BD Backup vs UpdraftPlus: a smaller alternative to the most-installed backup plugin

UpdraftPlus is the most-installed WordPress backup plugin with deep cloud-storage integrations and a paid clone/migrate workflow. BD Backup is a newer, smaller plugin focused on the basics: full-site and database backups, scheduling, and chunked AJAX so backups don't time out on cheap hosts. This page is honest about that gap.

Pick BD Backup if…

Pick BD if you want a no-bloat backup plugin bundled with the rest of BD, and you can store backups locally or pull them via SFTP.

Pick UpdraftPlus if…

Pick UpdraftPlus if you need direct integration with Google Drive, S3, Dropbox, OneDrive, or any of a dozen other remote storage targets out of the box.

Switching from UpdraftPlus?

Expect simpler scheduling, simpler restore, fewer storage targets — and to handle remote offsite backups via your host's tooling or a separate sync (rclone/SFTP).

Feature comparison

FeatureBD BackupUpdraftPlus
Full-site backup (files + DB)Yes u2014 single PclZip archiveYes u2014 separate archives for plugins/themes/uploads/DB
Database-only backupYesYes
Scheduled backupsYes u2014 daily/weekly/monthly via WP-CronYes u2014 same
Chunked AJAX (no timeouts on cheap hosts)Yes u2014 designed around itYes u2014 has a 'split archives' option for shared hosting
Remote storage: S3 sourcePlanned u2014 not in v1.0.0Yes (Premium)
Remote storage: Google Drive sourcePlannedYes (free)
Remote storage: DropboxPlannedYes (free)
Remote storage: SFTP / FTPPlannedYes (Premium)
One-click restoreYes u2014 from local backup fileYes u2014 including from any configured remote
Migrate / clone to another site sourceManual via download + restoreYes (Premium) u2014 UpdraftClone / Migrator
Incremental backupsNoYes (Premium)
Encryption at restNo (uses host's filesystem)Yes (Premium) u2014 DB encryption
Public install base sourceSmall u2014 early product3M+ active installs

Pricing — 3-site agency, annual

PlanBD BackupUpdraftPlus
Starter / 1-2 sites$49/yr$70/yr (2 sites)
Professional / 3-10 sites$99/yr$145/yr (10 sites)
Agency / unlimited$199/yr$195/yr (unlimited)

When to pick which

Pick UpdraftPlus if your backup workflow depends on direct uploads to Google Drive, S3, Dropbox, OneDrive, Azure, Backblaze, or any of the other remote targets they support natively. That ecosystem is genuinely the strongest in the WordPress space, and UpdraftPlus's free tier alone — with Drive and Dropbox support — is hard to beat. UpdraftClone is also a very good migration tool if you regularly move sites between hosts.

Pick BD Backup if your backup strategy is "store on the server, pull off-site via cron + rclone or your host's snapshotting" — which describes most agencies and self-hosted operators. BD ships chunked AJAX so 2GB sites finish on $5/mo shared hosting without timing out, the archive is a single zip you can grab over SFTP, and it doesn't add a settings page with a dozen cloud-provider OAuth dances you'll never use. At $99 for 3 sites vs UpdraftPlus's $145 for 10, BD is cheaper at the small-portfolio tier and slightly more expensive at unlimited.

Honest call: UpdraftPlus's remote-storage integration is what you're paying for, and BD doesn't have it yet. If you want push-to-cloud built into the plugin, UpdraftPlus is the right answer today. If you want a quiet, dependable local backup as part of a BD bundle, this is fine.

Migrate from UpdraftPlus to BD Backup

1. In UpdraftPlus, run a final backup of all components and download the archives locally.
2. Confirm at least one full restore point exists on whatever remote storage you've been using.
3. Install BD Backup, activate the license, and run a manual full backup to verify it completes on your server.
4. Set BD's schedule (daily DB, weekly full is a sensible default) and retention count.
5. Set up your off-site sync separately — `rclone` to S3/B2 from cron is 5 lines and runs nightly.
6. Let both plugins run in parallel for one full backup cycle to confirm BD's archives restore cleanly on a staging site.
7. Deactivate UpdraftPlus once you've successfully test-restored from a BD backup.

FAQ

Does BD Backup support remote storage?

Not in v1.0.0. Backups go to wp-content/uploads/backups-bdbk/. Remote storage (S3, Google Drive, SFTP) is on the roadmap but not shipped. If you need remote-out-of-the-box today, UpdraftPlus is the right choice.

Why use PclZip instead of ZipArchive?

Because not every WordPress host has the ZipArchive PHP extension available. PclZip is a pure-PHP fallback that works everywhere. It's slower, but it doesn't break.

Will BD's chunked AJAX work on my cheap shared host?

That's the design target. Backups proceed in browser-driven chunks of files so each request stays under the host's max execution time. It's slower than CLI but it actually finishes.

Can I restore an UpdraftPlus backup with BD?

No. The archive structures are different. Restore via UpdraftPlus first, then take a fresh BD backup.

What about incremental backups?

BD doesn't do them. Each scheduled run is a full backup. UpdraftPlus Premium does, and that's a real advantage on large sites where full backups are expensive.

Try BD Backup → Or grab a bundle

# BD Backup vs UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus has been the default WordPress backup plugin for over a decade and runs on more than three million sites. The free version alone supports Google Drive and Dropbox out of the box, the Premium add-on supports basically every cloud storage provider that exists, and UpdraftClone is a genuinely good site-migration tool. None of this is in dispute.

BD Backup is smaller and newer. It does full-site backups (files + database in one PclZip archive), database-only backups, scheduling via WP-Cron, and chunked AJAX so backups don’t hit `max_execution_time` on shared hosting. That’s the v1.0.0 feature surface — there is no remote-storage integration shipped yet, no incremental backups, no migration tool, no encryption at rest.

The architectural choice that defines BD Backup is using PclZip instead of ZipArchive. ZipArchive is a PHP extension that’s faster but isn’t installed everywhere — and on the kind of cheap LiteSpeed/cPanel hosts that BD’s customer base actually uses, it’s missing more often than people realize. PclZip is pure PHP, slower, but it works on any host that can run WordPress at all. It’s a deliberate trade for reliability over speed.

UpdraftPlus’s headline advantage is the remote-storage matrix. If you want backups pushed nightly to S3, Backblaze, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Azure, or SFTP, UpdraftPlus does that in the plugin with OAuth flows for each. BD doesn’t, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. The workaround is to back up locally with BD and sync `wp-content/uploads/backups-bdbk/` off-site via rclone or your host’s snapshot tooling — which is what many agencies do anyway, but it does mean leaving the WordPress admin UI to set up.

Where BD makes sense: you’re already running BD plugins (Security Firewall, Auto Blog, Speed Optimizer) and want one license dashboard, you don’t trust a third-party plugin with OAuth tokens to your cloud storage, or you’ve been burned by UpdraftPlus’s free tier nagging you to upgrade and want a simpler tool. The pricing is also notably tighter at 3 sites ($99 vs $145), though UpdraftPlus’s unlimited tier ($195) is competitive with BD’s ($199).

Where UpdraftPlus makes more sense: anyone who needs push-to-cloud as part of the plugin, anyone migrating sites between hosts regularly (UpdraftClone is worth the price by itself), and anyone with a backup history they don’t want to break by switching tools. We’re not going to argue you out of using a tool with three million installs and a decade of restore-test history if that’s what you have today — we’d rather you stayed on it than switched and regretted it.