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Coming from UpdraftPlus, BlogVault, or BackupBuddy
Same job — schedule, offsite, restore. Different control plane: no plugin on every site, storage you choose, no vendor vault.
You already know the job. The site needs a copy that does not live on the same disk, and you need a way back when a theme update, a hack, or a dead host makes that copy the only thing that matters.
UpdraftPlus, BlogVault, and BackupBuddy all do that job. Reaver does too. The difference is not a longer feature list. It is where the work runs, who holds the files, and whether restore still works when WordPress itself will not load.
This page is for people who already live in one of those tools and are deciding whether to change the control plane. It is not an argument for ripping a working plugin off a shared host with no SSH. If that is you, stay put. The longer version of that advice is in plugin backups vs server-level backups.
What you are actually switching
A WordPress backup plugin lives inside the site. You install it on every install, point it at Google Drive or S3 or a vendor vault, and restore from a button in wp-admin — or from an installer package you drop onto a new box. That loop is familiar, and on one site it is often enough.
A managed vault is a different product that happens to solve the same issue. BlogVault is the clean example: it pulls the site to their servers, keeps the history there, and can often bring a site back even when wp-admin is dead, because the restore brain is not inside WordPress. You pay for that convenience, and they hold the files.
Reaver is neither of those. You host a dashboard outside WordPress. A small agent on each web server polls that dashboard — nothing inbound on the agent — finds WordPress the way Nginx or Apache already does, reads wp-config.php for the database, and writes a restic snapshot to storage you configure. Local disk is how you prove the pipeline. S3, Backblaze B2, or SSH is how you prepare for disaster recovery. Restore lives on that dashboard, not in the site that just died.
What Reaver does not do is open last week’s Updraft zip, the BlogVault vault, or a BackupBuddy package and keep going from there. Those copies are still useful if you need a one-time hand restore. They are not the system of record. Reaver history starts when the first snapshot lands in a repository you own.
The comparison that actually matters
Pricing pages love long grids. Most switches come down to a shorter set of questions: where the work runs, who holds the files, what happens if wp-admin is gone, and how painful the fifth or fortieth site is going to be.
| UpdraftPlus | BlogVault | BackupBuddy | Reaver | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Plugin inside each WordPress | Their cloud plus a helper on the site | Plugin inside each WordPress | Dashboard you host, agent on the server |
| Who holds the files | Destinations you connect (Drive, S3, and the rest) | BlogVault’s vault | Destinations you connect | Destinations you connect — local, S3, B2, or SSH. Not a Reaver vault |
| Restore if wp-admin is dead | Usually no. You are on FTP and an SQL import, unless you have a Premium or migrator path | Often yes. That is a large part of what you are buying | The plugin screen needs WordPress. The standalone installer is the way off the box | Yes, from the Reaver dashboard onto the docroot. A new empty server is a different path: restore onto a new host |
| Many sites | A plugin and a license per site | Per-site plans | Per-site plugin | One dashboard, one agent per server, site packs |
| Good default when | One site, shared hosting, no SSH | You want a company to keep the copy and run restore day | You move sites between hosts a lot | You have SSH, you want the files, and you are done opening forty wp-admins |
VaultPress and Jetpack Backup sit closer to BlogVault than to a plugin you configure yourself: hosted vault, a per-site bill, and a restore they run.
When to stay where you are
Stay on UpdraftPlus when you cannot SSH to the server. The free tier that already sends copies to Drive or S3 is still the right default for a single brochure site on shared hosting. Reaver will not install there, and pretending otherwise wastes a morning.
Stay on BlogVault when you want someone else to own restore day. Staging, an emergency connector, and “we hold the files” are the product. If you do not want a server or a bucket of your own, Reaver will feel like a step backward, because it is.
Stay on BackupBuddy — or Solid Backups, which is the same family — when the thing you actually bought it for is the migrator. Package the site, drop the installer PHP on a new host, and walk away. Reaver restores onto a machine that already has an agent. It is not a clone-and-relocate wizard, and it should not be sold as one.
Leaving the old plugin in place while you stand Reaver up is fine. Two layers is not a failure. You do not have to uninstall Updraft the afternoon the first Reaver snapshot appears.
What the first day actually looks like
You install the dashboard once, pair an agent on the machine that already runs the sites, and wait for WordPress installs to show up from sites-enabled. You pick a destination, run one backup, and wait for a snapshot. That snapshot is the start of Reaver history. It is not a conversion of the old one.
Local storage is enough to prove the pipeline. It is not disaster recovery. Offsite takes a paid edition — Solo if you have one site that matters, then a site pack when the list grows. The click-by-click path is First backup, not this page.
Restore splits into two problems, and mixing them up is how people get stuck. If the server is still there and WordPress is a white screen, you restore from the dashboard onto that same docroot. If the server itself is gone, you pair a new agent, attach the same offsite destination, restore the files and the database, and then you still do the vhost, the certificate, and DNS by hand. The second path is written up under Restore onto a new host.
Cost, without pretending the spreadsheets match
Plugin and vault bills usually grow by site. Reaver bills a yearly site pack: Free is one site on local storage, Solo is $24.99 a year for one site with offsite, then Starter at 5, Pro at 40, Agency at 100, and Scale at 250. The exact rows live on Pricing.
Do not compare Reaver Free to BlogVault and call that a win. Free is local-only, which is how you try the tool. Offsite is how you replace the job those products were already doing.
The storage bill is yours — S3 or B2, not a Reaver Backup meter on every gigabyte of site files. Incremental restic snapshots are why that bill usually settles down after the first full copy. The first snapshot is still a full copy. “Ninety percent smaller” is not the day-one number, and it should not be sold as one.
Short answers
Will Reaver import my Updraft, BlogVault, or BackupBuddy backups?
No. Keep those copies until you have a Reaver snapshot you have actually restored. After that they are an extra archive, not the system of record.
Is Reaver an UpdraftPlus alternative?
For people with SSH who want one UI and a bucket they named, yes. For shared hosting with no SSH, no.
Is Reaver a BlogVault alternative?
Only if you are leaving the vault on purpose. If you want the vendor to hold the files and run emergency restore without you touching a server, BlogVault is still the better fit.
Do I have to take the plugin off the site?
No. Reaver does not run as a WordPress plugin. Removing Updraft can wait until you trust a Reaver snapshot.
What about Google Drive and Dropbox?
Reaver’s destinations today are local, S3-compatible storage, Backblaze B2, and SSH or SFTP. If Drive is the only offsite you will ever use, stay on the plugin that already speaks it. We do look at adding new storage destinations as the community asks for them though.
Who this is for
Switch if you control the servers, you are tired of a plugin in every wp-admin, and you want the copies on storage you named. Stay if you have no SSH, or if “a company keeps my site files and can restore them without me touching a server” is the actual requirement.
Reaver is the self-hosted way to keep the easy parts — discover the sites, set a schedule, restore from a UI — without handing the vault to someone else.
Start with one site
The free edition covers one site on local storage and does not need an account. Plan on about fifteen minutes to a snapshot you can restore. Offsite and site packs are on Pricing.