What Is FTP Backup and How Does It Differ from a Regular Backup?
Why You Might Need Remote Backup Storage
A failed update, a plugin malfunction, hosting issues, or a website hack— all of these can lead to data corruption or even complete data loss. Backup hosting can help prevent this—a service where the provider offers disk space to store your data backups. Today, backups are no longer optional —they’re essential for protecting any website, from a small landing page to a large corporate portal.
One of the most popular backup methods is FTP backup—transferring data to a remote server using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). This is not only convenient but also reliable: in the event of a failure of your primary hosting service, you’ll be able to restore your data from an external source.
In this article, we’ll explain in simple terms what an FTP backup is, its advantages, and where it’s useful. Let’s dive in!
What Is an FTP Backup and How Does It Differ from a Regular Backup
A backup is a general term for creating a copy of data and storing it in a secondary location. It is a useful mechanism that allows you to revert to a previous version in the event of a website breach or data corruption. To fully protect your data, backups must be performed regularly so that you can restore the most recent changes since the last backup.
Sometimes snapshots—instant snapshots of the system—are used instead of backups. However, snapshots are less reliable because they are stored on the same server as the main hosting. If that server fails, you cannot restore the data. You can learn more in the article: “What Are Snapshots, What Are Backups, and How Do They Differ?”
An FTP backup is a type of backup in which copies are stored on a remote server via the FTP protocol. This storage solution operates independently of the main hosting service, allowing you to restore data even after a major failure, hack, or deletion of the main server. Additionally, if your company’s server room experiences a disaster (such as a flood or fire), you won’t risk losing important information.
Key advantages of FTP backup include:
- Storing data in a remote storage location to protect against local failures;
- Uninterrupted access to the server via the Internet;
- Storing multiple versions of the system and the ability to select the one needed for recovery;
- The ability to manage the storage yourself: choose storage capacity, update, or delete copies.
Why You Might Need Remote Backup Storage
Automation of remote backups. The FTP protocol is often used to set up automatic remote backups. This is convenient because it eliminates the human factor, such as accidental deletion or data formatting. You can also schedule backup times, for example, daily at 2:30 a.m., when server load is minimal and users are inactive.
Reducing the load on the main server. FTP backup lets you move backup operations off the main server. This is especially useful when the internal system consumes too many resources and slows down the website or application.
Improving incremental backups. Incremental backups save only the data added, deleted, or modified since the previous backup. FTP ensures fast transfer of changed data with minimal bandwidth usage.
Long-term storage of large projects. Remote backups can be stored long-term, which is convenient for archiving complex projects where data integrity is essential.
Backups from multiple sources. FTP lets you centralize backups from different sources, which simplifies data management, updates, and recovery. This is a reliable solution, as remote storage keeps every copy secure and accessible.
Remote access to files. This type of backup is used when you need to make a copy of your data “for later.” It helps avoid storing data on active hosting and paying for unnecessary resources.
In conclusion
FTP backup is a reliable way to protect your website’s data, since copies of the files are stored on a remote server, independent of your primary hosting provider. If you want to automate backups, ensure long-term file storage, and provide access to your files remotely, backup hosting is the ideal choice.
At HostPro, we back up websites on our VPS and shared hosting plans daily because we care about your data’s integrity and availability.