A backup in your own possession is what separates a bad afternoon from a rebuild — and in India, cleaning up a compromised WordPress site typically costs ₹20,000–50,000 or more, frequently exceeding what the site cost to build. Most small business owners have never checked whether one exists.
The moment it happens
Does a backup of your website exist anywhere you control? Nobody asks this until the site is broken, hacked, or a developer has become unreachable — the three situations where the answer determines everything.
With a backup and your domain, almost any developer can have you running again quickly. Without either, you’re starting over.
Three places a backup might exist
| Where | How to check | Reliability |
|---|---|---|
| Your hosting account | Look for “Backups” or “JetBackup” in the control panel | Common, often automatic, but tied to the same account — and worthless if the account itself is lost |
| A maintenance plan | Ask your provider where backups are stored and how old the newest is | Usually the best option, if the scope actually includes it |
| Your own device or cloud drive | Do you have a zip file? | The only copy that survives losing the hosting account |
The third row is the one that matters most and is least common. A backup stored only inside the hosting account doesn’t help if the account is suspended, controlled by someone else, or closed.
How to get your own copy
Two routes, depending on your access:
If you have hosting access: most control panels have a backup or “download full backup” option. Generate it, download the file, and store it somewhere you control. On a CMS site, also export the database if that’s offered separately — the files alone aren’t the whole site.
If you don’t have hosting access: ask your developer in one message: “Could you send a full backup of the site — files and database — as a zip?” This is a routine request, easier to make now than during a dispute, and worth doing even if everything is fine.
For a WordPress site, plugins exist that email or upload backups to cloud storage automatically. Worth setting up once if you’re comfortable, or asking for it as part of a plan.
How often, realistically
Depends on how much the site changes:
- A static brochure site: one backup after launch and another after any significant change is usually enough.
- A site you edit monthly: quarterly.
- A store with orders and customer data: daily or weekly, automated, and not stored only on the same server. Order data is not recoverable by rebuilding.
Storage is cheap; keep two or three older copies rather than overwriting one. If a compromise goes unnoticed for weeks, your most recent backup may already contain the problem.
Testing that a backup is real
An untested backup is a hope. Two checks:
- Open the zip and confirm it isn’t empty and contains recognisable folders and files.
- Ask what restoring would involve — your host or developer can tell you in a sentence. If nobody can explain the restore path, the backup isn’t yet a plan.
You don’t need to perform a test restore yourself. Knowing it exists, where it is, and who would restore it is enough.
What to do this week
- Log in to hosting and look for a backup section. Generate and download one.
- If you lack access, request a full backup zip today as records-keeping.
- Store the file somewhere you control — not only on the server.
- If you have a maintenance plan, ask where backups are kept and how old the newest is.
- For a store, confirm order data is backed up separately and frequently.
If you want it done the certain way
We hand over a backup at go-live and tell you where the ongoing ones live — because a site you can’t restore isn’t really yours. If your current setup has no backup, we’ll help you get one whether or not you work with us. WhatsApp us; we reply in about five minutes between 9am and 7pm.
Related reading
- My website is down and I have nobody to call
- You don’t have a single password to your own website
- What website maintenance should actually cover
- The website handover checklist
FAQ
How do I back up my website myself?
If you have hosting access, use the control panel’s backup option to generate and download a full backup, including the database for CMS sites. Store the file somewhere you control rather than only on the server.
How often should a small business website be backed up?
A static site needs a copy after launch and after major changes. A frequently edited site, quarterly. A store handling orders should be backed up daily or weekly and stored off-server, since order data can’t be recreated.
Will a backup protect me if my site is hacked?
A clean, recent backup is usually the fastest recovery route and can substantially reduce cleanup cost — which in India commonly runs ₹20,000–50,000 or more. Keep a few older copies in case a compromise went unnoticed.
