Two of the most common feature requests over the last few years were making an Akeeba Backup plugin for WordPress and a standalone Akeeba Backup PHP application. The wait is over! Today we are introducing two new products, Akeeba Solo (Standalone) and Akeeba Backup for WordPress.
Akeeba Solo (standalone)
Akeeba Solo is a standalone application for backing up any PHP-based website. You can install it on your server, alongside the site or sites you want to back up. It comes with out of the box support for WordPress, Joomla!, phpBB and PrestaShop. Just tell it where your site is located and it will automatically figure out all the database connection details and configure itself for maximum efficiency. When you are restoring to a different location or server, it will reconfigure the script, just like Akeeba Backup does when restoring a Joomla! site. Even if your PHP application is not in this list, Akeeba Solo can still back it up! Our beta testers have used it to back up WHMCS, Magento and YOURLS among other things.
Akeeba Backup for WordPress
Akeeba Backup for WordPress is a native WordPress plugin specialising in backing up, restoring and transferring WordPress sites. It's as easy to use as Akeeba Backup for Joomla!: install the plugin, click on Backup Now and you have an instant backup which you can use to restore your WordPress site anywhere. Even on a new server, with a different domain name.
Features and access
Both Akeeba Backup and Akeeba Solo have the same amazing features that made Akeeba Backup the go-to backup application for Joomla!. From built-in support for over 40 cloud storage providers to fine tuning options which allow you to choose what goes in the backup, it's all included. The backup archives are compatible with Akeeba Kickstart making the restoration on a new server a piece of cake.
Akeeba Solo and Akeeba Backup for WordPress are currently in beta phase. As a limited time promotional action, access to beta releases is granted to all subscribers with an active subscription in the AKEEBABACKUP, ESSENTIALS and DELUXE subscription levels. Akeeba Solo and Akeeba Backup for WordPress will get into their stable phase in less than a month. You will need to purchase a separate subscription for Akeeba Solo and Akeeba Backup for WordPress. There are two new subscription levels, SOLOPHP for the standalone Akeeba Solo and BACKUPWP for Akeeba Backup for WordPress. You can use coupon code BACKMEUP for a 50% early bird discount on these two subscriptions. Hurry up! This special offer expires on May 1st, 2014.
Known issues and roadmap
Since Akeeba Solo and Akeeba Backup for WordPress are still in beta, there are a few rough edges we are aware of. Right now restoring WordPress backups to a different location / host works for the most part, but we have identified some areas that need further improvement:
- Serialised values are not touched
- User, post and comment meta need special handling in some cases
Please do not report these as bugs, we are aware of them :) We are already working on solutions on all of the above. These features will be implemented early May 2014, when the first stable version of our two new backup products will ship.
There are a couple of things that will most likely not be implemented:
- Support for blog networks (the "multiuser" feature in WordPress). Even though it's technically possible, the restoration interface would be so complicated that we came to doubt the merit of having such a feature.
- Changing the .htaccess when you move your blog to a different directory. This is much better handled by WordPress itself, through the Settings > Permalinks page.
You may have noticed that Akeeba Solo and Akeeba Backup for WordPress are based on the same code base. Our plan is to migrate all features of Akeeba Backup for Joomla! into this common code base. This will be the base of version 4 of our Joomla! component. What is most important for you is that this change will make our software more future-proof: no matter what big or small changes are made to Joomla! we will be able to provide a stable backup solution much faster.
Finally, we are aware that there are no free versions of Akeeba Solo and Akeeba Backup for WordPress right now. We are already working on a free, feature-limited version of Akeeba Backup for WordPress in the next couple of months. There are, however, no plans to provide a free version of the standalone Akeeba Solo product.