Quick verdict: SiteGround's Site Tools backup supports granular restores, but it lives on the same hosting account it protects, tops out at 30 days retention on shared hosting, and gets deleted if the account is suspended. BackupYourSite closes those gaps with offsite storage from day one and restores independent of your hosting status.
SiteGround is one of the most recommended WordPress hosts in the industry, and its Site Tools backup feature is genuinely more capable than the "one giant snapshot, take it or leave it" reputation that sometimes follows shared-hosting backups around. This article verifies exactly what SiteGround's backup and restore system does and doesn't do — straight from SiteGround's own knowledge base — and shows where the real gaps sit, so you can decide whether you need something running alongside it.
Quick Answer
SiteGround's Site Tools backup service does support restoring individual files, folders, specific databases, and even individual email accounts — it is not strictly "all-or-nothing." The real limitations are elsewhere: backups are stored on the same hosting account they're protecting, retention tops out at 30 days on shared hosting (7 days on Cloud) unless you buy the Premium Backup add-on, and — critically — backups are deleted gradually once an account is suspended or cancelled. BackupYourSite closes those specific gaps: backups live offsite from day one, restore is a single click for a file, a database, or the whole site, and nothing is tied to whether your hosting account itself stays active.
What SiteGround's Backup Service Actually Covers
Verified from SiteGround's own knowledge base (siteground.com/kb/backup-service and siteground.com/kb/restoring-specific-site-data, current as of the site's own May 2026 documentation update), Site Tools' Backups section under Security > Backups supports four restore paths:
- Restore All Files and Databases — a full-site rollback that replaces the current live site with the backup version.
- Restore Files — select individual files or folders and either overwrite them in place or drop them into a separate
.RESTORESfolder in the home directory for manual review first. - Restore specific databases — choose which database(s) to roll back independently of the file system.
- Restore specific email accounts — recover a single mailbox from a backup snapshot without touching the rest of the site.
So the common claim that SiteGround only offers a single full-site restore isn't accurate as of the current product — file-level and database-level restore are real, documented features. Where SiteGround's own documentation gets thinner is exactly what that granular restore looks like in practice: it's a manual file-browser workflow inside Site Tools, not a search-and-restore experience, and there's no mention of restoring a specific WordPress table row, a single plugin's files as a unit, or a point-in-time diff between two backups.
Where the Real Gaps Are
1. Backups Live on the Same Account They're Protecting
This is the structural issue that matters most. SiteGround's daily and hourly backups are stored within your own hosting account's infrastructure — they are not pushed to an independent, offsite location by default. That means the backup's fate is tied to the account's fate: a billing failure, a Terms of Service suspension, or a compromised account can put both your live site and its backup history at risk in the same incident.
2. Backups Are Deleted on Cancellation — By Design
SiteGround's own knowledge base states it plainly: once a site is deleted or suspended, no new standard or premium backups are created, and existing backup copies are deleted gradually. SiteGround's guidance to customers who need their data is to download backups manually before that happens. That's a reasonable policy for a host to have — backups aren't meant to be permanent archival storage — but it means a SiteGround backup is not a safety net for the exact moment you're most likely to need one: switching hosts, disputing a suspension, or recovering from a cancelled account.
3. Retention Is Capped Unless You Pay More
Standard retention is up to 30 daily backup copies on shared hosting (StartUp, GrowBig, GoGeek) and up to 7 daily copies on Cloud hosting. Hourly backups only exist at all if you buy the Premium Backup add-on, and even then they only cover the last 48 hours. If an issue goes unnoticed for longer than your plan's retention window — a slow content corruption, a subtle SQL injection, a bad migration nobody caught for six weeks — the clean backup you needed has already rotated out.
4. StartUp Plan Doesn't Get Daily Backups by Default
Daily automatic backups are included on GrowBig and GoGeek. On the entry-level StartUp plan, daily backups are not included automatically — Premium Backup has to be purchased separately to get them. That's an easy detail to miss when comparing hosting plans on price alone.
5. Manual/Granular Restore Is a File-Browser Task, Not a One-Click Flow
Restoring specific files means navigating Site Tools' file browser to the exact location of what needs restoring and selecting it manually. That's workable for an experienced admin restoring a handful of known files, but it isn't built for "restore this one plugin folder and roll back just this one database table" as a guided, single action — and there's no built-in diff or preview of what changed between the live version and the backup version before you commit to the restore.
Comparison: SiteGround Backups vs. BackupYourSite
| SiteGround Site Tools Backup | BackupYourSite | |
|---|---|---|
| Restore granularity | Full site, specific files/folders, specific databases, specific email accounts (manual file-browser selection) | One-click restore of a single file, a database, or the full site |
| Where backups are stored | On the same hosting account | Offsite, independent of the hosting account |
| Backups on account cancellation/suspension | Deleted gradually — must download manually beforehand | Retained independently; not tied to hosting account status |
| Standard retention (shared hosting) | Up to 30 daily copies | Retention set to match how the site is actually used, not tier-gated |
| Standard retention (Cloud hosting) | Up to 7 daily copies | Same offsite retention model regardless of hosting type |
| Hourly backups | Premium Backup add-on only, last 48 hours | Not gated behind a paid host-side add-on |
| StartUp plan daily backups | Not included by default — requires Premium Backup purchase | Independent of which hosting plan the site is on |
| Restore during a host account issue | Depends on account access and Site Tools being reachable | Works from an independent backup store regardless of hosting account state |
Why "It Backs Up Fine" Isn't the Same as "It's Covered"
The honest version of this comparison isn't that SiteGround's backup system is broken — it clearly isn't, and the file/database/email restore options are more than a lot of hosts offer out of the box. The gap is about where the backup lives relative to what it's protecting. A backup stored inside the same account as the site is a good defense against day-to-day mistakes: a bad plugin update, an accidental file deletion, a hacked wp-config. It's a much weaker defense against anything that affects the account itself — non-payment, a ToS dispute, a migration to a different host, or a provider-side incident that touches storage broadly.
That's the specific scenario an offsite, account-independent backup is built for. It doesn't replace SiteGround's built-in backups for quick day-to-day recoveries — it covers the case where the hosting account itself is the thing at risk, not just the site running on it.
Migrating or Adding Coverage Without Disrupting SiteGround's Own Backups
Adding an independent backup layer alongside SiteGround's existing Site Tools backups doesn't require turning anything off. BackupYourSite connects to pull its own backup copies without interfering with SiteGround's automatic daily/hourly schedule — the two run in parallel, one inside the hosting account and one outside it. That's the practical setup for most sites: keep SiteGround's fast, in-account restore for routine mistakes, and keep an offsite copy for the scenarios where the account itself is the point of failure.
If you're specifically evaluating a host migration rather than adding a second layer, the sequence that avoids downtime is the same either way: confirm the offsite backup is restoring cleanly on a staging or test environment before relying on it exclusively, and only then treat SiteGround's own backup as secondary.
Questions to Ask Before You Decide You're Covered
- Have I actually tested a restore, or am I assuming the backup works? SiteGround's file, database, and email restore options are real, but the only way to know a specific backup is usable is to run a test restore, not to check that a backup icon shows up in Site Tools.
- Where would my backups be if my hosting account were suspended today? If the honest answer is "on the same account that just got suspended," that's the exact gap an offsite backup is meant to close.
- Am I on a plan where daily backups are actually included? StartUp customers specifically should confirm whether they're relying on Premium Backup being purchased, or assuming it's included.
- Does my retention window cover how long an issue could go unnoticed? 30 days (or 7, on Cloud) is generous for obvious problems and can be too short for a slow-burning one.
A Realistic Scenario: Where Each Approach Actually Gets Tested
Backup features are easy to compare on paper and hard to compare in the moment they're actually needed, so it's worth walking through two concrete situations rather than staying abstract.
Scenario one — a bad plugin update breaks the checkout page. This is exactly what SiteGround's Site Tools restore is built for: log into Site Tools, go to Security > Backups, choose Restore Files, navigate to the plugin's directory, and restore it from yesterday's daily backup. The site's account is fine, Site Tools is reachable, and the restore is a same-account, same-session fix. This is the routine case, and SiteGround handles it competently.
Scenario two — a payment method on file expires, the account gets suspended for non-payment, and by the time the card is updated a few days later, backups have already started rotating out per SiteGround's own stated policy. Now the fastest path back to a working site isn't a restore at all — it's whatever copy of the site exists outside that account. If nothing was ever pulled offsite, the options are a stale local export (if one exists), a developer's last-known snapshot, or starting largely from scratch on content that changed since the last time anyone manually exported anything. This is the scenario SiteGround's own documentation is upfront about: it tells customers to download backups before this happens, which is a reasonable warning but not a substitute for a backup that was never dependent on the account staying active in the first place.
The point isn't that scenario two is common — most accounts don't get suspended. It's that scenario one and scenario two require two structurally different kinds of backup, and SiteGround's built-in system is well-built for the first and explicitly not built for the second.
What to Actually Check on Your Own Site Right Now
Rather than taking either side of this comparison on faith, three checks take under ten minutes and tell you exactly where you stand:
- Log into Site Tools > Security > Backups and note how many daily copies currently exist and the date of the oldest one. If you're on StartUp and Premium Backup was never purchased, this list may be shorter than you assume.
- Do a test restore of one non-critical file to the
.RESTORESfolder, not to the live location, just to confirm the workflow and that a recent backup actually opens cleanly. - Ask what would happen to those backups if the account were suspended tomorrow. If the honest answer is "I'd need to download them first, and I haven't," that's the specific gap worth closing before it becomes urgent instead of after.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does SiteGround only support full-site restores?
No. SiteGround's Site Tools Backups feature (Security > Backups) supports restoring the full site, specific files or folders, specific databases, and specific email accounts independently. Full-site restore is one option among several, not the only one.
What happens to SiteGround backups if I cancel my hosting account?
According to SiteGround's own knowledge base, once a site is deleted or suspended, no new backups are created and existing backup copies are deleted gradually. SiteGround recommends downloading any backups you need before cancelling or letting an account lapse.
How long does SiteGround keep backups?
Shared hosting plans (StartUp, GrowBig, GoGeek) retain up to 30 daily backup copies. Cloud hosting retains up to 7 daily copies. Longer retention and hourly backups (last 48 hours) require the paid Premium Backup add-on.
Does the SiteGround StartUp plan include daily backups?
Not by default. Daily automatic backups are included on GrowBig and GoGeek. StartUp customers need to purchase the Premium Backup add-on separately to get daily backups.
Are SiteGround's backups stored offsite?
SiteGround's standard and premium backups are stored within the hosting account's own infrastructure, not pushed to an independent offsite location by default. This is the main structural difference from a dedicated offsite backup service.
Can I use an offsite backup tool alongside SiteGround's built-in backups?
Yes. An offsite backup service like BackupYourSite runs independently of SiteGround's Site Tools backup schedule — the two don't conflict, and running both means routine mistakes are covered by SiteGround's fast in-account restore while account-level risks are covered by the offsite copy.
The Bottom Line
SiteGround's backup system is more capable than its reputation — file, database, and email-level restore are real, documented features, not a marketing claim. The genuine limitation is structural: backups live inside the same account they're protecting, they're deleted on cancellation or suspension, and retention is capped unless you pay for an add-on. If your main risk is an accidental file overwrite or a bad update, SiteGround's own tools handle that well. If your risk includes losing access to the hosting account itself, an offsite, account-independent backup like BackupYourSite is the layer that specific scenario needs — running alongside SiteGround's backups, not replacing the parts that already work.