Back Up WordPress to Google Drive: Free, to Your Own Cloud
Back up your entire WordPress site, database and files, straight to your own Google Drive. Every Google account comes with 15 GB of free storage, so your backups live somewhere you already control, not on a backup company’s servers. Here is how it works and how to start for free.
Why back up to your own Google Drive?
No second subscription. Your backups go to storage you already have. There is no separate backup service to pay for.
Your data stays yours. The plugin connects to Google Drive through your own Google Cloud project. Your backups, your site files, and your Google credentials are never uploaded to us. The plugin does make one call to bodholdtlabs.com, to ask what the current version is so updates can reach your dashboard. That check carries the version you already have installed and nothing else. There is no license key, because there is nothing to buy.
There is nothing to lapse. The plugin is free, in one edition, with no paid tier and no license client in it at all. Backup software that stops backing up because a card expired is the worst possible outcome, and the surest way to avoid it is to never take the card.
How it works
Bodholdt Backup for Google Drive uses the Google Drive API through your own Google Cloud project. That is a free setup you only do once, and the plugin walks you through every step. From there it:
- Runs full or incremental backups. Incremental backups only upload the files that changed, so daily backups stay small and fast.
- Uploads in resumable chunks, so large sites do not choke on a single failed request.
- Restores any backup in one click, and saves a safety copy of your database first. There is no one-click undo, so treat a restore as a change you cannot easily reverse.
- Restores onto a different server: install WordPress there, connect the plugin to the same Google Drive account, and restore from the list of backups already in your Drive. Two things have to line up first. The new site must be installed with the same database table prefix as the backup, and it must run the same plugin version as the backup or a newer one. Check both before you start.
- Backs up full multisite networks and restores them to the same layout.
- Keeps up to 500 backups. How many is a number you set, not something you buy.
- Emails you a report after every run, whether it succeeded or failed, with a plain-language diagnosis when something goes wrong. It goes to your admin address unless you set another one.
Set it up in about 15 minutes
- Install and activate the plugin.
- Follow the guide inside the plugin to create a free Google Cloud project and enable the Drive API. Plan on about 15 minutes, once, and no billing is required.
- Paste your Client ID and Secret, authorize Google access, and pick a schedule.
- Click Start Backup Now. Your first backup lands in your own Google Drive.
What it costs
Nothing. There is one edition of Bodholdt Backup for Google Drive and it is free and GPL: no license key, no account, no time limit, and no cap on how many sites you install it on. Every backup and restore feature is in it, selective restore included, and updates arrive in your WordPress dashboard with no key to enter.
If you would rather hear about backups in Slack or Discord than by email, or you want a scheduled summary of how a site is doing, that is a separate companion plugin called Bodholdt Backup Pro. It covers both clouds on one license. You do not need it to run backups, and the email report above arrives either way.
See Bodholdt Backup for Google Drive →
Ready to back up to your own Google Drive?
Your backups land in Drive storage you already own and can open yourself, and the plugin that puts them there is free.
Get Bodholdt Backup for Google Drive
One edition, free: full and incremental backups on a schedule, full and selective restore, multisite, and an email after every run. Updates arrive in your dashboard with no license key to enter, and there is no limit on how many sites you install it on.
Free
The whole product, free forever:
- Use it on as many sites as you like
- Full and incremental backups, scheduled or on demand, to your own cloud account
- Full restore, always. You never need a license to get your own data back
- Streaming restore that keeps foreign keys and BLOBs intact, up to 500 backups kept
- Selective restore. Restore just what you need: database, plugins, themes, uploads, or core, instead of everything
- An email after every backup, success or failure, to whichever address you choose
- Updates in your WordPress dashboard, with no license key to enter
- No license key, no account, no activation limit, no telemetry
See full feature comparison →
| Feature | Included, free |
|---|---|
| Full and incremental backups, scheduled or on demand | Included |
| Full restore | Included |
| Selective restore | Included |
| Multisite network backup | Included |
| Backup retention | Up to 500 |
| Email after every backup, success or failure | Included |
| Automatic updates in your dashboard | Included |
| Sites you can install it on | No limit |
| License key required | None |
There is one edition and it is free. It carries no license client, so there is no key to enter and no activation limit. It emails you after every backup attempt, success or failure, at whichever address you set. Bodholdt Backup Pro is a separate paid companion, not an edition of these plugins: it adds Slack and Discord delivery of those same events and a scheduled backup-health digest, for both clouds on one license.
Download it here
This is the real build, not a trial that stops working, and it is the only build there is.
Bodholdt Backup for Google Drive is free and GPL. No email, no account, no license key.