Duplicator
Dev Tools Verified May 2026
Duplicator deal: Solid backup/migration tool — verified deal
Clone and migrate WordPress sites without touching code
- Industry standard for WordPress site migration and cloning
- Works even on large databases that break other migration plugins
- Cloud storage backup to Dropbox, S3, Google Drive, OneDrive
- Installer wizard makes moving to a new host straightforward
How Duplicator scored 79/100
6 weighted criteria, each scored out of 10 and published with its reasoning. Featured placements never move a score.
Deal Strength
8.0 /10Duplicator Pro is running a limited-time 60% off across every tier, so a two-site Basic licence lands well under its usual $79/year. The free plugin on WordPress.org already handles one-off migrations at no cost, so the paid offer buys scheduling and cloud storage rather than the core feature.
Value for Money
8.0 /10Priced fairly for a WordPress backup and migration plugin: Basic covers two sites, Plus five sites for $199/year, and the 20-site Pro tier at $399 undercuts most managed backup services once you run more than a couple of sites. The current 60% sale sharpens that further.
Capability
8.0 /10Few plugins clone and migrate WordPress as cleanly. Duplicator bundles the whole database and file set into a portable archive, then restores it with a drag-and-drop installer; Pro adds scheduled and hourly backups, cloud storage to Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive, multisite support, one-click recovery points, and chunked handling for large sites.
Time to Value
8.0 /10New users get a working migration fast. The free version alone can package and move a site in a two-step process, and Pro's server-to-server import and drag-and-drop installer skip manual database edits, so most sites are cloned or restored in minutes rather than hours.
Trust & Reliability
8.0 /10A well-established plugin with a strong track record: more than 1.5 million professionals use it, it holds a 4.9-star rating across 3,500-plus WordPress reviews, and it carries a WPBeginner Verified badge alongside a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Flexibility & Exit
7.0 /10Billing is annual with auto-renewal rather than month-to-month, which is the main flexibility trade-off. Exit risk is low, though: backups are standard portable archives with a bundled installer, so your sites restore anywhere, and the 14-day guarantee covers early second thoughts.
Solid backup/migration tool — verified deal
Affiliate link — same price for you, and it never moves the score.
- Industry standard for WordPress site migration and cloning
- Works even on large databases that break other migration plugins
- Cloud storage backup to Dropbox, S3, Google Drive, OneDrive
- Installer wizard makes moving to a new host straightforward
About Duplicator
Quick answer
Clone and migrate WordPress sites without touching code
Duplicator, in 30 seconds
Duplicator is the WordPress plugin you reach for when you need to clone a site, migrate it to a new host, or push staging to live without breaking serialised database strings. The free version handles smaller sites; Duplicator Pro adds scheduled backups, large-site streaming, multisite and direct cloud storage. It is a specialist tool, not a daily-driver — but on the day you need it, almost nothing else gets the same job done as cleanly.
How Duplicator actually works
The plugin builds a "package" — a zip archive of your files plus a SQL dump — and a small installer script. You upload both to the destination server, hit the installer, and it rebuilds the database, fixes site URLs and replaces serialised data correctly. Pro adds a one-click drag-and-drop import that skips the manual installer step for most sites.
For ongoing use, Pro can run scheduled packages straight to Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or an SFTP target. Recovery points let you roll a broken site back to a known-good package in a few clicks, which is the feature most people end up valuing the most.
Pricing reality
Duplicator Pro starts around 49.50 US dollars a year for a single site (Personal), with Freelancer at roughly 99 dollars covering three sites and adding scheduled backups, and Business and Elite tiers covering more sites and adding multisite and managed-cloud storage. Annual renewals discount automatically. The free version on the WordPress.org repo is genuinely usable for one-off migrations under about 500 MB.
Compared with the all-in-one backup category (UpdraftPlus, BackupBuddy, BlogVault), Duplicator is priced fairly for what it does — but it is migration-first, with backup as a secondary use case. If you mainly want set-and-forget incremental backups, BlogVault is a better fit.
Duplicator vs the alternatives
| Tool | Best at | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Duplicator Pro | Server-to-server migrations, large-site streaming | Backups are full snapshots, not incremental |
| UpdraftPlus Premium | Cheap scheduled backups, lots of remote storage targets | Migration UX is fiddly with serialised data |
| BlogVault | Incremental, off-server backups and staging | Subscription, not a one-off licence |
| WP Migrate (Pro) | Push/pull dev to staging to live for agencies | Higher price; aimed at workflow, not first-time users |
Buy if / skip if
Buy if you
- Migrate WordPress sites between hosts more than once or twice a year.
- Run an agency or freelance practice and want a repeatable clone-and-deploy workflow.
- Need recovery points and scheduled off-server packages without paying for managed backup SaaS.
- Have a multisite network and need a migration tool that actually understands it.
Skip if you
- Only need automatic, incremental, off-server backups — BlogVault or Jetpack VaultPress is a better fit.
- Are on managed WordPress hosting (Kinsta, WP Engine) where one-click clone/migrate is already built in.
- Run very large sites (50 GB+) where database-level replication beats file-and-SQL packaging.
What's included
- One-click site cloning and migration
- Free tier handles most migrations
- Staging environment creation in seconds
- No coding or CLI knowledge required
- SaaSTweaks-verified affiliate deal
- Vendor-direct activation flow
- Editorial pros + cons review
- Tracked savings claim with refresh date
Duplicator pricing
Verified May 2026. Vendor's published rates at the time we checked — always confirm at checkout.
| Plan | Price | Term | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | forever (wordpress.org) | Basic cloning · Manual backups · FTP transfer · Limited import |
| Starter | $69/yr | 1 site | Automated backups · Cloud storage (Dropbox/Google Drive/S3) · Email notifications · Priority support |
| Plus | $99/yr | 3 sites | Everything in Starter · Multisite support · Scheduled backups · Installer branding |
| Pro | $149/yr | 20 sites | Everything in Plus · Unlimited sub-site migration · Onsite recovery points · Advanced installer |
| Elite | $249/yr | unlimited sites | Everything in Pro · Unlimited sites · White-label installer · API access · Priority support |
How to claim it
4 steps. The last one is the part most people skip.
- 1
Open Duplicator through the link on this page
It carries our referral tag. The price you pay is identical either way, and it never changes the score on this page.
- 2
Pick the plan that matches your usage
This offer applies automatically through the link — there is no code to enter.
- 3
Confirm the discount before you pay
The order summary should show the reduced amount. If it does not, stop and tell us — we re-test listings that stop working.
- 4
Check what happens at renewal
Note the renewal date and the rate it reverts to, so the second invoice is not a surprise. Annual plans are usually cheaper per month but harder to exit.
Where Duplicator wins and loses
What works
- Industry standard for WordPress site migration and cloning
- Works even on large databases that break other migration plugins
- Cloud storage backup to Dropbox, S3, Google Drive, OneDrive
- Installer wizard makes moving to a new host straightforward
What doesn't
- Free version lacks scheduled backups — key feature locked behind paid
- Very large sites (>2GB database) can still timeout on shared hosts
- Recovery from backup less smooth than dedicated backup plugins
- Annual renewal pricing can catch agency clients off guard
The bottom line
Duplicator is the most reliable way to move, back up, or clone a WordPress site without touching code, and a genuinely capable free version means you can migrate first and pay later. Annual-only Pro licensing is the main catch, but for anyone who lives in WordPress it is a clear Strong Buy.
There is a free version on the WordPress.org plugin repo that handles small, one-off migrations. Duplicator Pro adds scheduled backups, large-site streaming, multisite, recovery points and direct cloud storage.
Yes, on Pro. The package builder streams files and the database in chunks, so you can move sites well into the tens of gigabytes — though for very large sites, host-level snapshots will still be faster.
Multisite migration and per-subsite extraction are available on the Business and Elite tiers, not on Personal or Freelancer.
UpdraftPlus is backup-first with migration as a side feature; Duplicator is migration-first with backups as a side feature. If you mainly want incremental scheduled backups, UpdraftPlus or BlogVault is a better fit.
Yes — most agencies use packages plus the drag-and-drop import for staging-to-live, although for frequent sync work WP Migrate's push/pull workflow is more polished.
Generally yes, but managed hosts (Kinsta, WP Engine, Pressable) already have one-click clone and migrate tools built in. Duplicator earns its keep when you are moving onto, off, or between hosts that lack those tools.
