Title: Export vs. Backup
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# Export vs. Backup

 *  [e12n](https://wordpress.org/support/users/e12n/)
 * (@e12n)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/export-vs-backup/)
 * Dear all,
 * Greetings, as this is my first post here! Could anyone explain to me the difference
   between exporting and backing up a WordPress site? They seem to accomplish the
   same thing.
 * Thanks and regards.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/export-vs-backup/#post-2678460)
 * [http://codex.wordpress.org/Tools_Export_Screen](http://codex.wordpress.org/Tools_Export_Screen)
   
   [http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups](http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups)
 *  Thread Starter [e12n](https://wordpress.org/support/users/e12n/)
 * (@e12n)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/export-vs-backup/#post-2678464)
 * Thanks esmi, I saw those pages already, but conceptually I still find it hard
   to tell the difference. In both cases we save both the data and the style of 
   the site, right?
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/export-vs-backup/#post-2678473)
 * No. Export saves your post content. That’s it.
 * Backups save posts, attachments, style, settings etc.
 *  Thread Starter [e12n](https://wordpress.org/support/users/e12n/)
 * (@e12n)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/export-vs-backup/#post-2678521)
 * Thanks, Ipstenu! Digressing a little… is this generally regarded as “enough” 
   if you are developing pages for a client, she wants to part ways and take her
   data with her? I’m thinking of a multisite configuration, where this would seem
   much simpler than handing out a (single-site) backup.
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/export-vs-backup/#post-2678593)
 * Hm. Yes and no. So long as you’re willing to keep the site ‘up’ on your server
   until they import everything to the new site (so they can get their images and
   attachments), then yes.
 *  [Chris Burbridge](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chrisbeee/)
 * (@chrisbeee)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/export-vs-backup/#post-2678618)
 * I find [BackupBuddy](http://pluginbuddy.com/purchase/backupbuddy/) to be a wonderful
   tool for developing websites. You can create a full backup that includes all 
   the files, plus the data, and it puts it all into one time-stamped ZIP file.
 * Just be sure to go into its Settings and set the restore password, and then remember
   it.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘Export vs. Backup’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [export](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/export/)

 * In: [Everything else WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/miscellaneous/)
 * 6 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [Chris Burbridge](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chrisbeee/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/export-vs-backup/#post-2678618)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics