Does it make sense to pay for backup for my VPS?

Question

I am hosting my sites on site5.com.

And while their shared hosting is offering a backup by the company, their VPS hosting (the one I am paying over $100/month for) doesn't come with a backup plan. For their backup I will need to pay an extra $4/month. My questions are:

1. Does that make sense in terms of the technological side? (is it more of a trouble for them to backup a VPS then a shared hosting?)
2. Is there an easy automatic way for me to backup my sites (files+databases) without relying on them?

Answer 1

If you have data that is worth backing up then The $4/month seems quite cheap to me. What is the value of this data ?

Does that make sense in terms of the technological side? (is it more of a trouble for them to backup a VPS then a shared hosting?)

You would really have to talk to site5 - it's their business decision.

Is there an easy automatic way for me to backup my sites (files+databases) without relying on them?

You don't even tell us what OS, DBS etc. your VPS is running so it's difficult to advise. If you have to ask that question then chances are you are going to struggle to get something set up and working correctly. If you put any value of your time it will cost more than $4/month to do this.

Who do you suggest for VPS hosting?

This is a shopping question which are off topic for ServerFault.

Answer 2

In order to backup your VPS, you'll need an extra storage on another machine and a connection. If you think you can do it for less than $4/mo, go with it. If not, just simply use site5 service.

Answer 3

If you already paying over $100 for hosting I don't see why paying less than 4 percent extra for backup is an issue.I do believe however that vps providers should provide basic backup for free.I use tektonic.net and they do it for all plans.