What is BackupWall?
BackupWall is self-hosted backup, restore and migration software for hosting servers that run cPanel & WHM, DirectAdmin, Plesk or no control panel at all. It runs on your own server, stores backups on storage you choose, and is sold by PortWall.
What BackupWall does
BackupWall backs up the hosting accounts on a server on a schedule and restores them when you need them. For each account it captures files, MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL databases, email, DNS zones, SSL certificates, cron jobs and FTP logins, plus the panel settings that rebuild the account. It also moves accounts to another server, including between cPanel, DirectAdmin and Plesk, and it can rebuild itself from a Disaster Recovery bundle if the BackupWall server is lost.
Backups are incremental and deduplicated: after the first run, only changed data is read and uploaded, and identical data is stored once.
Who BackupWall is for
BackupWall is for hosting companies and system administrators who run their own cPanel & WHM, DirectAdmin or Plesk servers (or a plain Linux server) and want backups they control. Administrators work in the BackupWall console or inside WHM and DirectAdmin. Account owners can restore and download their own backups from the cPanel and DirectAdmin plugins.
What makes BackupWall different
- Self-hosted. The engine runs on your server and writes straight to your storage. Your backup data never passes through a PortWall service. The only traffic to PortWall is the licence check-in and update downloads.
- Bounded memory. The engine is designed so that every process stays within about 200 MB of RAM whatever the size of the data. In PortWall's tests each service peaked at roughly 85 to 145 MB during backups.
- Many destinations. Amazon S3 and S3-compatible storage (including Wasabi and Backblaze B2), Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, OneDrive, SFTP, and local or NFS folders.
- Encryption you control. Turn on Encrypt backup data for a job and its contents are sealed with AES-256-GCM before they leave the server. The key lives on your server and in your own passphrase-sealed Disaster Recovery bundle. PortWall never holds it.
- Verified restores. Every restored object is checked against its hash. A daily integrity check, a weekly restore check and a Verify now button prove your backups are readable.
- Licensing that fails open. If a licence lapses, backups pause but restores, downloads and Disaster Recovery always keep working. Nothing is ever deleted.
What BackupWall is not
BackupWall is a file-level engine. It does not image the whole server, install the operating system or the control panel, scan for malware, or run on Windows. One BackupWall installation serves one server; there is no multi-server console. See Known limitations.
Status
BackupWall is in a closed beta (version 0.9.0-beta.1). Supported in the beta: AlmaLinux 8 and 9, Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04, Debian 12; cPanel & WHM v100 or newer, DirectAdmin and Plesk.