One of the most time consuming tasks when it comes to building dozens of site that will become AdSense sites, Amazon sites, part of a big blog network or any other type of site is setting up WordPress the way you want it.
When you are only building a small number of sites setting up WordPress for each site can be done manually as it won’t take too much time, but when you are building sites as if it was a factory line the combined time you will end up spending setting up WordPress manually on each site will be substantial and as you know, time is mucho important to me (as it should be for you) and whenever there is a task I can automate in someway and save time, I will take it with both hands.
I am glad to tell you that I have found the best WordPress cloner plugin (among the ones I know of and tried). Say hello to Backup Creator.
Backup Creator Overview
| Name: | Backup Creator |
| Creator: | Robert Plank |
| Focus: | WordPress Backup & Clone |
| Price: | $47 (multi license) |
| Website: | http://www.backupcreator.com/ |
Why Is Backup Creator So Good?
It is super easy to use and it works 100% of the times and both of these facts are not very common to the other WordPress cloning tools I tried and tested over the past year.
As you can figure out from the name of the plugin, it is mostly intended for WordPress backup purposes which is something I already got covered thanks to BackupBuddy so the main reason I bought Backup Creator was for the cloning feature it has as that is a must have for anyone building dozens of sites every months for whatever purpose.
Since I am building dozens of AdSense sites I could really use a good WordPress cloning tool but due to the bad experiences I had with other similar plugins and services I didn’t get my hopes up but decided to test it out since it was recommended by someone I trust and value his opinion.
How Does Backup Creator Work?
One you finish installing Backup Creator on your blog and you will enter your license information you will see the following screen:
All you need to do is click the Backup This Site button and let it do what it does and backup your entire WordPress installation (Content, Themes, Plugins, Settings).
Once the backup is complete you will be able to download the Backup Creator plugin again and this time it will have the latest backup you created saved so when you go the new WordPress blog on which you want to clone the site you just backed up you simply add the plugin you just downloaded and when you get to the main screen you will see a URL showing in the box:
Simply select the Restore from URL option and clicked the Restore From Backup button and that’s it. It will clone the backup site onto the new WordPress site with all the content, themes, plugins, settings and anything else you can think of. Something that really surprised me is the fact that the plugin knows to change the URL in various settings from the URL of the site you are looking to clone to the URL of the site your are cloning on to.
That ability saves me even more time since I don’t need to go over some of the setting and change the URL manually. Just to explain what I mean I will provide you with an example. One of the theme I am using to create AdSense sites is the Heatmap Theme and in the theme settings I can determine what to show in the various footer locations and I usually link to pages on the site.
After I created my master backup of an AdSense site and I clone it to a new WordPress installation I created I don’t need to edit the URLs since they are automatically changed to the URL of the new WordPress site I am cloning on to. I was fully prepared to manually edit some settings so it really surprised me that I didn’t need to do that:).
Why I love Backup Creator?
Besides the fact that backup creator is super easy to use and that it actually works much better than expected, I also love the low price ($47) and the fact that Robert didn’t do what most other premium WordPress plugin developers do and that is to provide a single site license for the low price and hope that everyone will pay more for a multi site license.
Backup Creator comes with a multi site license for a very affordable price (I would have paid much more for the time this plugins saved and going to save me) and if you want to be able to use it on your clients sites or sites you end up selling than you will need the developer version which will cost an additional $47.
The support is great and I doubt if you will even need it. In the members area you will find your license key, an installation guide and an installation video so you are well covered. In case you do have problems, you can simply submit a ticket via the helpdesk.
Bottom Line
I have cloned dozens of sites so far with Backup Creator and it worked 100% of the times. It is so easy to use and all it takes it to simply know how to add a new plugin to WordPress which is something everyone operating WordPress sites knows how to do. No need to use any PHP scripts or anything else that might complicate the process.
I have created master backups for the various types of sites I usually create (and I recommend you do that same) and once that is done it really takes me under 1 minute to have a ready to go WordPress installation that only require me to add content to the site.
I personally think Backup Creator is a must have for anyone creating new sites on a regular basis and the time it will help you save is worth 100 times the price of the plugin.
To your success (and mine 
),
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
You dont use ManageWP?
Hi Dan, I did use ManageWP trial for a while but that ended and the price is simply too high in my opinion.
I found a different solution for managing all my sites and as far as cloning goes, Backup Creator solved that for me and it is better than the cloning feature that comes with ManageWP (IMHO).
Thanks.
What solution did you find that replace ManageWP for managing multiple wordpress websites from one place?
Hi Ron, It is called xMarkPro and i’m still testing it out so can’t say anything good or bad about it just yet.
Hey Dave. Yeah there’s a lot of promising plugins out there but fall short, some with big bucks for multi sites and incur an annual fee. As a result, what I’ve done is use a free db plugin to email me my database backups and then use SyncbackSE to create full backups of my sites and have them stored on a disk drive.
If your computer is on during a specific time, you can even tell Syncback to automate the backup process. It’s $30 and you can use it on as many sites as you like… they don’t even have to be WordPress sites.
Aside from that, most of my niche/adsense sites are static HTML sites. I’ve done that because it takes way too much time to manage WP upgrades, security issues, etc. I just send an email to my girl in the Philippines and she sets them up.
I prefer using WordPress but as you say, it is a pain to handle all the updates when you have dozens of sites so you really need a domain management solution so you will be able to handle all the domains from one place. Does SyncbackSE provide you with the ability to clone sites easily?
Why not use BackupBuddy to move your site? Any limitations to using BackupBuddy?
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Hi Pering, you can use BackupBuddy but I just didn’t really like the process. I find that Backup Creator cloning feature is a lot easier and faster to use.
Hello Dave i bought it from your link today and i started using it.
Very Good plugin, i was using wptwin but it had some issues with Hostgator lately and i didnt want to delay im building more niche sites… this is working for me very good and i dont have to upload it from my computer .
Hi Aldo,
Glad to read you love the plugin
Wel it does a very good job for a nice price. is not easy to spend $150 a backup plugin.
Also this is easier and faster to use than buddy backup for cloning sites…