What is Softaculous?
Softaculous is an app installer. It is like an app store for your website. It can install WordPress and many other programs with a few clicks. It can also make backups of what it installed.
Why make a backup?
Think of a backup like a photo of your school project before you change it. If something goes wrong, you can go back to the photo. Make a backup before you update plugins, change themes or edit files.
Steps
- Log in to your hosting control panel. Your welcome email tells you where to log in. You can also reach your services from the Hostvento client area.
- Find the Softaculous Apps Installer section. Click the WordPress icon, or the Softaculous icon.
- Click the Installations tab or link. You will see a list of the WordPress sites Softaculous installed.
- Find the site you want to save. Click the Backup icon next to it. The icon often looks like a small box with an arrow.
- Choose what to save. You can pick the Backup Directory (your site files) and the Backup Database (your posts, pages and settings). Keep both ticked for a full backup.
- Click Backup installation.
- Wait until you see a message that the backup is done. Large sites can take a few minutes.
Where is my backup?
Softaculous keeps the backup on your hosting account. Go back to the Softaculous main page and look for Backups. You will see the file there. You can download it to your computer, so you have a copy away from the server.
If you cannot see the Backup icon
The backup option may be turned off on your plan, or your control panel may look different. Ask Hostvento support. You can open a support ticket.
Quick recap
- Softaculous is an app installer that can also back up your WordPress site.
- Open Softaculous, go to Installations and click the backup icon.
- Tick both files and database, then click Backup installation.
- Download the backup file and keep it on your computer.
- Back up before every big change.