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Updated October 21, 2026. Features and prices checked against TeamUpdraft’s published documentation. Prices are in U.S. dollars and can change.
UpdraftPlus Free can handle scheduled WordPress backups and restores. It can also migrate a site through a backup-and-restore process. A paid licence is no longer a requirement for that basic move.
Premium becomes more useful when you need greater control over backups or want to reduce the work involved in managing several websites. The decision comes down to the jobs you need it to do and the cost of doing them yourself.
A longer feature list is easy to admire. The useful question is whether those features solve a problem you actually have.
What does UpdraftPlus Free already cover?
The free WordPress plugin can back up your database and WordPress files, either manually or on a schedule. It can send backups to supported remote storage services, including Google Drive and Dropbox, and restore the components you choose.
That gives a small site a practical starting point. A backup stored away from your web server gives you another route to your data during a hosting problem. Check that the remote copy actually arrives, rather than treating a completed setup screen as proof that everything is working.
Free also supports migration by downloading a backup from the source website and restoring it at the destination. Premium adds a more direct site-to-site migration workflow. That difference matters when comparing convenience, but it should not be presented as the difference between being able to migrate and being unable to migrate.
UpdraftPlus Free vs Premium at a glance
This is a short list of the differences most likely to affect a site owner’s decision. TeamUpdraft maintains the full feature comparison.
| Feature | Free | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Manual and scheduled backups | Included | Included |
| Restore a backup | Included | Included |
| Migration through backup and restore | Included | Included |
| Direct site-to-site migration | Not included | Included |
| Choose a specific backup time | Not included | Included |
| Automatic backups before updates | Not included | Included |
| Incremental file backups | Not included | Included |
| Multiple remote backup destinations | Not included | Included |
| Database encryption and premium support | Not included | Included |
Both versions can schedule backups. Premium’s extra control includes selecting a particular time, which can help you arrange backups around the periods when your site is busiest.
Where Premium can earn its keep
For someone managing several websites, automatic backups before updates can remove a repetitive manual step. They also give you a recovery point close to the change you are about to make. That is useful when an update causes trouble and yesterday’s backup leaves too much work to recreate.
Incremental file backups save changes since an earlier backup instead of copying every unchanged file again. A site with a large media library may benefit from the reduced transfer work and storage use.
There is an important limit: UpdraftPlus says its incremental backups do not back up the database. Your database still needs its own appropriate backup schedule. For a shop, the latest order information matters even during a week when the site’s images barely change.
Other reasons to consider Premium include a required storage destination that Free does not support, or a need to send backups to several destinations. Start with a specific requirement and match it to the feature. Website traffic alone is not a reason to upgrade.
What does UpdraftPlus Premium cost?
At the time of this update, TeamUpdraft lists these annual prices on its Premium pricing page:
- Personal: $70 per year for up to two sites.
- Business: $95 per year for up to ten sites.
- Agency: $145 per year for up to 35 sites.
- Enterprise: $195 per year for unlimited sites.
The listed plans include a year of premium updates and support, with 1GB of UpdraftVault storage. That storage allowance deserves attention: a licence for several websites does not mean their combined backups will fit into 1GB. Check how much space your retained backups need, along with the cost of your chosen storage.
The Personal plan works out at about $5.83 per month when its annual cost is divided by twelve. That is a budgeting comparison; the listed charge is annual. Confirm the final price and subscription terms before purchase.
Check recovery before relying on either version
A backup is useful only when it contains what you need and you can restore it. The first task is to check the files and database included in your backup, then confirm that the remote storage connection works.
Next, practice restoration on a staging site or another safe test installation. Avoid experimenting with a restore on your live site just to see what happens. Restoring an older database can also remove changes made since that backup, including newer orders.
Choose the schedule around how much work your business could afford to recreate. A brochure site that changes twice a month has different recovery needs from a store taking orders throughout the day. Premium’s added controls still require that decision from you.
Backup duration also varies with the amount of data and the resources available on your hosting account. A slow backup is a reason to examine the job and its logs. Buying a licence does not create extra capacity on your server.
Is Premium worth it for your website?
I would start with Free for a small site whose needs fit its scheduled backups and supported remote storage. Spend time setting it up properly, then check that you can recover the site. An unused premium feature cannot rescue a backup you never configured.
Premium is easier to justify for a site owner who needs automatic pre-update backups, or for someone whose file backups repeatedly copy a large volume of unchanged data. Managing several client sites can also make its extra controls worthwhile.
Compare the annual cost with the time a specific feature would save and the recovery gap it would close. That gives you a reason to pay. The word “Premium” on the label does not.
David Peluchette is a Premium Ghostwriter/WordPress, SaaS, Tech and Travel Enthusiast. When David isn’t writing he enjoys traveling, learning new languages, fitness, hiking and going on long walks (did the 550 mile Camino de Santiago, not once but twice!), cooking, eating, reading, SEO Voodoo and building niche websites with WordPress.
