Take a Backup Yourself, Before You Change Something
Last updated September 6, 2026
A manual backup is your own copy, taken the moment you ask for it. Nightly backups roll over: the oldest goes when a new one arrives. So the copy you want is the one you take deliberately, just before you do something. It stays until you replace it.
- Taken
- When you press the button
- Kept in
- Your own space on the server
- Costs you
- Disk from your plan allowance
- Downloadable
- Yes, one file
When It Is Worth Taking One
- Before a big plugin or theme update, or a WordPress major version.
- Before you let somebody else into the site.
- Before a migration, a redesign, or anything you would hate to redo.
- When the site is in a state you want to be able to get back to weeks from now, long after the nightly copies of today have rolled away.
How to Take One
-
Open the website’s backups
In the panel, choose Backups and open the website. Its copies are grouped into Automatic, Manual and Backup before change.
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Press Back up now
It is on the Manual group’s header, and it is the only button on that screen that copies anything.
Back up now sits on the Manual group, beside the amount of disk your own copies are using. -
Read what it says about your oldest copy
Your plan allows a certain number of your own backups per website. If you are already at that number, taking another removes the oldest, and the panel names which one, when it was taken and how big it is, before you commit rather than afterwards.
If a new copy would push out an old one, the panel says which one first. If you still need the copy it is about to remove, restore it or download it first.
What It Costs
Disk. A manual backup is kept in your own space on the server, so a copy of a 900 MB site is 900 MB out of your plan’s storage allowance, and it counts toward your quota like anything else. The Manual group’s header shows the running total.
This is the trade against the nightly copies, which are free but not downloadable and not permanent. If disk is tight, take a manual backup, download it, and delete the copy on the server. You keep the backup and give the space back.
Downloading It
Download on the backup’s row gives you a single file. That file is not just an archive to store: hand it to Quick Migrate in the panel and it rebuilds the site here from it. Keep it wherever you keep things; it is yours.
Downloads are rate-limited to the transfer speed your plan allows, so a large one takes a while. That is deliberate: an unthrottled download from one account is a slow website for everybody else on the node.
Restoring or Deleting One
Each copy’s row carries Restore, Download and Delete. Restoring replaces the site’s files and database with that copy, asks you to type the domain first, and takes a copy of the site as it is right now before it starts, so a restore is itself undoable.
Deleting a copy frees its disk immediately. Nightly copies have no Delete button. They are not using your space, and they are what a deleted website is rebuilt from.
Questions
How many manual backups can I keep?
It depends on your plan, and the panel prints the number under How backups work. Taking one past the limit removes the oldest, and you are told which before it happens.
Does a manual backup count toward my disk quota?
Yes. It is in your own space. Download it and delete the server copy if you need the room.
Will taking one slow down my site?
Not noticeably. It is a file copy and a database dump; the site keeps serving throughout.
Can I restore a downloaded backup to a different host?
It is a standard archive of your files and a database dump, so the contents are portable. The fast path is Quick Migrate here, though, which reads the file back directly.
I need a backup and my disk is full.
Delete an old manual copy first, or rely on the nightly ones, which use none of your disk. Open a ticket if you are stuck; we can see the real numbers.