"Install a backup plugin" is common and sound advice for WordPress owners. The catch is that many plugins store archives on the site itself, on the hosting disk, by default. A new full archive is created every day or week and old ones are sometimes never deleted. After a few months backups take several times more space than the site, fill the disk and push the site into 500 errors.
Why backup plugins fill the disk
The first reason is retention. If files and database total 1.5 GB and the plugin keeps 30 daily copies, backups alone take tens of gigabytes. The second is the archiving process: while compressing, the plugin creates temporary files and briefly needs double the space. If a run is interrupted by the PHP time limit or memory, partial archives stay behind and pile up with each retry. The third is local-only storage: without a remote destination, everything stays on the hosting disk.
Where archives are stored
UpdraftPlus uses wp-content/updraft, All-in-One WP Migration uses wp-content/ai1wm-backups, and Duplicator uses wp-content/backups-dup-lite or wp-snapshots in older versions. Other plugins vary, so check the plugin settings. Check the sizes over SSH:
cd ~/www/example.uz/wp-content
du -sh updraft ai1wm-backups backups-dup-lite wp-snapshots 2>/dev/nullThen sort a folder's contents by size:
ls -lhS ~/www/example.uz/wp-content/updraft | head -20Example: a restaurant site with 30 daily copies
A restaurant in Tashkent runs example.uz on WordPress with a menu, many high-quality food photos and a table booking form, about 1.2 GB in total. The developer enabled daily UpdraftPlus backups with 30 copies retained and no remote storage. About a month later the disk filled, the site went down and bookings stopped. The latest full backup was downloaded and the rest deleted. The plugin was then set to back up files weekly and the database daily, keep two copies on the hosting and send everything to cloud storage.
Cleaning up safely
Delete archives through the plugin's own interface where possible, so it updates its list. If the disk is so full that wp-admin won't load, remove one or two of the oldest archives over SSH or the file manager first. List archives older than two weeks before deleting:
find ~/www/example.uz/wp-content/updraft -type f -mtime +14 -name '*.zip' -print
find ~/www/example.uz/wp-content/updraft -type f -mtime +14 -name '*.gz' -printOnce the list looks right, replace -print with -delete and run it again. Before deleting anything, make sure at least one recent, complete copy exists outside the hosting account, for example on your computer or in cloud storage. Otherwise you may free up space only to find yourself with no backup at all. It is also worth opening that archive once to confirm it is not damaged and actually contains both the files and the database dump, because an incomplete archive gives a false sense of security.
Configuring the plugin
Back up the database daily and files weekly, which is often enough since files change less. Keep two or three copies locally and longer history in remote storage; UpdraftPlus supports Google Drive, Dropbox, FTP, S3 and others, some via paid add-ons. Exclude cache folders and other plugins' backup folders, and never run two backup plugins at once, as they will archive each other's backups and double the space used. Review these settings again whenever the site grows noticeably.
Does hosting backup replace the plugin?
Many providers keep server-level backups, but retention, frequency and restore procedures differ. You can ask how backups work on sayt.uz hosting via the cabinet or technical support. Even so, keep at least one copy of important data yourself, since a backup in a single place is never a full guarantee.