users right from your WordPress admin panel.

To learn more, see our guide on how to change your WordPress username.

8. JetPack Backup (VaultPress)

JetPack Backup is a popular WordPress backup plugin by Automattic, the company behind WordPress. It was initially launched as VaultPress but has been relaunched and redesigned as Jetpack Backup.

The plugin offers daily automated backups without slowing down your website. These backups also include a full WordPress database backup.

This backup solution is also geared towards WooCommerce store owners, so your order and customer data are always safe.

Beyond backups, you can restore your entire site to a previous version with a single click.

9. TablePress

TablePress is one of the best WordPress table plugins you can use to display your data.

The plugin makes it easy to create beautiful tables without writing any code. There are unique features that make your tables more interactive, like pagination, filtering, sorting, and more.

You can import and export existing tables in CSV, Excel, HTML, and JSON format. This makes it easy to migrate your tables from another table plugin.

TablePress stores all of the table data in your WordPress database.

For more details, see our guide on how to add tables in WordPress posts and pages.

10. SearchWP

SearchWP is the best WordPress search plugin and makes it easy to improve WordPress search.

The plugin gives you complete control over your website search algorithm, so you can choose how you want content to rank in your WordPress search results.

It creates its own custom WordPress database to store and maintain its own search index.

This means you get access to your search data, so you can improve your content and create a better user experience.

For more details, see our guide on how to use multiple search forms in WordPress.

11. Advanced WordPress Reset

Advanced WordPress Reset lets you reset and restore your WordPress database to it’s original status like a fresh WordPress install.

You can also reset specific areas of your WordPress site such as clean up uploads folder, delete all comments, remove all plugins, etc.

This is a really powerful plugin that’s often used by developers and freelancers when building staging websites or testing. It’s not something you want to use on a live website.

12. wpDataTables

wpDataTables is a premium table plugin that makes it easy to add visually stunning tables to WordPress.

The plugin has an easy to use table builder, so you can create feature rich tables without writing any code.

It’s equipped with features that let you add star ratings, style different cells, add shortcodes, and much more.

It also has unique features that prevent deleting tables in the WordPress database and can connect your tables to multiple WordPress databases.

Final Thoughts on WordPress Database Plugins

While the above list contains the most popular use-cases of WordPress database plugins, it’s important to emphasize that almost all WordPress plugins interact with the database.

So it’s really impossible to create a best WordPress database plugin list without fully understanding the use-case.

Here are some other bonus WordPress plugins that interact with the database:

AIOSEO – best WordPress SEO plugin used by over 3 million sites. It stores your website’s SEO data in WordPress database including all 404 errors and other useful insights.
SeedProd – best drag & drop website builder for WordPress. It lets you create custom WordPress themes without any code, and all data is stored in the database.
HubSpot – one of the best WordPress CRM software that helps you create a contact database in WordPress. It works well with WPForms.
MonsterInsights – best WordPress analytics plugin that brings your Google Analytics data inside your WordPress dashboard.
MemberPress – allows you to create a members only area and sell courses in WordPress. Lets you store a members directory in WordPress database.
AffiliateWP – best WordPress affiliates plugin that allows you to create and manage a partner referral program in WordPress database and dashboard.
Sugar Calendar – simple and light-weight event management system allowing you to use your WordPress database as a calendar solution.
WP Mail SMTP – stores a log of all emails sent by your WordPress site in a database, so you can ensure emails are actually getting delivered to your customers.

That’s just a quick list of bonus plugins that interact with the WordPress database that you may want to use.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress database plugins for your site. You may also want to see our guide on how to move WordPress from HTTP to HTTPS and our expert picks of the best business phone services for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 12 Best WordPress Database Plugins – Expert Pick (2022) first appeared on WPBeginner.

September 10, 2021

5 Best WordPress Cloud Storage Plugins 2021 (w/ Free Options)

Are you looking for the best cloud storage plugins for WordPress?

Cloud storage plugins make it easy to store and access your website files from anywhere in the world. They can also automatically sync your data, so it’s safe and always backed up.

In this article, we’ll share some of the best WordPress cloud storage plugins you can use to store your WordPress files.

Why Use a WordPress Cloud Storage Plugin?

WordPress cloud storage plugins help to ensure your website files, documents, and other media are safe and secure.

Many cloud storage plugins and tools also serve your media files from their servers, similar to a CDN, so it can improve your website speed and performance too.

Plus, you can even backup your entire WordPress blog, so no matter what happens, your website and files are ready to be restored if you need them.

That’s being said, let’s look at some of the best WordPress cloud storage plugins.

1. WPForms

WPForms is the best contact form plugin for WordPress used by over 4 million websites. It’s very beginner friendly and can be used to create all kinds of forms like contact forms, registration forms, file upload forms, and more.

It comes with over 100 premade templates that can easily be customized with the drag and drop builder.

All of your form entries will save to your WordPress database, but you can also integrate the plugin with a cloud storage provider.

For example, you could automatically upload files to Google Drive or Dropbox, or use the Zapier addon to connect with any cloud storage service you prefer.

The free version of the plugin lets you create simple contact forms, but for more advanced form creation and cloud storage features you’ll need the pro version.

2. Uncanny Automator

Uncanny Automator is one of the best WordPress automation plugins in the market. It lets you create powerful automation workflows so you can easily store data and share it with other apps.

It integrates with all the most popular WordPress plugins and third-party tools in the market, so you can create custom automations without writing any code. Think of it like Zapier, but for WordPress websites.

For example, you can send your WordPress form data to Google Sheets, or integrate with Zapier to connect to apps like Google Cloud Storage, Dropbox, and more.

You can get started with the free version of the plugin, which supports all kinds of WordPress plugins and automation actions.

3. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is one of the best popup and lead generation plugins for WordPress used by over 1.2 million websites.

It lets you create high converting popups and email signup forms with an easy drag and drop builder, so you can turn your abandoning visitors into email subscribers and customers.

You can automatically store the leads you generate in the cloud with Monster Leads. Your leads and their data are safely stored in your OptinMonster account, so you don’t need to worry about backups or security.

From your user dashboard, you can view individual lead details, filter, and export your leads.

Plus, you can connect to popular email marketing services, so you can send your leads an email newsletter to grow your relationship and make sales.

Note: You can get started with a free version of OptinMonster.

4. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is the best WordPress backup plugin in the market used by over 3 million websites. It lets you create a complete backup of your WordPress site and store it in the cloud.

You can create scheduled backups or backup your website on demand. You also have the option to choose which files you want to backup.

It can automatically upload your backups to a variety of cloud storage providers like Dropbox, Google Drive, Rackspace, Amazon S3, and more.

For more details, see our guide on how to backup and restore your WordPress site with UpdraftPlus.

Alternative: Other great backup solutions include BackupBuddy, BackWPUp, and Duplicator.

5. WP Offload Media

WP Offload Media is an easy to use cloud storage plugin that syncs up with various cloud storage providers.

It automatically copies your images, videos, documents, and other media to your cloud storage provider of choice. Then, it replaces the URL to the cloud hosted version of the media.

This ensures you have copies of your media stored in the cloud for safekeeping. Plus, it can speed up your website loading times, similar to a CDN service.

The plugin currently works with Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, and DigitalOcean Spaces for cloud storage.

It also integrates with popular image compression plugins like EWWW Image Optimizer to speed up your WordPress site.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress cloud storage plugins for your WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on how to get a free SSL certificate and our expert picks of the best chat bot software for your business website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 5 Best WordPress Cloud Storage Plugins 2021 (w/ Free Options) appeared first on WPBeginner.

April 23, 2021October 7, 2022

13 Best WordPress Multisite Plugins You Should Use (Expert Pick)

Are you looking for the best WordPress multisite plugins?

WordPress multisite plugins can help extend your multisite network’s features and make it much easier to manage your network of websites.

In this article, we will share some of the best WordPress multisite plugins for your WordPress multisite network.

Best WordPress Multisite Plugins You Should Use

WordPress multisite network allows you to run and manage multiple WordPress sites or blogs from a single WordPress installation.

There are many benefits to using a multisite network, such as you can install plugins and themes for multiple sites from a centralized dashboard.

If you haven’t created your WordPress multisite network yet, then we have a step-by-step guide on installing and setting up a WordPress multisite network.

It walks you through choosing the right WordPress hosting, setting up your network, launching your network of sites, and more.

Let’s take a look at the best WordPress multisite plugins that you should use.

Note: Most WordPress plugins work seamlessly with WordPress multisite environments. However, there are always a few that aren’t compatible. Below is our list of the most useful plugins for all multisite networks.

1. MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics solution for WordPress, used by over 3 million websites. It lets you easily add Google Analytics to WordPress and view your traffic data directly from your WordPress admin dashboard.

With easy access to this data, you can grow your traffic, email list, and revenue.

On a WordPress multisite network, all your subsite analytics is available in one place. This lets you see which sites are performing well at a glance.

When you set up MonsterInsights, you can choose which sites you want to enable or disable the analytics feature.

We have several guides that’ll show you how to set up Google Analytics in WordPress and how to track user engagement.

There is a free version of MonsterInsights available. However, the premium version unlocks the true power of this tool.

2. WP Mail SMTP

WP Mail SMTP is the best WordPress SMTP plugin in the market, used by over 2 million WordPress sites. An SMTP plugin will ensure that any emails sent from your WordPress site will reach your users.

Most WordPress hosting companies don’t have the function to send emails through WordPress properly. Some even block this functionality entirely.

WP Mail SMTP fixes this problem by letting you send emails through an SMTP service provider like Amazon SES, Gmail, Mailgun, etc. This ensures your emails will get delivered and not end up in spam.

With WP Mail SMTP multisite, you can specify different email accounts for each WordPress blog or site on your network.

The free version of WP Mail SMTP will work for most multisite networks.

However, the paid WP Mail SMTP Pro offers white glove setup and support to configure the plugin to work for you.

3. AIOSEO

All in One SEO is the best SEO plugin for WordPress in the market, used by over 3 million WordPress sites.

It’s a comprehensive plugin that offers all the features you need to improve your onsite SEO across your network of websites.

The plugin can help you optimize your meta title and meta descriptions, create sitemaps, optimize for social media, connect your sites to Google Search Console, and more.

For more details, see our guide on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress correctly.

There is a free version of All in One SEO available. However, the pro version has additional features like local SEO, WooCommerce SEO, image SEO, and much more.

If you have various types of sites on your multisite network, this can help you optimize them perfectly.

4. WP Multi Network

WP Multi Network is a powerful WordPress multisite plugin. It helps you add and manage new multisite networks within your multisite installation.

You can manage several multisite networks from the network admin post type in your WordPress admin area. It lets you assign available subsites to your global multisite network users.

The plugin will display information about the sites on your network, including available sites, assigned sites, active plugins, themes, child themes, and more.

5. User Switching

User Switching is a plugin that lets you switch between different user roles with a couple of clicks.

For example, maybe you need to switch between different user roles to troubleshoot or test a site. This plugin lets you instantly switch from one account to another with a single click.

The plugin maintains high-security levels, and it’ll never reveal account passwords. Users are only allowed to switch between accounts that have already been authorized.

If you’re running an online store using WooCommerce, then this plugin integrates and allows you to manage these users as well.

6. InfiniteWP

InfiniteWP is one of the best tools for managing multiple WordPress sites. It lets you simply manage WordPress plugins, themes, and core updates from a single dashboard.

It’s a great solution for freelancers and agencies who manage websites for clients.

The free version gives you control over site updates. However, the premium plugin unlocks features like on-demand backups, migrations, staging sites, post and page publishing, malware scanning, and more.

This plugin gives you ultimate control over all the sites on your multisite network.

7. Members

Members is a user role editor plugin that lets you simply create, manage, and change user roles across your entire network of WordPress sites.

If you’re running a network of sites with a large number of WordPress users, then this plugin makes it super easy to oversee and manage access & permissions.

Often administrators use this plugin to create custom user roles with specific permissions to enhance security.

This plugin is maintained by the team behind MemberPress, which is the best WordPress membership plugin that lets you create and sell online courses, premium content, and more.

8. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is one of the best lead generation tools in the market. It’s trusted by over 1.2 million sites, including ClickBank, Pinterest, Patreon, and more.

This tool lets you create high-converting popup modals and lead generation forms across your entire network of WordPress sites. A network activation feature lets you create different campaigns for every site on your network.

OptinMonster has a large template library and an extensive drag and drop builder to create custom popups, slide-ins, content upgrades, and more.

The Exit-Intent® technology helps convert visitors who leave your sites into subscribers and customers.

With a multisite installation, all your campaign data is available in one place. This lets you see the results of your lead generation efforts and improve your conversions across multiple websites.

9. Duplicator

Duplicator is the best WordPress migration plugin. It allows you to easily migrate your WordPress blog between different servers and WordPress hosting accounts.

The plugin is very easy to use. It lets you simply download all of your website files and upload them to your new server.

There is a free version of the plugin, but to migrate a network of sites, you’ll need the plugin’s premium version. Migrating an entire WordPress multisite network might seem stressful, but this plugin simplifies most of the process.

You can copy your entire multisite network on all plans, but to easily reinstall new sites, you’ll need a premium plan.

10. WPForms

WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin in the market. Over 4 million WordPress sites use it.

It’s very easy to create simple contact forms, user registration forms, multi-page forms, and more.

Running a multisite network means you’ll have various form needs. This plugin can help you meet all of them.

Even though it’s packed with features, it’s very easy to use. They have a drag and drop form builder to help you quickly build advanced contact forms and customize them to match your website.

There’s a large template library to help you add a variety of forms to your sites quickly.

The free version WPForms Lite can be used if you only need to add simple contact forms to your sites.

11. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is one of the best WordPress caching plugins in the market.

A caching plugin can help boost your WordPress website speed and performance without technical skills.

Once the plugin is installed and activated on your site, it’ll automatically improve your loading speeds. There are all kinds of advanced features you can customize depending on the type of website you run.

It’s one of the few caching plugins equipped with lazy loading, minification, page caching, cache preloading, static file compression, font loading, and more.

WP Rocket lets you improve your site speed without impacting your pages and posts on any site.

12. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is the best backup plugin for WordPress. You can simply back up your WordPress sites with a couple of clicks.

Your WordPress multisite network could have dozens or even hundreds of subsites, so you must use a backup plugin to keep every site on the network safe.

This plugin helps you create automated backups for every site on your network.

You can save your backups to your computer or integrate them with other cloud storage services. There’s a great feature to restore a site with a single click.

For more details, see our guide on how to back up and restore your WordPress site with UpdraftPlus.

There’s a free version of the plugin available, but the paid plans offer you priority support and even more features.

13. Multisite Language Switcher

Multisite Language Switcher adds multilanguage capabilities to your WordPress multisite network.

There are various plugins you can use to create a multilingual WordPress site. But, this plugin is dedicated to WordPress multisite.

It allows you to manage translations across multiple sites. You can oversee translations for pages, posts, taxonomies, and tags across all your properties.

With this plugin, managing translations for entire websites or translating individual pieces of content across your entire network is easy.

Final Thoughts + More WordPress Multisite Plugins

There are over 60,000+ WordPress plugins available, most of which will work on a multisite network.

Depending on your needs, you may want to see our following expert picks:

We hope this article has helped you find the best WordPress multisite plugins for you. You may also want to see our ultimate guide on how to create a business email address and how to get a virtual business phone number for your website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 13 Best WordPress Multisite Plugins You Should Use (Expert Pick) first appeared on WPBeginner.

December 15, 2020

How to Easily Save a Blog Post to Your Computer (5 Methods)

Do you want to save your WordPress blog posts to your computer?

Normally, you can make a WordPress backup and save it on your computer. However, these backups are not readable or easy to share without installing WordPress again.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily save a copy of your blog content that you can read, share, or even convert to an eBook.

Why Save Your Blog Posts to Your Computer

There are several reasons to save your blog posts to your computer.

The most common reason is to create a back up of your blog, so that you can restore it later. You may want to move it to a new WordPress website or just keep it safe as a security precaution.

Or you may want to close and delete your WordPress website, but want to preserve your blog content in a readable format. Instead of saving them as back up files, you can save all of your blog posts as PDF or an eBook, so you can easily read or share your articles.

Another common reason is to move from another blogging platform to WordPress. To do this you’ll need to save your blog posts and then import them into WordPress.

There are multiple ways to save and download your blog posts. Depending on your needs, you can choose the method that best suits you.

Creating a backup of your entire blog
Creating a PDF or ebook of your blog posts
Printing a book of your blog posts
Saving your blog to migrate
Saving your WordPress.com blog posts

Creating a Backup of Your Blog

This method is recommended if you just want to make a backup of your blog posts for safekeeping.

It allows you to restore your blog posts on any other WordPress website. However, it does not save your blog posts in a readable or shareable format.

WordPress has a built-in feature to export your blog posts. Simply go to Tools » Export. page inside your WordPress admin area. Here, you can choose to download your entire site, or only your blog posts.

After that, you can click on the Download Export File button and WordPress will download all your blog posts in XML format. This file can be used to restore your site, or to migrate to another domain or a different web host.

You can also download your entire media library and save your images and videos separately.

However, if you want to keep a backup of your entire WordPress site, then the export tool is not the ideal method. It will not save any other website data, settings, your WordPress theme, or plugins.

For that, you will need to use a proper WordPress backup plugin. These plugins allow you to make a complete WordPress website backup which you can then save on your computer or upload to cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox.

You can also set them up, so they automatically take backups at regular intervals and save them remotely.

We recommend using UpdraftPlus, which is easy to use and supports multiple cloud storage options. For more details, see our guide on setting up WordPress backups using UpdraftPlus.

Creating a PDF or eBook of Your Blog

The problem with WordPress backup plugins or the default export method is that your blog posts will not be readable outside WordPress.

This is why many users prefer to save blog posts as PDF because it makes it easy to read, share, or republish the blog post as an eBook.

Let’s take a look at how to easily save your blog posts as PDF to your computer.

If you’re only looking to save a single blog post, then the easiest way is to open it in a browser and use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + P (for Windows) or CMD + P (for Mac). This will open the browser’s print settings window.

You can now change the Destination to ‘Save as PDF’ and click on the ‘Save’ button to download it to your computer.

Now, if you want to save all your blog posts as PDF at once, then the easiest way to do that is by using a WordPress plugin.

First, you need to install and activate the Print My Blog plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Print My Blog » Print Now page to configure settings. From here, you can choose to print a physical copy, save a PDF file, create an eBook, or save it in HTML format.

You can select Digital PDF to create and save a readable PDF file on your computer. Alternatively, you can choose eBook if you want to create a digital book that you can publish online.

After that, click to expand the ‘Show More Print Options’ menu to customize your blog copy.

In most cases, the default settings are good enough. But you may want to go through them just to make sure the blog copy is exactly what you need.

From the drop-down menu, you can apply a number of filters. For instance, you can choose to save only posts or only pages of your WordPress site.

You can also select what order you want the posts to appear, whether you want the oldest or the newest posts first.

Another option is to filter the posts by their status. You can choose to download only the published posts, or include drafts and deleted posts that are in your Trash folder.

You can also filter your posts by categories, tags, authors, and dates. This is handy if you want to download only particular categories for a project, or if you want a document of every article written by a single author.

The plugin also allows you to choose what header and post content you wish to appear in your saved copy. By default, the date and the plugin’s branding is selected, but you can unselect this if you don’t want this information to appear in your PDF.

You can apply these filters to every post and choose what information you want to appear for each post such as the published date, comments, URL, and author.

Lastly, you can determine your page layout. Print My Blog basically creates a single PDF file for all your blog content. You can choose to have each new post start on a new page to ensure there is proper separation.

You can also customize the font size, image size, and choose whether you want to include hyperlinks.

Once you are satisfied with the settings, click on the ‘Prepare Print-Page’ button to continue. To print an eBook, you need to use the dotepub extension.

To save a PDF file, click on the ‘Print to PDF’ button to save the file.

This will bring up your browser’s print settings. Select Save as PDF option and then click on the save button to save the PDF file to your computer.

Note: The save to PDF functionality works best with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers.

If you’ve created an eBook, you might find our guide on how to add an eBook download to your WordPress site helpful.

Printing your Blog Posts as a Book

You can also convert your blog into a physical book for distributing it among friends or at an event. You could also make an online store to sell it from your website.

Blog2Print converts your blog on WordPress, Tumblr, Typepad and Blogger into professionally bound books.

They also let you turn your Instagram feed into a book!

Blog2Print automatically formats your content. You can select what content you want to include, customize your book cover, add photos and supplemental text to make the book seem more like a published book rather than a series of blog posts.

Another platform you can use is Into Real Pages. They have four formats you can choose from, along with 8 wonderful themes. You get to design your own cover and add additional text and photos. They also offer good deals on bulk printing.

Saving Your Blog Posts to Migrate Platforms

A lot of folks want to save their blog posts, so they can move to them elsewhere. Now there are two common types of blog migrations.

Moving a WordPress blog to another WordPress blog. This happens when a user is changing their WordPress hosting company or domain name, and they need to move their WordPress files to the new location.
Moving from a third-party platform to WordPress. A lot of folks start with other blogging platforms and later on want to move their blogs to WordPress.

We will talk about both user cases and will show you how to properly save your blog posts and move them over.

1. Migrating a WordPress Blog

To move to a new domain, a different host, or another top blogging platform, you need to create a copy of your blog. This copy can then be used to migrate over.

You can use a migration plugin that automatically makes a backup for you and lets you move to a new domain or new host.

There are plenty of migration plugins to choose from, out of which Duplicator Pro is one of the best on the market.

If you want to move your site from one domain to another, but you’re worried about losing your blog content, see our guide on how to move WordPress to a new domain. This guide also ensures you don’t lose any of your SEO efforts.

If you’ve been blogging on a subdomain and want to merge it with your main domain, the process is fairly simple. But you need to follow it step by step to make sure you don’t face errors. See our guide on moving subdomain to root domain in WordPress.

You can also move between hosts and servers but there’s a risk of downtime. Our guide on how to move WordPress to a new host or server shows you how to switch over without losing any content or having downtime.

2. Migrating a Third-Party Blog to WordPress

A lot of users want to save their blog posts, so they can move all their content to WordPress.

There are two types of WordPress blogs. WordPress.com which is a hosting service and WordPress.org which is also called self-hosted WordPress. For more details, see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com vs Wordress.org with detailed pros and cons.

You’ll need WordPress.org because it gives you instant access to all WordPress features out of the box.

To get started, you’ll need a domain name and a WordPress hosting account. The domain name is your website’s address (e.g. wpbeginner.com), and the hosting account is where all your website files are stored.

We recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the top hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

They are offering WPBeginner users, a generous discount on hosting with a free domain name and SSL certificate.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Once you have signed up for a hosting account, you can follow our step by step tutorial on how to start a WordPress blog for the complete setup.

After the set up, you’ll reach your WordPress admin dashboard.

WordPress powers over 38% of all websites on the internet. This is why many users want to switch blogging platforms and use WordPress.

You can easily import your blog posts from other blogging platforms to your WordPress blog. Depending on which platform you are moving from, you can follow the step by step instructions from our guides below.

Saving Your WordPress.com Blog Posts

If you are using WordPress.com, then you can still save your WordPress.com blog posts to your computer. You can also move to WordPress.org or use the downloaded file as a backup that you can restore at any time.

First, you need to login to your blog and then go to the Tools » Export » Export all. WordPress.com will then create an XML file and your browser will download it to your computer.

This file uses the same format as WordPress.org, which means you can easily use it to move your blog from WordPress.com to a WordPress.org blog.

We hope this article helped you learn how to save blog posts to your computer. You may also want to see our guide on how to increase your blog traffic by 406%, and over 30 proven ways make money blogging using WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Save a Blog Post to Your Computer (5 Methods) appeared first on WPBeginner.

November 7, 2019November 2, 2023

9 Best WordPress Migration Plugins (Compared)

Are you looking for the best WordPress migration plugin to move your website?

While it is super-easy to start a new WordPress site, moving an existing website to a new hosting company is not as simple. To make sure that everything goes smoothly, you’ll need a WordPress migration plugin to easily manage the transfer.

In this article, we will compare the best WordPress migration plugins that allow you to migrate your websites without hiccups.

Why Use a WordPress Migration Plugin?

To migrate your entire WordPress website, you will need to move the database, files, plugins, and theme. If your site is large, this can be time-consuming and difficult to manage.

While you can handle this manually by moving files via FTP, many things can go wrong that a plugin can help protect you from.

Plus, you will want to reduce downtime, so your users don’t see a broken website as you move from one WordPress hosting company to another. Most importantly, you want to preserve your website’s SEO rankings.

With all that in mind, let’s jump into the best WordPress migration plugins. These plugins will help move your site from one hosting provider to another the easy way.

1. Duplicator Pro

Is Duplicator the right backup and migration plugin for you?

Duplicator Pro is the best WordPress migration and backup plugin on the market. It works like a charm for many types of migration scenarios without technical knowledge.

It has a simple step-by-step wizard that guides you through the migration. First, you create a migration package of your website and download it to your computer along with an installer script.

Next, you upload the installer script and the package to the new location (new server or host) and run the migration wizard. Duplicator unpacks the content of your package and installs it.

In the end, it also allows you to update URLs to ensure everything runs smoothly after the unpacking.

Pros:

Migrate the WordPress site to a new host, domain name, local server, or live site.
Easy step-by-step migration wizard to move your website.
It can schedule backups and save them on remote storage such as Google Diver, Dropbox, etc.
Connects with cPanel hosting dashboard to automatically create database and users.
Supports WordPress multisite migration with the Duplicator Pro plan.

Cons:

Beginners may need help connecting to the FTP server. Luckily, their customer support is quite helpful.
The upload process can be tedious if you have unreliable internet or a large website.

Pricing: Paid plans start from $49.50 / year for up to two websites. It includes unlimited backups and migrations. If you want to use the Duplicator Pro plugin on over five websites, you’ll need their Pro plan starting at $199.50 / year. The Duplicator Pro plan allows you to migrate WordPress multisite and comes with priority customer support.

The Duplicator free version would work for most small websites.

2. UpdraftPlus Premium

The UpdraftPlus Premium plugin for WordPress

UpdraftPlus is one of the best WordPress backup plugins. Its premium version comes with a migration tool that allows you to easily migrate your website.

Pros:

Easy to use process. If you already use it as your backup plugin, then you can create a complete backup and import it to any location.
Schedule and store your WordPress backups in remote locations.
Works with WordPress multisite networks.
Incremental backups allow you to save server resources.

Cons:

To run the migration, you’d need to install WordPress on the destination.

Pricing: You can purchase the Migrator Addon for $30 and use it with the free version of UpdraftPlus. Alternatively, you can buy UpdraftPlus Premium for $70.

3. Jetpack

Jetpack is a massive WordPress plugin suite with a powerful backup feature. This feature was previously called VaultPress and was sold as a separate product.

Now, it is included as JetPack Backups. It allows you to easily restore your WordPress backups and migrate your website to new servers.

Pros:

The easiest way to make WordPress backups and easily restore them to a new location.
Incremental backups save server resources.
The easy 1-click site restoration feature makes migrations a breeze.
All your data is stored in the cloud, and you don’t need to manually re-upload backups during migration.
Includes site security features that make your backups secure.

Cons:

You will need a JetPack subscription with many other features you may not even need or use.
The setup process is a bit complicated for beginners. You will need two plugins, a Jetpack subscription, and a WordPress.com account.

Pricing: It costs $4.95/month (billed annually).

4. All-in-One WP Migration

All-in-One WP Migration is a popular WordPress migration plugin with a comprehensive set of features. Unlike other plugins on the list, it is not a backup plugin specializing in website migrations.

Pros:

Tested and supports many WordPress hosting providers, operating systems, PHP versions, and more.
Supports older versions up to WordPress 3.3
It bypasses your host’s file size limits by importing chunks of data.

Cons:

The free version limits import size to 512 MB.
You’ll need to install WordPress manually on the new location.
For multisite exports, you’ll need a separate paid extension.
To use any cloud storage, you have to upgrade to a paid plan.

Pricing: The basic plugin is free, but you’ll need the Unlimited extension to remove the import size restriction. The Unlimited extension is available at $69 for a lifetime license.

5. Migrate Guru

Migrate Guru is a WordPress migration plugin by the folks behind Blog Vault, a popular WordPress backup solution. It specializes in migrating websites to a new host or server.

Pros:

It supports almost all popular WordPress hosting providers.
Easy migration wizard where you just need to enter your destination host’s FTP or cPanel credentials, and the plugin takes care of everything else.
Migrates your WordPress database updated URLs and handles serialized data.
It can be used to migrate large websites without affecting server performance.

Cons:

It does not support localhost to live website or live to localhost transfers.
It does not fully support multisite migrations.

Pricing: Free

6. Solid Backups (Formerly BackupBuddy)

Solid Backups Formerly BackupBuddy WordPress Backup Plugin

Solid Backups (formerly BackupBuddy) is one of the most popular WordPress migration and backup plugins. It has been around since 2010 and has a loyal customer base.

Pros:

It has automated scheduled backups, restore, and migration features in one convenient package.
Set up your backup schedules, choose what to back up, and store them in remote locations such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and more.
Easily transfer your website from localhost to live server using a complete WordPress backup.
It can deploy a WordPress staging site to a live server with 1-click.

Cons:

It does not support WordPress multisite.
Restore and migration features are not as easy for beginners as some other plugins on this list.

Pricing: Starting from $99 / year for a single site license.

7. Migrate DB Pro

Migrate DB Pro is a powerful WordPress migration plugin made specifically for moving WordPress databases from one install to another. However, it can also easily transfer media files, themes, and plugins with separate addons.

Pros:

Perfect when you quickly want to copy a WordPress database from one site to another.
Powerful features make it an excellent option for developers.
Back up your existing database before replacing it with a new one.
Find and replace any text in your database.
Great for large websites and complex hosting server environments.

Cons:

For complete migrations, you’ll need two addons which are only available under an expensive developer license.
It may not be as easy to use for beginners as some other plugins on the list.

Price: Starting from $49 for a single site. You’ll need the Plus license to access media and file addons, which will cost you $189.

Bonus Plugins

These WordPress migration plugins work in specific situations and are the best options for beginners.

8. Bluehost Migrator

If you are moving your WordPress site to Bluehost, then this plugin is for you. It is made by Bluehost to help users move their websites to Bluehost hosting servers.

Bluehost is one of the best WordPress hosting companies. They are also an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

Pros:

It works well because it is made for transferring from any hosting company to Bluehost.
Super-easy to use, you just need to enter a token from your hosting control panel, and the plugin takes care of the rest.
If you are not changing the domain name, then it automatically creates a temporary domain for the transferred site. Later, you can change the DNS to point your domain name.

Cons:

It can’t be used to transfer from localhost to the live site.
Does not support WordPress multisite.

Pricing: Free. However, you’ll need a Bluehost account to use this service.

9. SiteGround Migrator

If you are moving your WordPress site to SiteGround, then this plugin is for you. It is made by SiteGround to help users move their websites to SiteGround hosting servers.

SiteGround is one of the best WordPress hosting companies. They are also an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

Note: If you don’t want to use the plugin, then you can simply ask SiteGround support. They offer one free website migration with their GrowBig and GoGeek plans.

Pros:

It works well because it is made for a specific scenario of transferring from any hosting company to SiteGround.
Super-easy to use, you just need to enter a token from your hosting control panel, and the plugin takes care of the rest.
If you are not changing the domain name, it automatically creates a temporary domain for the transferred site. Later, you can change the DNS to point to your domain name.

Cons:

It can’t be used to transfer from localhost to the live site.
It does not support WordPress multisite.

Pricing: Free. The plugin works when you want to migrate a site to the SiteGround hosting server.

Bonus: Free WordPress Blog Setup

The plugins mentioned above do not work on WordPress.com websites. See the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

For most beginners, moving from WordPress.com to WordPress.org is not as simple as you’d like it to be. This is where our free blog setup comes in.

Basically, you’ll need to purchase a hosting plan from one of our recommended WordPress hosting providers, and we will transfer or set up your WordPress blog.

For more details, see our free blog setup page.

Note: At WPBeginner, we believe in transparency. When you sign up for one of our recommended hosting providers, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

We would get this commission for recommending just about any hosting company, but we only recommend products we use personally and believe will add value to our readers.

Pros

Allows you to transfer WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress.org website.
WPBeginner’s expert team migrates your content and media.
You also get must-have WordPress plugins installed on your site to give you a solid start.

Cons:

Only migrates WordPress.com blogs.
Due to WordPress.com’s limitations, it can only migrate your content, comments, images, and media.

Pricing: Free

Conclusion: Which is The Best WordPress Migration Plugin?

We believe Duplicator Pro is the best WordPress migration plugin on the market. Even the free version is a charm for small WordPress blogs and websites.

We also recommend Duplicator in our WordPress migration guides. See our step-by-step guides for complete instructions.

WP Migrate DB Pro is a good choice for migrating large websites, specifically when you have complex hosting setups with various environments. It’s not our top choice because it is not as beginner-friendly.

This guide only covers migration plugin that helps you migrate a WordPress site to another server or domain. If you’re looking to switch to WordPress from another platform, then please follow our guides below:

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress migration plugin for your website. You may also want to see our guide on the best WordPress plugins and the best email marketing services for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 9 Best WordPress Migration Plugins (Compared) first appeared on WPBeginner.

January 18, 2019July 3, 2023

7 Best WordPress Backup Plugins Compared (Pros and Cons)

Are you looking for the best WordPress backup plugin for your website?

Creating regular WordPress backups is the best thing you can do for your website security. Backups give you peace of mind and can save you in catastrophic situations, like when your site gets hacked or you accidentally lock yourself out.

There are several free and paid WordPress backup plugins, most of which are fairly easy to use.

In this article, we will share some of the best WordPress backup plugins for small businesses.

Important: While many WordPress hosting providers offer limited backup services, we always recommend that our users not rely solely on them. At the end of the day, it is your responsibility to keep regular backups of your website.

If you are not already backing up your WordPress website, then you should pick one of these best WordPress backup plugins and start using it right away.

1. Duplicator Pro

Duplicator Pro is a powerful and user-friendly WordPress backup plugin used by over 1.5 million website owners. It makes it easy to back up, migrate, and clone your WordPress site, even for beginners.

You can create manual or scheduled WordPress backups and safely store them on popular cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, FTP, OneDrive, and Amazon S3.

You can also view all of your backups right from your WordPress dashboard, which makes backup management simple.

When you need to restore a backup, the Duplicator Recovery Wizard will walk you through restoring your backup files, step by step.

Duplicator comes with all of the backup features you need, including complete WordPress files & database backups, recovery points, archive encryption for enhanced security, and more.

It also offers advanced site migration features such as an easy migration wizard, a streamlined installer, server-to-server imports, multisite network migrations, customizable pre-configured sites, large site support, and more.

At WPBeginner, we have used Duplicator for various website migrations, and it’s super reliable, especially for complex migrations.

Pricing: Starts at $49.50 per year for unlimited backups for up to 2 sites. There’s also a free version of Duplicator that you can use to get started.

Review: Duplicator Pro is a top-rated WordPress backup and migration plugin. It has over 1.5 million active installs and an average 4.9 out of 5 star rating. The free version has everything you need to get started. But we recommend upgrading to the premium version to access features like cloud storage, scheduled backups, and more.

2. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus best WordPress backup plugin

UpdraftPlus is the most popular free WordPress backup plugin available on the internet. It is used by more than 3 million websites.

UpdraftPlus allows you to create a complete backup of your WordPress site and store it on the cloud or download it to your computer.

The plugin supports scheduled backups as well as on-demand backups. You also have the option to choose which files you want to backup.

It can automatically upload your backups to Dropbox, Google Drive, S3, Rackspace, FTP, SFTP, email, and several other cloud storage services (see our step-by-step guide on how to backup & restore your WordPress site with UpdraftPlus).

Besides backing up each WordPress website, UpdraftPlus also allows you to easily restore backups directly from your WordPress admin panel.

UpdraftPlus also has a premium version with add-ons to migrate or clone websites, database search and replace, multisite support, and several other features. The premium version also gets you access to priority support.

Pricing: Free (UpdraftPremium Personal costs $70 per year).

Review: UpdratPlus is one of the most loved WordPress backup plugins on the market. It has over 3 million active installs and an average 4.8 out of 5 star rating. While the free version has a lot of features, we recommend upgrading to UpdraftPlus premium to unlock all its powerful backup features.

3. Jetpack VaultPress Backup

Jetpack VaultPress Backup is a popular WordPress backup plugin by Automattic, the company created by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg.

This plugin was originally launched under the name VaultPress, which is what we use on WPBeginner, but now it’s been redesigned and rebranded as Jetpack Backups. We have started to switch several of our websites to the new Jetpack backup platform because it’s more up-to-date.

The Jetpack backup plugin offers automated daily and real-time cloud backup solutions without slowing down your site. You can easily set up Jetpack backups and restore from backups within a few clicks.

The higher plans of Jetpack also offer security scans and several other powerful features.

There are a few downsides to using Jetpack backups for beginners.

First, a recurring expense can add up with multiple WordPress sites because you pay per site.

Second, the purchase flow is quite complicated, and they force you to install the Jetpack plugin to purchase a subscription. The good news is that you can manually disable all the unnecessary features of Jetpack except for backups, so they don’t slow down your site.

Lastly, backups are stored for only 30 days on the lower plans. If you want an unlimited backup archive, you will have to pay $4.95 per month per website, which is significantly more expensive for beginners when compared to other solutions listed here.

WPBeginner website still uses VaultPress (an older version of Jetpack) because we got grandfathered in at their older pricing, which was much more favorable.

However, even at the higher price, Jetpack backup is completely worth it due to the stellar reputation of Automattic. This is why we pay for higher priced real-time backup plans for our new sites like All in One SEO because it’s an eCommerce store, and we want maximum protection.

Pricing: From $14.95 per month for a daily backup plan or $59.40 if you pay for a full year in advance.

Review: Jetpack VaultPress Backup is a premium backup service with a premium price point. If you are already using JetPack for other features like JetPack CDN for photos, social media promotion, and Elastic search, then it’s good value to purchase their Complete plan bundle. If you are just after real-time cloud backups for WordPress, then you can also look at BlogVault in our list because they offer more affordable pricing for beginners.

4. BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy is one of the most popular premium WordPress backup plugins used by over half a million WordPress sites. It allows you to easily schedule daily, weekly, and monthly backups.

With BackupBuddy, you can automatically store your backups in cloud storage services like Dropbox, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, FTP, and Stash (their cloud service) and even email it to yourself.

If you use their Stash service, you can also do real-time backups.

The biggest advantage of using BackupBuddy is that it is not a subscription-based service, so there is no monthly fee. You can use the plugin on the number of websites mentioned in your plan.

You also get access to premium support forums, regular updates, and 1GB of BackupBuddy Stash storage to store your backups. In addition, their iThemes Sync feature lets you manage up to 10 WordPress sites from a single dashboard.

You can even use BackupBuddy to duplicate, migrate and restore websites.

Pricing: $99 for Basic Plan (1 Site License).

Review: BackupBuddy is a cost-effective premium WordPress backup solution for you. It has a full set of features you will need to back up, restore, and move a WordPress site. In a nutshell, it’s a powerful UpdraftPlus and VaultPress alternative that you can use.

5. BlogVault

BlogVault Best Backup Service for WordPress

BlogVault is another popular WordPress backup service for WordPress. It’s a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution rather than just a WordPress plugin. It creates offsite backups independently on BlogVault servers, so there will be zero load on your server.

BlogVault creates an automatic backup of your website daily and also allows you to manually create unlimited on-demand backups. It features smart incremental backups that sync only incremental changes for minimal server load. This ensures optimal performance for your WordPress site.

Besides backups, it helps you to recover your website easily. You can store 90 days backup archive on lower plans and a 365-day backup archive on the higher plan, so you can recover your site from any mishap.

It also has a built-in staging site feature to let you test your website easily. Plus, they provide an easy option to migrate your website to another host.

BlogVault features are very promising for small businesses, and their real-time backup plan is affordable compared to Jetpack backups (half the price). However, if you compare it to self-hosted plugins like Updraft or BackupBuddy, the cost per site is more expensive.

Pricing: $89 per year for Personal Plan 1 Site License for daily backups. $299 per year for high frequency daily backups.

Review: BlogVault is an easy-to-use WordPress backup solution. It creates offsite backups, so your website server will not be overloaded with your backups. The pricing seems very affordable for small businesses that want real-time backups but don’t want to pay the premium pricing of Jetpack backups.

6. BoldGrid Backup

BoldGrid Backup offers Total Upkeep, an automated WordPress backup solution by BoldGrid.

It allows you to easily create your website backups, restore your site after it crashes, and even use it to move your site when switching hosts. You can set up automated backups or manually create backups with one click.

Total Upkeep comes with an automated fault protection feature that automatically creates a backup of your site before it updates. If an update fails, it automatically rolls back your WordPress site to the last backup. It’s a great feature that protects you against update errors.

With BoldGrid’s Total Upkeep, you can store backup archives on your dashboard and in remote storage locations like Amazon S3, FTP, or SFTP.

Pricing: $2.50 per month billed annually (Includes all of BoldGrid Premium tools & Services).

Review: BoldGrid Total Upkeep Backup is a simple WordPress backup plugin you can use to create your website backups. If you want to take advantage of their bundle plan, including other powerful tools, then you will need to purchase the BoldGrid Premium Connect Key. This plan also includes the WordPress website builder, costing $60 per year.

7. BackWPup

BackWPup is a free plugin that allows you to create complete WordPress backups for free and store them on the cloud (Dropbox, Amazon S3, Rackspace, etc.), FTP, email, or on your computer.

It is extremely easy to use and allows you to schedule automatic backups according to your site’s update frequency.

Restoring a WordPress site from a backup is also very simple. The BackWPup Pro version comes with priority support, the ability to store backups on Google Drive, and other cool features.

Pricing: Free (Premium plan is also available).

Review: Used by over 700,000 websites, BackWPup is a great alternative to other backup plugins in the list. The premium version of the plugin adds more powerful features, including easy and quick website restoration from the backend with a standalone app.

Which Is the Best WordPress Backup Plugin?

Each WordPress backup plugin in our list has pros and cons, but all plugins offer complete WordPress file backup and full database backup features.

We use Jetpack Backups for two main reasons. It is extremely easy to use, and it offers real-time incremental backups.

This means that instead of backing up all of your files every day or every hour, it only creates a backup of what has been updated literally within minutes of the update. This is ideal for a large website like ours because it allows us to use our server resources efficiently.

However, if you run a small to medium size website and hate paying high monthly fees, we recommend the popular Duplicator plugin. It has powerful features like backup encryption, scheduled backups, and many cloud storage options.

Whichever WordPress backup plugin you choose, please do NOT store your backups on the same server as your website.

By doing that, you are putting all of your eggs in one basket. If your server’s hardware fails or you get hacked, you don’t have a backup. This defeats the purpose of setting up regular backups.

We recommend storing your backups on a third-party storage service like Dropbox, Amazon S3, Google Drive, etc.

We hope this article has helped you pick the best WordPress backup plugin for your site. You may also want to see our step-by-step WordPress security guide for beginners and our comparison of the best email marketing services for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 7 Best WordPress Backup Plugins Compared (Pros and Cons) first appeared on WPBeginner.