Backing up and restoring your website: the guide to never losing everything

An update that goes wrong, a hack, a wrong click, a hosting provider that shuts down: a website disappears more easily than you'd think, and you find out on the day it's too late. Here is what a real backup contains, how often to make one, how to check that it works — and what is already in place at Leopar.

What needs backing up (it isn't just “the website”)

A website is made up of several things that don't live in the same place. A backup that forgets one of them is useless on the day you need it.

The files	The pages, the images, the styles. For a static website, that's the whole site.
The database	On a CMS, this is where the text, the settings and the accounts live. Without it, the files are an empty shell.
The domain name	It isn't “inside” the website: it's a contract with a registrar. Write down where it is registered, with which account, and when it expires.
The logins	Credentials for the host, the registrar, the CMS. A backup you can no longer access doesn't exist.

How often, and how many to keep

The simple rule: one backup every day, made automatically, without anyone having to think about it. A manual backup “every now and then” is a backup that gets forgotten.

And you need several, not just one: if your website is hacked on a Tuesday and you only notice on the Friday, yesterday's backup contains the hack. You need to be able to go back to the version before. Keeping the last 7 is a minimum; a month is comfortable.

Finally, a backup stored on the same server as the website disappears along with it. It has to be copied somewhere else.

A backup that has never been restored isn't a backup

This is the point everyone skips. An archive can be incomplete, corrupted, or impossible to put back in place without technical skills. The only proof that a backup works is having restored it at least once — ideally on a test address, without touching the live website.

Ask yourself honestly: if your website vanished tonight, would you be able, on your own, to put it back online tomorrow morning? If the answer is no, your backup is a file, not an insurance policy.

Restoring: what it involves in practice

On conventional hosting, restoring means: downloading the archive, putting the files back in place over FTP, re-importing the database, checking the settings, then finding out what's missing. Allow an hour when all goes well, a day when it doesn't. That is why restoring should be a button, not a procedure.

What Leopar does for you

Your website is backed up automatically every day, and several versions are kept: the last 7 by default, 30 if you turn on the option in your settings. From your account, restoring takes one click: you pick the date, and the website goes back to that state. No archive to download, no FTP. The archives are kept on your dedicated server; for the “somewhere else” copy mentioned above, your website export is there for that. How backups work in detail is described in a dedicated article.

The domain name, for its part, is registered in your name and renewed automatically for as long as your website is online — that's the “domain” item on the list above, taken care of by default. And you can export your entire website at any time: it belongs to you, including if you decide to leave. Our commitments spell it out in black and white.

Frequently asked questions

My host says it makes backups, is that enough?
Check three things: the frequency, the number of versions kept, and above all whether you can restore by yourself or need to open a support ticket. Many only back up for their own technical needs.

Should I also keep a copy at home?
It isn't essential if backups are automatic, multiple and stored elsewhere. An export once a year, filed with your important documents, is a belt on top of the braces.

Does a backup protect against hacking?
It doesn't prevent it, but it makes it harmless: you go back to the version before. That is precisely why you need several versions.

What happens to my website if I cancel?
At Leopar, you can export it before leaving, and the domain name remains yours. With another provider, ask the question before signing.