Solid Backups — NextGen Frequently Asked Questions

Are you a current Solid Backups (or BackupBuddy) customer? Do you have Solid Suite or any package that includes backups? You might have questions. We have answers!

Maybe you have general questions about Solid Backups — NextGen. If so, read on. Please contact us directly if you need additional help.

Current Customers

Although it is a new product, SolidWP granted access to Solid Backups — NextGen to existing Solid Backups, BackupBuddy, and Solid Suite subscribers as a “thank you” for being a loyal customer. Current users can seamlessly transition to using the new system without any disruption to their existing subscription.

Existing Solid Backups and BackupBuddy subscribers will have access to both as long as they continue to renew. We’ve included generous amounts of storage to accompany existing subscriptions, so we do recommend that users transition to the new system as soon as possible.

You can use both simultaneously. You will find that the Solid Backups — NextGen experience is far superior to Solid Backups (formerly BackupBuddy). Please note that we will be providing ongoing support for Solid Backups but we will not be developing new features or enhancements for Solid Backups at this time.

Lifetime Users: Customers who previously purchased a lifetime deal for BackupBuddy will soon have access to the all-new Solid Backups — NextGen. The number of sites and amount of cloud storage available to you will match the number of sites and amount of Stash storage included in your original purchase.

Unlimited License Users: Unlimited License Users will have unlimited sites in Solid Backups — NextGen, just as they currently have unlimited sites with Solid Backups (formerlyBackupBuddy). Depending on the number of sites managed, there may appear to be a 500-site limitation in Solid Central. To connect more sites, please reach out to Account Services.

Solid Backups / Backup Buddy: If you’re a current customer of Solid Backups (formerly BackupBuddy), you now have access to Solid Backups — NextGen plan as part of your subscription. You’ll be able to back up an equivalent number of sites, and we’ve included a generous amount of cloud storage. You’ll continue to have access to your existing Solid Backups software as before.

Solid Suite: Solid Backups — NextGen is now included in the Solid Suite. Existing subscribers of the Suite now have access alongside their existing Solid Backups licenses, and can back up an equivalent number of sites. A generous quantity of storage is also included.

While we believe that cloud-native backups are the optimal, modern solution, we currently plan to continue to support Solid Backups for the foreseeable future. When and if we decide to stop supporting the product you are currently using you can count on two things: Substantial advanced notice and white-glove, hands-on support.

Any current customer who has an active subscription that includes BackupBuddy or Solid Backups will receive Solid Backups — NextGen at no additional charge.

If you have a current Stash plan, we encourage you to use it for the foreseeable future. We recommend that users also set up Solid Backups — NextGen to experience its advantages.

Several reasons, many of which revolve around the fundamental differences between PHP-based and cloud-first approaches to backups.

  • Improved Performance: Users transitioning from a plugin-based backups solution to a cloud-first solution like Solid Backups — NextGen are likely to see performance improvements. This is because all the horsepower to initiate and execute the backup comes from SolidWP servers. You aren’t taxing the resources of the hosting server which is inefficient and, like any plugin-based backup, could affect your site’s performance.
  • Improved Reliability: Plugin-based backup systems occasionally present reliability issues in certain circumstances. One example is the conflict between increased website traffic, when the server is busy serving visitors, and scheduled tasks like backups. In this scenario, backups can be delayed and/or missed entirely.
  • Ease of Use: Often managed hosting providers back up their customers’ sites, but users find it difficult to access those backups easily and quickly when they need to find something. The process of downloading a backup from some hosts ranges from clunky to hair-raisingly difficult.

There’s more, of course. We’re also offering a centralized management dashboard, automatic versioning, and daily incremental backups for rocket-fast backups. Watch our explainer video or visit our comparison chart for more.

Additional Questions

Solid Backups — NextGen does what you actually need it to do. Your managed host may not.

The way most managed hosts implement backups is slow, cumbersome, and simply doesn’t handle backups the way you actually want to use them. Let’s say something happens: you’re hacked. You want to restore to a point prior to the incident. Choosing which restore point you wish to restore to is often difficult, and it can be a pain to find what you’re looking for.

Solid Backups — NextGen lets you select the restore point in the helpful context of a timeline of site activity. From there, you can either restore it or download a zip to a local machine, giving you exactly what you need.

You don’t have to replace the solution you currently have.

You can take the “belt and suspenders” approach, maintaining your existing backup system- and this all-new cloud-based backup solution. But once you use Solid Backups — NextGen, you will like the way we do it better. NextGen is faster and easier to use.

Cloud-first means that we are initiating the backup from SolidWP’s cloud servers, using cloud resources to operate the backup, and then storing the backup in the cloud. The fact that all of the horsepower comes from our side means we are not taxing the resources of the hosting server resulting in a performance gain.

This is completely different from how BackupBuddy/Solid Backups and other plugin-based backup solutions work. With those products, a plugin uses your hosting server’s resources to initiate and schedule your backups. They also require the site to function in order to run, which consumes the same resources your sites need in order to perform well. The backups dramatically increase the disk storage a site requires. Moving plugin-based backups to “offsite” storage requires connecting to 3rd-party cloud providers or downloading backup files and managing them manually, which leads to a mess.

Using a cloud-native, server-driven approach simplifies the entire process for site admins. It allows sites to be reliably backed up and for backups to be placed in the context of a timeline of activity related to your sites in Solid Central, which provides a simple place to handle all the critical management and maintenance tasks associated with keeping your sites up and running.

When a site is enrolled in Solid Backups — NextGen for the first time, the system will perform a complete backup, including the entire database and all the files. Each subsequent daily backup will include the entire database as well. For the site’s files, however, Backups — NextGen will perform incremental backups, capturing only the files that have been changed or added. This will occur under the hood (largely invisible to the user) but is what contributes greatly to the performance of Backups — NextGen. When a user wishes to restore (or download a ZIP) from a particular point in time, the concept of “incremental” vs. “complete” won’t really be a factor. The entire site (files & database) will be included. But the work that was done to create that backup will have made use of incremental backup methodologies (at least as far as the files are concerned) along the way.

Versioning is what makes Solid Backups — NextGen fast. After the initial backup, the database and only the files that have changed or been added are captured in subsequent backups. This is a significant improvement over Solid Backups and BackupBuddy which implemented a full backup each time.

Solid Backups — NextGen requires SSH (Secure Shell) or SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) access because these methods provide secure access directly to your hosting server, ensuring that the software can back up from and restore to your server safely without exposing it to possible vulnerabilities from insecure methods or protocols, and without requiring that your site is even functional

SSH and SFTP methods also efficiently handle the transfer of large backups and restores, and offer the flexibility to automate the backup and restore process.

To add more storage to your account and for storage pricing, contact Account Services.

Solid Backups — NextGen has been tested on the following hosts:

  • Bluehost
  • NameCheap
  • Siteground Shared
  • Hostinger
  • Nexcess
  • LW VPS with cPanel
  • LW VPS with InterWorx
  • Dreamhost
  • GoDaddy Managed
  • GoDaddy Shared
  • SpinupWP (via DigitalOcean)
  • WPX (litespeed server)
  • Generic VPS (Ubuntu/nginx)
  • A2 Hosting
  • Kinsta
  • IONOS
  • MochaHost
  • LearnDash Cloud

There are several hosts we currently do not support. In most cases, this is due to the fact that the host either blocks traffic or they don’t have an SSH option.

Pressable – Currently Not Supported
LoopedIn Link

WP Engine/Flywheel – Currently Not Supported
LoopedIn Link

Pantheon – Currently Not Supported
LoopedIn Link

WPX ( LiteSpeed server) – Unable to Support

No need! This system eliminates the very concept of remote destinations, a fundamental selling point of the “old system.” With Solid Backups — NextGen, you don’t need a Dropbox – or any other remote destination account – at all. Everything is backed up to SolidWP servers.

However, if you choose to use a remote destination, you will have the ability to download a zip and upload it elsewhere.

To request that third-party storage providers be integrated into Backups — NextGen in the future, add your vote and a comment to this feedback item.

We have big plans for Solid Backups — NextGen. We’ve planned some enhancements to the ActivityTimeline, which will make it even more useful and valuable . Other items under consideration include more up-to-the-minute database backups, tools to migrate sites, and support for multiple environments (staging, development, etc). Is there something you’d like us to consider? We’d love to hear from you. Submit feedback and ideas here.