Every plan includes backups, whose frequency is stated on the order page. They are kept on infrastructure separate from the one serving your site. This guide explains what they cover, what they do not replace, and how to request a restoration that actually helps.
What they cover
| Backed up | Not backed up |
|---|---|
| Your site's files | Anything hosted elsewhere than with us |
| Your MySQL databases | The external services your site calls upon |
| The contents of your mailboxes | Messages already downloaded and then deleted from the server |
What they do not replace
A host's backup is a continuity measure, not a guarantee of absolute integrity. It protects you from a hardware failure. It protects you poorly from a mistake you only notice a month later, and it does not protect you at all from an account someone else has taken control of.
Keep your own copies. It is written in our terms of service because it is true, not to shield us: a serious site always has at least one copy away from its host.
The three-copy rule
An old rule, and it has not aged.
| How many | Where | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Three copies of the data | — | Two simultaneous losses are rare; three are far rarer |
| On two different media | Server and local disk, for example | One medium does not fail for the same reason as another |
| Of which one away from the main location | At your place, or on another service | An incident must not take the original and the copy together |
Making your own copy
Two elements are enough, and you need both:
- The site's files, retrieved through the transfer access supplied with your hosting — its credentials are in the activation email.
- The database, exported from the database tool of your hosting interface.
A copy of the files without the database restores only a shell: the content lives in the database.
Checking that a backup is usable
A backup never restored is a hypothesis, not a backup. Get into the habit of restoring one now and then to a test environment, or at least of opening the database export to check that it is not empty.
Before a risky operation
A major update, a theme change, the installation of an unknown extension: take a copy before, not after. That is when it costs the least and serves the most.
Requesting a restoration
Open a ticket stating:
- the domain concerned;
- the date on which the site still worked — the more precise it is, the faster and safer the restoration;
- what needs restoring: the files, the database, or both.
A restoration replaces the current state. Everything added since the requested date — orders, comments, articles, messages — disappears with it. Tell us if the site kept living in the meantime: there are ways to restore only a part.
Data after a cancellation
Hosted content is deleted at the end of the retention period that follows cancellation. Retrieve your data before leaving — see Canceling your subscription.