Your website is a business asset. Losing it — to a botched edit, a server incident, an account compromise — is expensive in lost revenue and harder to recover from than most owners realise. Sitejet Builder on smartxhosting.uk gives you four layers of backup coverage: in-editor autosave, manual snapshots, site-wide daily server backups, and full ZIP export. This guide explains each layer and how to restore when something goes wrong.
Why backups matter · Automatic backups in Sitejet Builder · Creating manual backups · Restoring a previous version · Website export — your ultimate backup · smartxhosting.uk daily server backups · What backups include · Backup best practices · FAQ
Three common UK SME recovery scenarios:
Without backups, each of these means rebuilding. With backups, each is a 30-second restore.
Sitejet autosaves every 5–10 minutes and on major changes. These autosaves create a version history you can revert to. Default retention: 30 days of autosave history.
Top toolbar → History icon → pick a point in time → Preview → Restore. No publish happens automatically; you can revert to a previous version in the editor and then decide whether to publish it.
Before a significant edit (redesigning a section, swapping a template, applying bulk changes), create a manual snapshot. Site Settings → Backups → Create manual backup. Give it a name (“Before homepage redesign 21 April”).
Manual backups have indefinite retention (they do not expire like autosaves). Keep one before every major change.
Beyond in-Sitejet backups, you can export the entire site as a ZIP containing clean HTML, CSS, JavaScript and images. Site Settings → Export → Download.
This is a complete off-platform copy. Keep a fresh export monthly on local storage, cloud storage (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive) or a network drive. Your insurance against any catastrophic scenario — platform outage, account loss, vendor changes.
The exported ZIP is static HTML — it can be hosted on any web server, CDN or static-site service. Full portability insurance. See our website builder lock-in UK guide.
On top of Sitejet’s in-editor backups, smartxhosting.uk takes daily server-side backups of every hosting account. Retention: 7 rolling days.
Used for disaster recovery scenarios (server-level failure, ransomware event, account compromise). Contact smartxhosting.uk support to restore from server backup — typically within 2 working hours.
| Backup type | Contains | Retention |
|---|---|---|
| Editor autosave | Page content, layout, styling, settings | 30 days |
| Manual snapshot | Same as autosave | Indefinite (you manage) |
| ZIP export | Static HTML, CSS, JS, images (full site) | Indefinite (you manage) |
| smartxhosting.uk server | Everything in your hosting account (files + mailboxes + databases) | 7 days rolling |
Q: How far back can I restore?
A: 30 days of in-editor autosaves + indefinite manual snapshots you created. ZIP exports you saved off-platform can go back as long as you kept them. smartxhosting.uk server backups cover 7 rolling days.
Q: Does restoring affect the live site?
A: Only if you publish the restored version. Restore rolls back the editor draft; the live site stays as currently published until you explicitly publish the restored version.
Q: Can I download a backup to my computer?
A: Yes via ZIP export — produces a complete off-platform copy you can store anywhere.
Q: Are backups included in the £5/month plan?
A: Yes. In-editor backups, manual snapshots, ZIP export and server backups are all included.
Q: What happens if I lose access to my Sitejet account?
A: Contact smartxhosting.uk support with proof of ownership (invoice, registered contact). Account recovery process typically 24 working hours.
Q: Can I restore just one page?
A: Yes — restore to a snapshot in preview, copy the page content, return to current, paste back. Granular restore is manual but feasible.