In the third century BCE, the Library of Alexandria was home to the world’s most important educational and philosophical writings. Scholars estimate that it may have held as many as 400,000 works—many of which were lost when the library was destroyed. We’ll never be able to recreate this ancient knowledge. Once something like that is gone, it’s hard to restore.
Modern-day entrepreneurs can learn from this tragic example of data loss. Your online store may not be of world-historic importance (yet), but it’s the repository of all your hard work. You can’t eliminate risk in your business, but with modern technology, you can take proactive measures to safeguard against the permanent loss of your ecommerce store’s data. Learn how a backup app can back up and restore your website, and discover some of the most popular options out there.
What is a backup app?
An ecommerce backup app is a software solution designed to safeguard your online store by performing routine data backups. Part of your business contingency plan, these services save a complete copy of your ecommerce store on a predetermined schedule or after website updates. Your backup data may be stored in the cloud or at a third-party data center. Many apps replicate data across multiple storage sites to provide an additional layer of security in the event of a data center failure.
Why should you use backup apps?
Backup apps are an easy way to protect your site from a wide variety of mishaps. Here are some reasons why you should consider using a backup app:
Safeguard against attacks
If hackers target your ecommerce store, you could lose access to your data. Maintaining up-to-date backups ensures that you’ll be able to keep your store open in the event of a cyberattack and completely restore data on your site.
Reduce risks associated with operator error
Simple coding mistakes can result in data loss and website malfunction, and frequent store modifications increase the risk of accidental errors. Backup apps maintain a complete copy of your codebase, so if you accidentally delete an entire product category, it’s possible to use your backup data to sync your current site with a recently saved version.
🌟 When you handle sensitive customer payment information with every transaction, it’s important to make sure your site is secure. Learn how to improve ecommerce security for your online store.
Best backup apps
When setting up your online store, consider these Shopify-compatible backup apps for securing ecommerce data:
Matrixify
Matrixify is a feature-rich product that’s a good option if you have prior data management experience. As a versatile backup and data storage solution, it offers plenty of manual control. You can use Matrixify to customize your backup scheduling by selecting regular auto backup intervals that align with your company’s schedule.
You can also upload Excel or CSV files to store copies of large datasets like order history or email contacts. Matrixify’s bulk import and export features enable large-scale data management, which means it’s also possible to use this app to simplify data migration for your store.
The platform supports a wide variety of data types—if you switch your store to Shopify from another ecommerce platform, Matrixify ensures details like your SEO metadata, product description, and photos are transferred accurately.
Pricing: Matrixify offers a limited free plan and three paid pricing tiers ranging from the Basic plan at $20 per month to the Enterprise plan at $200 per month. The free plan includes 10 backups for most types of files.
Backups by Goshu
Backups by Goshu supports backups for a wide range of data types. This app can preserve your blog articles, product reviews, order history, and metafields in addition to your website and product data.
Goshu performs an auto backup each time you implement a website update. It also offers simple data restoration for entire websites and individual elements. With a paid plan, you can also access detailed website revision history and downloaddatasets like customer order history as CSV files for off-platform review.
Pricing: Goshu offers a free plan and three paid pricing tiers ranging from $29.99 per month to $499.99 per month. The free plan includes a 30-day history and unlimited restoration for stores with fewer than 10 orders. Premium plans offer increased storage, premium customer support, and revision history for up to five years.
BackupMaster Backups
BackupMaster Backups automatically copies and stores important store elements like your products, themes, orders, and metafields. Execute manual backups according to your preferences.
BackupMaster uses the cloud for secure datastorage, so premium account holders can automaticallyupload additional backups to Google Drive for convenient access. As an additional security measure, the app also allows you to schedule regular datadownloads. BackupMaster’s flexible restoration options include single file and complete website restoration.
Its website duplication feature lets store owners test major website updates in a safe staging environment and reduce the risk of downtime.
Pricing: BackupMaster offers three paid plans ranging from the Essentials plan at $19 per month to the Plus plan at $79 per month. The Essentials tier accommodates stores with up to 300 orders per month, also offering unlimited storage and one year of data retention. The Pro and Plus plans also include Google Drivebackups and website duplication.
Rewind Backups
Rewind Backups conducts an auto backup every time you update your website, but platform managers can also execute manual backups whenever they choose. This provides extra security by allowing developers to create a website copy before implementing major updates.
Rewind offers flexible restoration from your app data: Sync a single item, a specific product category, or your entire website. In other words, if a glitch affects only one element of your store, it’s possible to perform bug fixes without undoing all of your other updates.
Pricing: Rewind Backup offers four pricing plans, ranging from the Standard plan at $9 per month to the Protection suite plan at $79 per month. The standard plan secures up to 300 orders per month, one year of history, and Klaviyo and MailChimp integrations.
Talon Backups
Talon Backups automatically backs up the latest version of your store every 24 hours. It’s also possible to conduct manual backups whenever you choose. The app maintains a detailed history of all your major website updates, you can compare your current website with past versions.
Talon offers a simplified one-click data restoration feature: If necessary, you can quickly revert your entire website to a previous date or restore data for single files based on your app data. Talon uses cloudstorage so you can have backup app data available on your mobile device at any time.
Pricing: Talon offers a free plan and three paid plans ranging from the Business plan at $9 per month to the Business Plus plan at $35 per month. The free plan includes one month of history and backups for up to 100 products. The paid plans offer one year of history and additional product and customer storage of between 1,000 and 20,000 products depending on the tier.
Backup app FAQ
What is a backup app?
An ecommerce backup app is a software tool that automatically backs up your store’s data. These apps keep a copy of website data on cloud servers or at remote data centers. Account owners can access their data and restore a previous version of their website in the event of data loss.
Does Shopify do backups?
Shopify merchants are responsible for maintaining their own store backups. Store owners can export CSV files from the Shopify admin to back up store information. They can combine these CSV files with other data (for example, a copy of their store theme) to create a backup of their store.
How do backup apps work?
Backup apps integrate with your ecommerce platform to automatically capture and store copies of your important data, such as order history, customer information, product information, website themes, and more. Using a backup protects ecommerce business owners from data loss.
