SafeGuard vs UpdraftPlus Backup Speed Battle

completedBusiness Site (S) -- S

SafeGuardPROvsUpdraftPlusPRO

SafeGuard v1.2.0UpdraftPlus v1.24.2
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🔒 SequentialBusiness Site (S) — SNone Load
Speed (different scopes)
SafeGuard
13.3svs15.5s

Not comparable — plugins back up different data

Storage Result
DRAW
SafeGuard70 MB
UpdraftPlus72 MB
Best Overall
Not Directly Comparable

These plugins back up different amounts of data — see the Backup Scope badges below. Speed and storage comparisons are not apples-to-apples.

⚠️Different backup scope -- results may not be directly comparable

One plugin backs up more data categories than the other, which affects both speed and archive size.

Backup Scope

SafeGuard
DBPluginsThemesUploadswp-configWP Core

wp-config.php is not in the archive. Plugins that leave it out rebuild it during their own restore, so this is recorded rather than penalised. Why

UpdraftPlus
DBPluginsThemesUploadswp-configWP Core

Overall Median Times

SafeGuard
Backup
6.8s
Restore
6.4s
UpdraftPlus
Backup
10.5s
Restore
5.1s

Per-Profile Median Times

Median backup + restore time broken down by hosting profile.

Shared Hosting
SafeGuardTotal: 18.9s
Backup
9.0s
Restore
9.9s
UpdraftPlusTotal: 18.6s
Backup
13.2s
Restore
5.4s
Managed WordPress
SafeGuardTotal: 13.4s
Backup
6.9s
Restore
6.5s
UpdraftPlusTotal: 15.7s
Backup
10.5s
Restore
5.2s
VPS Standard
SafeGuardTotal: 13.4s
Backup
6.9s
Restore
6.4s
UpdraftPlusTotal: 15.6s
Backup
10.5s
Restore
5.1s

Backup Size & Efficiency

SafeGuard
Data backed up215.0 MB
Archive size70.0 MBZIP
Compression3:1
Throughput23.8 MB/s
Compression methodDEFLATE Normal (Level 6)
UpdraftPlus
Data backed up231.0 MB
Archive size72.0 MBGZ
Compression3.2:1
Throughput17.5 MB/s
Compression methodgzip

Backup Inventory

CategorySafeGuardUpdraftPlusDiff
FilesSizeFilesSizeFiles
Database23340.2 KB29177.2 KB+6
Plugins5,95984.3 MB7,23496.2 MB+1,275
Themes1,14035.8 MB1,14035.8 MB=
Uploads571.9 MB571.9 MB=
WP Core2,73355.9 MB2,73355.9 MB=
wp-config28.9 KB314.7 KB+1
Other276.4 MB276.4 MB=
Total9,941184.6 MB11,223196.4 MB+1,282

Phase Breakdown

Iteration 4 (median)

SafeGuard
SCAN
0.2s
VERIFY
0.1s
ARCHIVE
5.9s
DB_EXPORT
0.2s
UpdraftPlus
SCAN
0.0s
VERIFY
0.0s
ARCHIVE
8.3s
DB_EXPORT
1.4s

Iteration Results

9 iterations across 3 hosting profiles -- median highlighted per profile. Compression shows archive-to-raw ratio (higher = better). * = no compression detected.

Shared Hosting3 iterations
#PluginBackupRestoreTotal
1
SafeGuard
7.7s6.8s14.5s
UpdraftPlus
13.2s5.4s18.6s
2Median
SafeGuard
9.0s9.9s18.9s
UpdraftPlus
12.6s5.4s18.0s
3
SafeGuard
10.5s10.6s21.1s
UpdraftPlus
13.8s5.3s19.1s
Managed WordPress3 iterations
#PluginBackupRestoreTotal
4Median
SafeGuard
6.9s6.5s13.4s
UpdraftPlus
10.5s5.1s15.5s
5
SafeGuard
6.9s6.5s13.4s
UpdraftPlus
10.5s5.3s15.8s
6
SafeGuard
6.8s6.3s13.1s
UpdraftPlus
10.5s5.2s15.7s
VPS Standard3 iterations
#PluginBackupRestoreTotal
7Median
SafeGuard
6.8s6.6s13.5s
UpdraftPlus
10.4s5.1s15.5s
8
SafeGuard
7.0s6.4s13.4s
UpdraftPlus
10.5s5.1s15.6s
9
SafeGuard
6.9s6.4s13.3s
UpdraftPlus
10.5s5.1s15.6s

Downloads

Metrics (CSV)Full Results (JSON)File Inventory — SafeGuard (TXT)File Inventory — UpdraftPlus (TXT)

Raw log archive is temporarily unavailable while the benchmark cluster is offline. Metrics, results, and inventories remain downloadable.

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