AccessNow Site Replica is a free WordPress plugin that backs up, clones and restores a whole site, even a large one on shared hosting that times out on ordinary backup plugins. Version 1.0.3 changes how a backup is stored: a backup no longer keeps a copy of your site’s folders, so the backup folder never holds runnable copies of your site’s code. Restores also got kinder to the site you restore into.
Download 1.0.3 from the Site Replica page. It is on its way to the WordPress.org plugin directory, the first of our plugins to go there; until it is listed, that page is the place to get it. Site Replica Pro 1.2.2, with the same changes, is out too.
Backups that are not a copy of your site
Until now, a backup kept your files the obvious way: a folder tree that mirrored the site, .php files and all. It was protected from the web, but it was still a second copy of your site’s code sitting on the server, and a misconfigured server is all it takes to make a copy like that dangerous.
From 1.0.3, each file’s contents are stored once, under a name made from their checksum, with no file name and no extension. Script files (PHP, .htaccess and the like) are compressed as well, so nothing in a backup is anything a web server would run or serve as what it was. The real names live only in the backup’s index, and a restore puts every file back under its own name.
There is a bonus: identical files are stored once, and a file that hasn’t changed since the last backup is shared with it rather than stored again. Backups made by earlier versions still restore exactly as before. What the plugin writes, and where has the details.
Restores keep what belongs to the site you restore into
A full restore makes a site match the backup, and it used to do that a little too literally. Two things are now always kept:
- Media that exists only on this site. Images uploaded after the backup was made stay where they are.
- Must-use plugins that exist only on this site. Managed hosts install their own, and a local mail catcher is another, so they are left alone.
Ordinary plugins the backup doesn’t have are still taken out, so the result is a true copy, and the restore plan now lists them by name before you say go. Roll back returns them if you change your mind.
Also in 1.0.3
- Cloud backups no longer stall on strict hosts. On hosting with a very short time limit, a backup to Google Drive or S3 could sit without moving. It now carries on.
- All database access goes through WordPress’s own database layer.
- Help is one click away. The Plugins screen links to the help articles and to support, and every Site Replica screen has a Help tab.
Our first plugin through the WordPress.org review
Site Replica is the first plugin we have submitted to the WordPress.org plugin directory, and most of this release exists because of that. Every plugin in the directory is reviewed by hand by the WordPress Plugins Team before it is listed, and the review is thorough. They install it on a clean site with debugging switched on, read the code, and send back a list of everything that falls short of the guidelines, with the lines it was found on.
Each round has made the plugin better. The first asked for a clean activation with no warnings at all and for backups to be kept inside WordPress’s own folders. The second tightened how every request is checked. The third pointed out that a backup holding a plain copy of a site’s code is a risk in its own right, which is what led to the new storage described above. None of it was busywork: every finding was something a site owner is better off for.
We have also learned a great deal about how to build a plugin that deserves a place in the directory. Every finding now lives in a checklist that each of our plugins goes through before it is released, so the next ones start where Site Replica has got to rather than where it began. AccessNow Image Optimizer and AccessNow Spam Eater are next in line.
So, a sincere thank you to the WordPress Plugins Team. Reviewing plugins is patient, careful work, much of it done by volunteers, and it is a big part of why people can install a plugin from the directory with confidence. The reviews have been clear, fair and genuinely helpful, and we are grateful for the time they have given this one.
Site Replica Pro 1.2.2
Pro has everything above, and backups sent from one site to another are now stored the same way on the receiving site. Update Site Replica on both sites: a site on 1.2.2 and one on an older version can still pull from each other, but not send backups between them. The copies Pro keeps before plugin and theme updates, and restores of only some parts, work with the new storage, and enquiries from AccessNow Projects are now among the tables it suggests keeping when you put a redesign live. Putting a redesign live walks through a send.
Get it
Site Replica is free, and your backups stay on your own server or your own cloud storage: no account and no service in between. Download it, or buy Pro, from the Site Replica page. New to it? Back up a large site is a good place to start, Backing up a 3.4 GB site on hosting that fights you tells the story behind it, and all the help articles are in the help centre.
