Backups on Kinsta

Kinsta creates automatic daily backups for every site and offers several additional backup options on top of that.

How Kinsta backups work

Kinsta creates a full backup of your site automatically every day. Each backup captures:

All WordPress files: theme, plugins, media, and WordPress core.
The WordPress database, all your content, settings, and user data.
Your site's MyKinsta settings, such as redirects, server configuration and the domains added to the site.

How long Kinsta keeps backups depends on your plan: 14, 20 or 30 days. Check your plan details, or ask us, for the exact period on your account.

Types of Kinsta backups

Backup type	How it's created	When to use
Automatic (daily)	Created by Kinsta on a daily schedule	Ongoing protection
Manual backup	Triggered by you or us on demand (up to 5 at a time)	Before major changes
System-generated	Created automatically before certain actions, such as a restore, a push from staging to live, or a plugin or theme update	Automatic safety net
Downloadable backup	A ZIP file of your site's files and database, created on request (once a week)	Keeping your own offline copy
External backup	Sent weekly or monthly to your own cloud storage (Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage)	Off-site copies (paid add-on)
Hourly backup	Every 6 hours or every hour, each kept for 24 hours (paid add-on)	For high-change sites

Viewing your backups

Log in to MyKinsta, go to Sites and open your site.

Go to the Backups page in the site navigation.

View available backups. They're grouped into tabs by type: Daily, Hourly, Manual, System generated, External and Download. Each backup shows the date and time it was taken, in your computer's local time.

Creating a manual backup

Open the Backups page in MyKinsta.

Open the Manual tab and click "Back up now".

Add a short note to identify the backup (e.g. "Before redesign launch").

Click "Create backup". The backup appears in the Manual tab once it's finished.

Kinsta lets you keep up to 5 manual backups at a time. If you already have 5, delete one before creating another.

Restoring a backup

Restoring replaces your current site

A restore will overwrite the current version of your site with the backed-up version. Any changes made since that backup will be lost, including MyKinsta settings such as redirects and domains. If in doubt, contact us before restoring.

A restore puts back the whole backup copy, so anything that happened after it goes with it: the problem, which is the point, and your own work in between, which is the cost. That is why we often try a more targeted fix first, and why we tell you the cutoff date before we restore.

Read this as text

Take an example. A backup is taken two days ago. Yesterday you publish a blog post. Today something goes wrong with the site.

A full restore is not always the first response to that. We often try a more targeted fix first, for smaller problems, like a single deleted page or a broken plugin, that may be all it takes. A restore is the right call when a problem is serious enough to warrant it: an update that broke the site and cannot quickly be undone, content deleted at scale, or a hack.

A restore returns your site to the backup copy, so everything after the backup was taken is undone: today’s problem, which is the reason a restore fixes anything, and yesterday’s blog post, which is what it costs. That post is what you re-add afterwards, and we tell you the cutoff date before we start so you know what there is to re-add.

Open the Backups page in MyKinsta.

Find the backup you want to restore: the one taken before the problem occurred.

Click "Restore to" next to that backup.

Choose where to restore from the dropdown. A backup of your live site can go back to the live environment or to a staging environment (so you can verify before replacing live); a backup taken on a standard staging environment can only be restored to that same staging environment. The staging environment has to exist already; create it first if you don't have one.

Let the restore run. Kinsta automatically creates a system backup of the current state before overwriting, so the restore itself can be undone. While it runs, you can't manage the site in MyKinsta.

Check the site. Open your website in a fresh browser tab and verify everything is working.

Restore to staging first

If you're unsure about a backup, restore it to staging first. Review the result, and only push to live when you're confident it's correct.

Downloading a backup

On Kinsta, downloading works differently from the other backup types: you create a separate downloadable backup. Go to Backups > Download and click Create backup now. When it's ready, Kinsta shows a message in MyKinsta and emails you a download link.

You can create a downloadable backup once a week.
The file stays available to download for 48 hours.
It's a ZIP of your site's files and database only. It doesn't include MyKinsta settings such as redirects.

Common questions

How long are backups kept?

Kinsta retains daily backups for a rolling window of 14, 20 or 30 days, depending on your plan. Kinsta keeps backups taken before plugin and theme updates for a shorter time. Check with us or Kinsta's documentation for your current retention period.

Are staging backups separate from live backups?

Yes. Each environment (Live and each staging environment) has its own backups.

Can I get hourly backups?

Yes, as a paid Kinsta add-on. You can choose backups every 6 hours or every hour, and each one is kept for 24 hours. Your daily backups carry on as normal. Contact us if you need more frequent backups.

What are external backups?

A paid Kinsta add-on that sends a weekly or monthly backup of your files, database or both to your own cloud storage (Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage). Useful if you want an off-site copy you control. These backups can't be restored with one click in MyKinsta; restoring one is a manual job, so ask us.

Learn more

Kinsta Docs: Backupskinsta.com