SafeGuard vs UpdraftPlus Backup Speed Battle

completedDeveloper Portfolio (S) -- S

SafeGuardPROvsUpdraftPlusPRO

SafeGuard v1.2.0UpdraftPlus v1.24.2
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🔒 SequentialDeveloper Portfolio (S) — SNone Load
Speed (different scopes)
SafeGuard
8.3svs9.7s

Not comparable — plugins back up different data

Storage Result
DRAW
SafeGuard48 MB
UpdraftPlus51 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
4.2s
Restore
4.1s
UpdraftPlus
Backup
6.6s
Restore
3.0s

Per-Profile Median Times

Median backup + restore time broken down by hosting profile.

Shared Hosting
SafeGuardTotal: 8.5s
Backup
4.2s
Restore
4.3s
UpdraftPlusTotal: 9.8s
Backup
6.8s
Restore
3.1s
Managed WordPress
SafeGuardTotal: 8.4s
Backup
4.2s
Restore
4.1s
UpdraftPlusTotal: 9.8s
Backup
6.7s
Restore
3.1s
VPS Standard
SafeGuardTotal: 8.4s
Backup
4.2s
Restore
4.2s
UpdraftPlusTotal: 9.8s
Backup
6.7s
Restore
3.1s

Backup Size & Efficiency

SafeGuard
Data backed up144.0 MB
Archive size48.0 MBZIP
Compression3:1
Throughput33.8 MB/s
Compression methodDEFLATE Normal (Level 6)
UpdraftPlus
Data backed up160.0 MB
Archive size51.0 MBGZ
Compression3.1:1
Throughput23.5 MB/s
Compression methodgzip

Backup Inventory

CategorySafeGuardUpdraftPlusDiff
FilesSizeFilesSizeFiles
Database19339.0 KB25156.4 KB+6
Plugins3,29151.2 MB4,56663.1 MB+1,275
Themes39414.4 MB39414.4 MB=
Uploads492.0 MB492.0 MB=
WP Core2,73355.9 MB2,73355.9 MB=
wp-config28.9 KB314.7 KB+1
Other17178.9 KB17178.9 KB=
Total6,505124.1 MB7,787135.8 MB+1,282

Phase Breakdown

Iteration 8 (median)

SafeGuard
SCAN
0.1s
VERIFY
0.0s
ARCHIVE
3.5s
DB_EXPORT
0.1s
UpdraftPlus
SCAN
0.0s
VERIFY
0.0s
ARCHIVE
5.5s
DB_EXPORT
0.7s

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
4.3s4.2s8.5s
UpdraftPlus
6.6s3.1s9.7s
2Median
SafeGuard
4.2s4.3s8.5s
UpdraftPlus
6.8s3.0s9.8s
3
SafeGuard
4.2s4.4s8.6s
UpdraftPlus
7.1s3.1s10.2s
Managed WordPress3 iterations
#PluginBackupRestoreTotal
4Median
SafeGuard
4.2s4.1s8.3s
UpdraftPlus
6.8s3.1s9.9s
5
SafeGuard
4.3s4.1s8.4s
UpdraftPlus
6.5s3.0s9.5s
6
SafeGuard
4.2s4.2s8.4s
UpdraftPlus
6.7s3.1s9.8s
VPS Standard3 iterations
#PluginBackupRestoreTotal
7Median
SafeGuard
4.1s4.2s8.3s
UpdraftPlus
6.7s3.1s9.8s
8
SafeGuard
4.2s4.2s8.4s
UpdraftPlus
6.7s3.0s9.7s
9
SafeGuard
4.2s4.3s8.5s
UpdraftPlus
6.7s3.1s9.8s

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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