UpdraftPlus vs WP Vivid

If you need to back up or migrate your WordPress website, several plugins are available to help you. Popular options include UpdraftPlus and WPVivid.

WPVivid is installed on more than 400,000 WordPress websites. Promoted as an all-in-one tool for backups, restoration, migration and staging, it allows you to back up locally or to the cloud. Four different plans are available for WPVivid, along with a basic free version.

UpdraftPlus is installed on more than 3 million WordPress sites, and features an easy-to-use interface. Suitable for backup and restoration, migration, and staging UpdraftPlus also allows you to back up locally or to cloud storage.. It can be run from the WP-CLI interface, which is useful for remote server management.

UpdraftPlus has five premium packages. It also offers a simplified free backup, restore, and migration tool.

Both plugins support backup and restore, migration, cloud storage, scheduling, and staging. Some features are available in the free versions. Others are exclusive to premium subscribers.

Both WPVivid and UpdraftPlus support WordPress Multisite installations. If your sites use this, both plugins are suitable for backing up all sites or individual domains. Note that both plugins offer this as a premium feature.

An interesting feature of UpdraftPlus is support for WP-CLI. The command line interface for WordPress sites makes it simple to manage sites over SSH. This is useful if you need direct access to the webhost. (WPVivid does not offer this.)

Each plugin includes a replacement tool. The main use for this feature is to specify a new domain name for internal linking when migrating sites. The migration wizard supports easy replacement of the domain name throughout the database. This would, for example, ensure internal linking is maintained.

Both tools also feature manual search and replace tools. While protections are in place with both plugins, misuse can cause problems, so they shouldn’t be used on live data. Wider, in-depth database editing should be limited to a dedicated SQL interface, such as phpMyAdmin.

Also, both WPVivid and UpdraftPlus include a reporting feature. This can be automatically sent over email to provide status information for each backup procedure. Any issues concerning a backup can be dropped straight into your inbox with this feature. Both tools also create logs that you can view within WordPress, however.

Both backup tools rely on the traditional tabbed interface for WordPress plugins. I find this preferable to the icon-driven interfaces that some plugins use. Clearly labelled, tabbed menus make using these plugins almost equally efficient.

In UpdraftPlus, the basic backup and restore controls are clearly marked. Scheduling can be managed from the ‘Settings’ tab. Backups can be started with the ‘Backup Now’ button under the ‘Backup / Restore’ tab.

From there, select the database, and which files to backup. (Themes, Plugins, Uploads plus any other directories inside wp-content).

The restore feature is similarly straightforward. Each completed backup has a Restore option, which can restore any or all the folders in that backup. An output log is generated on screen when restoring backups in UpdraftPlus.

WPVivid does not offer individual file selection for free users. Three options are available:

• Database + Files (WordPress Files)
• WordPress Files (Exclude Database)
• Only Database

Choose the premium version if you need custom folder selection. A single click of the Backup Now button creates a backup that can be restored from the same screen.

Scheduling in WPVivid is via the Schedule tab. You can set 12 hour, daily, weekly, fortnightly, and monthly schedule options. Custom schedules are available with the premium option (as with UpdraftPlus).

Both tools offer the ability to save backups to cloud locations.

Making backups with both plugins are easy to create and restore, and scheduling is functional. Although paid options enhance the core functionality, you’re unlikely to feel either plugin “doesn’t work.” Paywalled features enhance both tools.

To assess the two plugins, I ran each on its own test site, aiming to compare speed and reliability. Two manual tests were performed for speed when making backups, and performing restores. The backups were as close to like-for-like as possible, with the same WordPress directories and databases selected.

These were run for storing on localhost (the web server) and a cloud drive. For the cloud drive, I selected the most popular free cloud storage, Google Drive.

Complete site backups (database and WordPress files) were created. In both tests, data was backed up to the host server rather than a cloud drive.

• Using UpdraftPlus, a 122.6 MB backup was created in 122.55 seconds.
• Running WPVivid on the same site, a 111.98 MB backup was made in 104.74 seconds.

I also tested the speed of creating a backup and storing it on a cloud drive.

• Using UpdraftPlus, a 122.6 MB backup to Google Drive was generated in 118.87 seconds.
• On WPVivid the 111.98 MB backup was created and uploaded to Google Drive in 100.70 seconds.

In both cases the cloud backup file was created more quickly than a localhost backup.

To test the restore speed of each plugin, I restored data from both localhost and from the cloud drive.

• UpdraftPlus restored the backup from localhost in 41.06 seconds and from Google Drive in 51.22 seconds
• Restoring the WPVivid backup from localhost took 78.44 seconds. Restoring from Google Drive took 133.45 seconds.

Restoring with both tools is straightforward. You simply select the desired backup and click the restore button. UpdraftPlus lets you choose the data type to restore in both free and premium versions. WPVivid only offers this feature in the paid version.

(Restoring the UpdraftPlus backup file from Google Drive initially took a while. On the first occasion, the restore job failed, due to a previous restore task. But the plugin presented a solution. After clicking the Delete Old Folders button, I retried the cloud restore task.)

Note that the figures demonstrated are for a comparatively modest WordPress setup. Larger sites will require more time and the resulting backups will be larger. Also, making a backup or restoring data results in a site being unreachable. This isn’t useful during busy periods, and can put potential readers or customers off.

This is why having scheduling tools is so important as they let you specify quiet periods for backups. Similarly, incremental backups can reduce the time a backup takes.

Both tools offer variations on straightforward backup and restore tasks.

Staging refers to running a test version of your site, upon which you might trial new themes, plugins, or content types. It might even be a pre-launch site.

Migration, meanwhile, is when you move your site from one server to another. This might be from a local test server to a live web-facing server. Or it might occur when switching web hosts.

Unlike WPVivid, UpdraftPlus doesn’t support localhost staging. Instead, it provides UpdraftClone, where your site is cloned and hosted on the UpdraftPlus servers. Tokens are required for this, which can be purchased from UpdraftPlus. This isn’t a premium-only feature, so free users can also buy tokens. If you’re not technically minded, setting up a staging site isn’t too difficult. UpdraftClone makes it very simple to do, saving time and effort and avoiding any potential confusion on your server.

The UpdraftPlus migration feature relies on a secure, encrypted key. This establishes a relationship between the source and destination sites. Once this link is created, a backup can be sent to the new site and restored. This works intuitively, and avoids messing around with FTP and other outdated migration methods.

You can create a staging site on your web host using WPVivid. The Staging view lets you configure a clone of your site as a subdomain or within a subfolder in wp-content. It also lets you create a fresh install in either location, if required.

Migrating with WPVivid is also performed using an encryption key. This creates a secure link between the sites. Only the database and WordPress site files (together or individually) can be migrated with the free option.

Pricing for UpdraftPlus and WPVivid is quite different. In each case, WPVivid is the cheaper of the two. While they both offer free options, the full set of features is available with the premium plans.

These are priced annually and are distinguished by the number of sites/domains. The prices also differ – UpdraftPlus has more features and restores backups faster.

UpdraftPlus’s Personal option is similar to the WPVivid Blogger package, with both supporting two sites/domains. UpdraftPlus is $84 a year, versus WPVivid’s $39.20.

The UpdraftPlus Business package is $114 a year for 10 sites/domains. This is more expensive than WPVivid’s Freelancer option for $55.20.

For $174 a year, the UpdraftPlus Agency option is for up to 35 sites, compared with WPVivid’s $79.20 package for 50 domains. Finally, both offer unlimited domain support. It is $234 a year for UpdraftPlus’s Enterprise option and $119.20 for WPVivid’s Unlimited package.

(UpdraftPlus also offers a $478/year Gold package. This includes 50GB of integrated storage via UpdraftVault, tokens for spinning up staging sites and unlimited access to UpdraftCentral for managing sites centrally.  WPVivid does not offer an equivalent.)

If you run into trouble with a plugin, it’s great to have a support resource, especially for a premium product. The easiest option for a quick answer to a known issue is to check the WordPress forums for UpdraftPlus and WPVivid. (New issues may have slow response times as the WordPress forums are community-based.)

On the UpdraftPlus support portal, the main resources are an FAQ and a YouTube channel. The support forum on the UpdraftPlus website is also a useful resource. The premium subscription lets you post questions and raise support tickets.

For WPVivid users, support options are narrower. Ticket-based support requests require the premium version. There is also a searchable knowledge base of support documents.

Neither WordPress backup and restore solution offers live chat support.

At first glance, WPVivid’s lower price might seem attractive. It has some other advantages, but unfortunately WPVivid’s support options are less comprehensive than that of UpdraftPlus. This is in line with the lower price.

UpdraftPlus is just that bit better at making and restoring backups. It also offers a smarter migration tool, with self-hosted and UpdraftPlus-hosted staging options. While both solutions are capable tools, UpdraftPlus offers a better experience. It’s simpler, and enables you to open the plugin and make or restore a backup quickly.

When it comes to backup and restore tools, that’s really what you need.