Backups Aren’t One Thing — They’re a Strategy
If you’re running anything important on a VPS, “having backups” isn’t a checkbox—it’s a layered system of tradeoffs between speed, cost, and survivability.
Here’s what my current stack looks like:
- DigitalOcean Backups — daily snapshots, retained for 4 weeks
- JetBackup (local) — rolling 3 days of backups stored on the server
- Backblaze B2 (remote via JetBackup) — 3 days offsite
At first glance, this might feel redundant. It’s not. Each layer solves a different failure scenario.
Layer 1: DigitalOcean Backups (Disaster Recovery)
This is your “something went really wrong” safety net.
DigitalOcean snapshots capture the entire VPS:
- OS
- configs
- database
- files
- everything
If your server is completely destroyed, compromised, or misconfigured beyond repair, you can spin up a new droplet from a snapshot.
What it’s good at:
- Full system recovery
- Infrastructure failures
- Catastrophic mistakes
What it’s not good at:
- Speed
- Granularity (you don’t restore “one file”—you restore everything)
Think of this as your insurance policy.
Layer 2: JetBackup (Local Copies = Speed)
JetBackup running locally is about fast recovery.
If you:
- delete a file by accident
- break a WordPress install
- need yesterday’s database
You don’t want to rebuild an entire VPS. You want to click restore and be done in minutes.
Why local backups matter:
- No network latency
- No download time
- Immediate restores
Tradeoff: If the server dies, your local backups die with it.
That’s why this layer cannot stand alone.
Layer 3: Backblaze B2 (Offsite Protection)
This is your “what if the server disappears entirely” layer.
JetBackup pushes copies to Backblaze so your backups exist outside your VPS.
What it protects against:
- Server loss
- Provider issues
- Disk corruption
- Ransomware or compromise
The tradeoff is speed.
Backblaze is object storage—not a local disk. That means:
- Restores require downloading data
- Large restores can take time
- You may be limited by bandwidth or API speed
This is why Backblaze is not your first line of recovery—it’s your last line of defense.
What Backblaze B2 Actually Is (and Why It’s Cheaper)
Backblaze B2 is object storage, similar to Amazon S3.
That means instead of acting like a traditional hard drive, it stores files as objects inside buckets and makes them accessible over an API.
If you’ve used S3 before, the concepts are nearly identical:
- buckets
- object storage
- API-based access
- lifecycle rules
The big difference is cost.
Backblaze is significantly cheaper than Amazon S3 because:
- it has simpler pricing
- fewer enterprise features
- less emphasis on complex integrations and tooling
- fewer “hidden” costs like request pricing tiers
In other words, you’re paying primarily for storage—not an entire ecosystem.
Why That Matters for Backups
For backups, you don’t need:
- ultra-low latency
- complex event triggers
- deep AWS integrations
You need:
- reliable storage
- predictable pricing
- reasonable durability
Backblaze focuses on exactly that.
Where cPanel Fits Into All of This
cPanel already includes a basic backup system. A user can generate a full account backup and download it manually.
That works—but it’s:
- manual
- all-or-nothing
- not something most people keep up with consistently
If something breaks, you’re often dealing with restoring an entire account or digging through a large archive to find what you need.
Where JetBackup Changes the Experience
JetBackup takes that same idea and turns it into something far more usable—especially for non-technical users.
Instead of a one-time full backup, users get:
- a history of restore points
- the ability to restore specific items, like:
- databases
- email accounts
- SSL certificates
- individual files or folders
- account configurations
And most importantly, they can do it themselves, directly inside cPanel.
Why That Matters
This is where backups stop being just a safety net and start becoming a tool.
Instead of relying on support to fix things, users can roll back changes on their own.
That leads to:
- faster recovery
- less downtime
- less dependency on server administrators
- more confidence when making changes
How This Fits Into the Bigger Strategy
JetBackup sits right in the middle of the stack:
- cPanel native backups → manual, full-account safety net
- JetBackup (local + Backblaze) → flexible, user-driven recovery
- DigitalOcean snapshots → full system disaster recovery
Each layer builds on the last, but JetBackup is the one users actually interact with day-to-day.
The Cost Reality
This setup isn’t free:
- DigitalOcean backups: $6.40/month (120 GB Disk)
- JetBackup license: $8.95/month
- Backblaze B2: ~$8.95/month per TB (starting May 1)
You’re looking at roughly $24/month before storage growth.
That might feel like overhead—until the day you need it.
Backblaze Pricing Is Getting Simpler
Backblaze is currently going through a pricing change that makes it even easier to reason about.
Currently, pricing is $8/month per TB of storage, plus additional charges for API calls. That means you have to think about how often backups run, how many files are processed, and how often restores happen.
Starting May 1, Backblaze is moving to a flat ~$8.95/month per TB, with API calls no longer billed separately.
This removes one of the biggest pain points with object storage: unpredictable costs. With services like S3 (and previously B2), costs can creep up due to frequent backup jobs, large numbers of small files, and restore testing.
By eliminating API charges, Backblaze makes pricing much more straightforward: store data and pay for storage, retrieve data without surprise line items.
That also means the cost to recover an account doesn’t increase just because you needed to restore it—something that’s easy to overlook until you actually need it.
The Real Takeaway
Backups aren’t about having a copy.
They’re about having the right copy, in the right place, at the right speed.
Local gives you speed.
Remote gives you safety.
Snapshots give you completeness.
If you only have one, you don’t have a strategy—you have a risk.
