Three times is a charm, so they say, but for one of the two popular plugins there won't be a third time.
This time I moved my sites to a different panel. Little did I know that it would be as or even more painful than moving to a different server. I typically use Duplicator pro to backup my websites but after reading a ton of very positive reviews pro BackupBuddy and vs Duplicator Pro, I got Backup Buddy to make sure I can hop on a new panel (and also a bigger server) easily in two hours.
I had a bad experience once with a plugin called "BackupBuddy" but it wasn't from iThemes and I assumed it was a different one.
I migrated 4 sites. Two super little ones (including this here) and two very complicated sites.
The first mini site is this (it happened today, please don't mind the design, I moved today and you'll learn why it looks like that.)
Aurorasa Entertainment
As you can see, there's really nothing on it. A few posts, that's it. This site is empty too - no pop-ups, shop, tracking or anything complicated.
The other two sites...
My main site has slowly grown over the course of 3 years to a 1.4 GB monster. It features all sorts of complicated things. For instance, a support system, booking system, webinar software, auto-responders, pop-ups, landing pages, interactive content, nightmarish GDPR system, and whatnot. The database has problems since 2016. I couldn't expect a perfect migration with this site:
Quick Review of BackupBuddy and Duplicator Pro
My membership site is relatively new. Not much content there yet. It I can't show it right now.. (check back tomorrow.) Aurorasa Tribe
My file transfer is nearly ready so I'll be quick:
BackupBuddy vs Duplicator - what is better?
Because I read so many raving reviews about BackupBuddy and I didn't have much time, I only used BackupBuddy in the last few days before I moved.
Only of my most important site, I also took a Duplicator backup (the 1.4 GB complicated monster with database errors.)
BackupBuddy was not able to restore as much as a single site. No matter with which setting. I could restore most content of this little site and this mini-site because I exported my posts "just in case."
The Membership site it couldn't even extract. After 2 seconds, it turned into "error 500" (yes, plugin, there are configuration files in a site backup which is why I bought your expertise.) It was somehow able to turn the mini-site with a few posts and a few pictures into .... well, every single link (not only link,
BackupBuddy Result
- BrainDiamonds.com was not restored and could not even be extracted
- Aurorasa.com has been "restored" but every click on any part of the site forced a download
- SOB (this site) has been "restored." The front page was the white screen of death and all posts were "error 404."
Duplicator Pro Result
- Monster page of 1.4 GB with data base errors has fully been restored in minutes. The only thing that's missing is a picture from (how ironic) my "error 404" page. (HINT: There's a free brainwave entrainment session on my Error 404.)
- Restored (sadly a too
old backup and I had changed LMS since) Membership site with an easy to fix redirect error. Duplicator also told me what to do to get rid of it.
Well, what can I say. I'll post my "final verdict" when I am not irritated anymore. BackupBuddy did less for me than the simple, free WordPress export.
Perhaps, what you need when it's about your precious content is not a "buddy" but a pro.
