A backup plugin, if not used properly, can “crash” or “mess up” a site. From the many support requests I’ve seen here, it’s the restoration process that often trips people up:
— automatic backup not configured,
— backups going to unknown/broken locations,
— no clue where to begin the restoration process,
— underpowered shared hosting account that cannot even upload the large backup file — let alone extract it,
— using a backup plugin that requires a paid addon to restore the site but user is unwilling to pay for this,
— using the wrong plugin (eg a plugin that can only restore to the same domain when the user wants to migrate to a different domain).
— and on and on and on
A manual backup, if not done properly, can equally “crash” or “mess up” a site. The biggest danger with the manual backup is the backup not being done at all (unless it’s scripted to run automatically)… and how long it’ll take to restore a site from backup. And that’s assuming the user has the skill to do this properly.
Could someone advise me if there truly are ‘risk-free’ backup plugins,
Nothing is “risk-free” in this world, despite what the late-night commercials tell you. In most cases, the biggest “risk” is the human(s) involved.
or that backing databases up by hand on server level, will always be preferred?
As long as you know what you’re doing… and you can script the backup to run automatically (eg nightly, weekly, etc), and you have a proper notification in place to alert you if the backup ever fails for whatever reason, and you have a good process to quickly restore the site from the backup.
Here’s the problem though: most people don’t have the skill to do this properly.
So, perhaps for 99% of users, a good backup plugin properly configured, is the preferred option.
I don’t know your situation.
