What does “daily backups” mean?
That the host copies your files and database once a day. It says nothing about how many copies are kept, where they are stored, or whether you can restore one yourself without a ticket. Those three things are what separate the plans, and they are on the plan page if you look.
From the plan pages we read on 13 October 2026: FastComet keeps up to thirty daily copies in a separate data center with unlimited restores from the panel; Flashcloud keeps daily copies for 30 days on separate infrastructure with file, database or mailbox restores from the portal; Hosting.com keeps 30 days of off-server restore points; SiteGround keeps daily copies for 30 days; ScalaHosting keeps seven restore points. Hostinger backs up weekly on its cheapest plan and daily above it; Bluehost backs up weekly. HostPapa includes backups for the first year only; InMotion sells them as an add-on.
Why does retention matter more than frequency?
Because you do not notice most problems the day they happen. A plugin update that corrupts a table, a hacked file that sits quietly, a bulk delete by a colleague: these surface days later. If the host keeps one daily copy, by the time you notice, the only backup is of the broken site. Thirty days of retention means thirty chances to pick the day before it went wrong.
Frequency decides how much you lose when you do restore. A daily backup loses up to a day of orders or comments; a weekly one loses up to a week. For a site that changes rarely, weekly is fine; for a store, daily is the minimum and hourly database backups are worth paying for.
Where should the backup live?
Not on the server it backs up. A disk failure or a ransomware event on the server takes the local backups with it. FastComet, Flashcloud and Hosting.com state on their plan pages that backups are stored separately; the others do not say, which does not mean they are not, only that you should ask.
What does a host backup not cover?
Three things. First, the account itself: if the host suspends or closes it, or the host disappears, the backups go with it. Second, anything outside the backup’s scope, which at some hosts excludes email or excludes files over a size. Third, your own mistakes within the retention window: if you notice after 30 days, a 30-day retention has nothing left.
So keep one copy you control: a monthly export of files and database to your own storage, done by a plugin or by hand. It is the backup that survives a host dispute, and it is the one you will use when you move hosts.
How should you test a backup?
Restore it, once, on a staging site. Every host with staging (Flashcloud, Hosting.com, SiteGround from GrowBig, Bluehost, HostPapa) lets you restore a backup into the staging copy without touching the live site. A backup that has never been restored is a hope, not a plan.