Matching frequency to what you can afford to lose.
THE QUESTION TO ASK
If you lost everything since the last backup, how much work would that be to recreate, and how much would it cost?
That answer sets your frequency.
TYPICAL ANSWERS
- A brochure site that changes monthly: weekly is generous
- A blog publishing weekly: weekly files, weekly database
- A busy blog or news site: daily database
- A shop taking orders: daily database at minimum, more often if order volume is high
- A membership or booking site: daily, since registrations and bookings cannot be recreated
FILES VERSUS DATABASE
Files change rarely on most sites. The database changes constantly.
Backing up the database daily and files weekly is a reasonable arrangement for most sites, and reduces storage considerably.
BEFORE ANY CHANGE
Always. Before an update, a migration, a plugin installation, or anything you might need to undo.
This is separate from your schedule and takes two minutes.
THE PRACTICAL MINIMUM
Weekly automatic backups stored off the server, plus a manual one before every significant change.
