Website Backup & Recovery Checklist
Cloud hosting is not automatically an independent backup. Use this checklist to map the parts of a website that may need protection, understand the Replit-to-GitHub source-code example, set proportionate recovery expectations and prove that a restore could work.
Use this guide to review one important business website. It is practical, vendor-neutral guidance — not a backup service, certification or guarantee that any particular platform will recover the site.
A code copy is a useful start. A recoverable website may also need databases, uploads, media, secrets, DNS, domain access, deployment settings, third-party services and recovery notes.
1 Protect the website components
- □ Source code is copied independently outside the primary hosting or development platform
- □ Commit history and useful previous versions are available
- □ Database backup, export frequency and retention are understood
- □ Uploads, images, media and generated documents are protected separately where needed
- □ DNS records are documented or can be exported and recreated
- □ Domain registrar access is under business control
2 Protect access and hidden configuration
- □ Secrets and API credentials are stored securely and are not committed to Git
- □ Hosting and deployment access is documented for more than one appropriate person
- □ GitHub, hosting and registrar accounts use MFA
- □ Forms, email delivery, webhooks and third-party integrations are listed
- □ Recovery notes name the rebuild dependencies and owners
3 Replit + GitHub source-code example
A Replit project may already contain Git history. A private GitHub repository can be added as an additional remote without removing Replit’s existing Git setup. Verify the files and history after pushing; do not assume that code in GitHub also contains live data or production secrets.
git remote -v
git remote add github https://github.com/USERNAME/REPOSITORY.git
git status
git push -u github main4 Recovery frequency and testing
- □ Frequency follows how much recent work or data the business can afford to lose
- □ Retention period and old-version recovery are known
- □ RPO is understood: how much recent data could be lost
- □ RTO is understood: how long the website could be unavailable
- □ Someone has tested a restore away from the live website
- □ The restored site, database and uploads were actually checked
Recovery questions
- Who owns the backup and recovery decision?
- Who can access the repository, data, storage, domain and hosting?
- Is the backup independent from the live hosting platform?
- What happens if the hosting supplier disappears or the account is locked?
- Could another authorised developer restore the site?
- When did anyone last prove that the backup works?
If the only copy of the site, its data and its backup all depend on the same account or supplier, you may still have a single point of failure.
Operational Heartbeat
Review website recovery when the site, supplier, domain, database or integration changes. At a sensible interval, run a controlled restore test and record missing dependencies as actions.
Plain-English Takeaway
Know what you own, what is protected and how you get it back. Cloud hosting and GitHub can both be useful without either one being the whole recovery plan.
Downloadable guide
Website Backup & Recovery Checklist (PDF)
A two-page A4 checklist covering cloud hosting, independent copies, GitHub, databases, uploads, secrets, DNS, recovery frequency, RPO, RTO and restore testing.
Download Website Backup Checklist (PDF)A4 portrait, two pages, selectable text.
Want the full business explanation?
The Technology Intelligence article covers why this matters, where it helps and what to watch out for.
Read the full Technology Intelligence articleRelated Knowledge Centre resources
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