There is a conversation that no hosting provider wants to have with a client. It goes something like this: the client’s site has been corrupted, hacked, or accidentally deleted, they need it restored, and you have to tell them that there is no recent backup available to restore from.
That conversation ends hosting relationships. In some jurisdictions and circumstances, it ends hosting businesses entirely through chargebacks, legal action, or reputational damage that makes client acquisition impossible. And it is entirely preventable.
JetBackup 5 is the backup management solution that the cPanel hosting industry has standardised on. It automates the creation, storage, and management of backups for every account on your server, and it gives both you and your clients the ability to restore files, databases, email, and entire accounts from a clean, modern interface without requiring a support ticket or technical intervention.
At $5 per quarter through Tremhost currently $2.50 per quarter with the 50% off promotion it is also one of the most cost-effective licenses in your entire hosting stack. This guide covers everything you need to know about why it matters and how to get it.
The backup problem every hosting provider faces
Ask most hosting providers whether they have backups configured on their server and the answer will be yes. Ask them when they last tested a restore, whether clients can perform self-service restores, and whether their backup destination is genuinely independent of their primary server storage and the answers become more complicated.
Backups are one of those infrastructure components that hosting providers know they need, set up with good intentions, and then fail to revisit until something goes wrong. The failure modes are well known but frequently ignored:
Backups stored on the same server as the data. If a server fails catastrophically — hardware failure, severe compromise, data centre incident backups stored on the same machine are lost along with the primary data. A backup that cannot survive the failure scenario it is meant to protect against is not a backup.
Backups that have never been tested. Backup jobs that complete without errors do not guarantee restorable data. Corrupted backup files, misconfigured retention policies, incomplete account captures these issues go undetected until a restore is attempted and fails. Testing restores regularly is not optional; it is the only way to verify that backups work.
No client self-service restore capability. When a client needs to restore a single file or database which happens far more frequently than full account restores routing that request through your support team creates delays, friction, and support overhead that scales with your account volume. A hosting provider with 200 accounts who cannot offer self-service restores is handling dozens of restore requests manually every month.
Inconsistent backup schedules. Manual or loosely configured backup processes generate inconsistent coverage — some accounts backed up daily, others weekly, some with gaps that only become apparent when a restore is needed.
JetBackup 5 addresses all of these failure modes systematically, replacing improvised backup arrangements with a professional, automated, auditable backup infrastructure.
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What is JetBackup 5?
JetBackup 5 is the current version of JetBackup a backup management plugin for cPanel that integrates directly into WHM for server administrator management and into cPanel for client-facing backup and restore operations.
It was built specifically for cPanel hosting environments and has become the industry standard backup solution for cPanel servers, used by hosting providers of every size from single-server independents to large-scale hosting operations.
Version 5 the version included in Tremhost’s license is a complete rebuild from earlier versions, featuring a modern interface, significantly expanded backup destination support, more granular restore capabilities, and improved performance for large account volumes.
What JetBackup 5 does: the complete feature breakdown
Automated backup scheduling
JetBackup 5 allows you to configure automated backup schedules for every account on your server daily, weekly, monthly, or custom intervals with configurable retention policies that determine how many backup generations to keep.
Schedules can be configured at the server level as defaults and overridden on a per-account basis. High-value accounts or accounts with frequently changing data can have more frequent backup schedules than low-activity accounts, giving you flexible coverage without unnecessary storage overhead.
Backup jobs run automatically in the background without impacting server performance JetBackup is designed to throttle its resource consumption during backup operations to avoid affecting the web serving performance of active hosting accounts.
https://tremhost.com/clientarea/store/licenses
Multiple backup destinations
JetBackup 5 supports a comprehensive range of backup storage destinations, including:
- Local storage — backup to a separate disk or partition on the same server (useful as a fast restore source but should not be your only destination)
- Remote FTP/SFTP — backup to any FTP or SFTP accessible storage
- Amazon S3 — backup directly to S3 or any S3-compatible object storage (Backblaze B2, Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces, MinIO)
- Google Drive — backup to Google Drive accounts
- Backblaze B2 — direct integration with Backblaze’s cost-effective cloud storage
- SFTP destinations — any SFTP-accessible storage including NAS devices, dedicated backup servers, and cloud VMs
The ability to configure multiple simultaneous backup destinations sending the same backup to both local storage and a remote S3 bucket, for example allows you to implement a genuine 3-2-1 backup strategy (three copies of data, two different storage types, one offsite) without additional tooling.
https://tremhost.com/clientarea/store/licenses
Granular restore capabilities
JetBackup 5’s restore interface — available to both administrators in WHM and clients in cPanel — supports granular restoration at every level of an account:
- Full account restore — restore an entire cPanel account including all files, databases, email, DNS records, and configuration
- File restore — restore individual files or directories from any backup generation
- Database restore — restore specific MySQL or PostgreSQL databases without touching other account components
- Email restore — restore specific email accounts, individual folders, or individual messages
- DNS zone restore — restore DNS configurations independently of other account components
- Cron job restore — restore scheduled task configurations
This granularity matters enormously in practice. The overwhelming majority of restore requests from clients are not full account restores — they are “I accidentally deleted this file” or “my database got corrupted by a plugin update” or “I need to revert my site to how it looked last Tuesday.” JetBackup 5 handles all of these with the same ease as a full restore.
Client self-service restores
This is the feature that most directly reduces your support burden and most directly improves client satisfaction simultaneously.
Every client on your server with a cPanel account has access to a JetBackup interface within their cPanel. They can browse their available backup generations, navigate their backed-up file structure, and initiate restores of files, databases, or email independently — without submitting a support ticket, without waiting for a response, and without any involvement from your team.
For clients who accidentally overwrite a file, delete a database table, or need to roll back a plugin update, self-service restore turns what would be a stressful support interaction into a two-minute self-resolution. Clients who can solve their own problems quickly are clients who stay.
From your perspective as a hosting provider, each self-service restore is a support ticket that was never submitted. Across a server with hundreds of accounts, this adds up to a significant reduction in support workload every month.
Administrator restore and management in WHM
From WHM, server administrators have full visibility and control over the entire backup infrastructure:
- View backup status and completion logs for all accounts
- Monitor storage consumption per destination
- Initiate manual backups on demand for any account
- Perform administrator-initiated restores for any account
- Configure and test backup destinations
- Set server-wide backup policies and per-account overrides
- Receive alerts for backup failures or storage threshold warnings
The WHM interface gives you the operational oversight to ensure your backup infrastructure is functioning correctly — not just running, but producing verified, complete, restorable backups consistently.
Backup verification
JetBackup 5 includes backup verification tools that allow you to confirm that backup files are complete and restorable without performing a full restore. Regular automated verification catches corrupted or incomplete backups before they are needed in an emergency, rather than discovering the problem at the worst possible moment.
Why backups are a client expectation, not a bonus feature
In 2026, clients shopping for hosting expect backups to be included as a standard feature of their hosting plan — not a premium add-on, not something they need to configure themselves, and not something that requires a support request to access.
The major hosting providers — SiteGround, WP Engine, Kinsta, and others — all market automated daily backups with self-service restore as a core feature of their hosting plans. Clients who come from these providers arrive with the expectation that backups are simply part of what hosting includes.
For an independent hosting provider offering plans without backups — or with backups that clients cannot access themselves — this expectation gap is a competitive liability. Prospective clients who ask “what’s your backup policy?” and receive a vague or unsatisfying answer will choose a provider who gives them a clear, confident answer.
JetBackup 5 gives you that clear, confident answer: daily automated backups of every account, stored on independent storage, restorable by clients themselves in minutes, with full granularity down to individual files and database tables. That is a backup policy you can state plainly and clients will trust.
JetBackup and the cost of not having it
The cost of JetBackup 5 at Tremhost is $5 per quarter — $1.67 per month at standard pricing, or $0.84 per month at the current 50% off promotional rate.
The cost of not having it is harder to quantify but straightforward to illustrate.
Scenario 1: A client’s WordPress site is compromised through a vulnerable plugin. The attacker deletes the site’s files and drops the database. Without JetBackup, you are rebuilding from whatever partial backup exists — potentially days or weeks old, potentially missing entirely. With JetBackup, you restore to the previous day’s backup in minutes. The client is frustrated but satisfied. Without backups, the client is gone, and depending on their business, potentially pursuing a refund or legal action.
Scenario 2: A client accidentally overwrites their entire public_html directory while uploading files via FTP. Without self-service restores, they submit a support ticket, wait for your response, and wait again for you to perform the restore manually — potentially hours of their site being down. With JetBackup, they log into cPanel, navigate to JetBackup, and restore their files themselves in under five minutes. No ticket, no downtime beyond the restore time, no friction.
Scenario 3: A server disk fails catastrophically, taking primary data with it. Without a remote backup destination configured in JetBackup, backups stored on the same disk are lost. With JetBackup configured to replicate to S3 or Backblaze, a full account restore from offsite backup is possible. The difference is recoverable versus unrecoverable.
At $0.84 per month, JetBackup costs less than any of these scenarios in time, client retention, or liability. It is not a cost — it is insurance that happens to be extraordinarily cheap.
JetBackup pricing: Tremhost vs direct
Buying directly from JetBackup: JetBackup 5 licenses purchased directly start at approximately $10 per month for a cPanel server.
Buying from Tremhost:
- JetBackup License: $5 per quarter (~$1.67/month)
- With the current 50% off promotion: $2.50 per quarter (~$0.84/month)
Tremhost’s standard price is already more than 80% below direct vendor pricing. At the promotional rate of $2.50 per quarter, there is no credible financial argument for not running JetBackup on every cPanel server you operate.
JetBackup is also included free in Tremhost’s VPS and Dedicated license bundles — if you are ordering the complete hosting stack bundle, JetBackup is part of the package at no additional cost.
Setting up JetBackup 5 on your cPanel server
Getting JetBackup operational on a cPanel server involves three steps:
Step 1: License activation. Order your JetBackup license from Tremhost at tremhost.com/licenses.html. Activation is instant. Tremhost provides free installation assistance if needed.
Step 2: Configure your backup destinations. In WHM, navigate to JetBackup and configure at least one remote backup destination — S3, Backblaze, SFTP, or another supported option. Configure a local destination as a secondary fast-restore source if desired. Test each destination to verify connectivity and write access.
Step 3: Configure backup schedules and retention policies. Set your default backup schedule — daily is recommended for active hosting accounts — and your retention policy. A common configuration is seven daily backups, four weekly backups, and three monthly backups, giving clients access to restore points covering the past three months with daily granularity for the most recent week.
Once configured, JetBackup runs automatically. The WHM dashboard gives you ongoing visibility into backup completion, storage consumption, and any jobs that require attention.
Frequently asked questions
How much storage do JetBackup backups consume? Storage consumption depends on account sizes and your retention policy. JetBackup supports incremental backups — storing only the changes between backup generations rather than full copies each time — which significantly reduces storage requirements for accounts that change gradually. The JetBackup WHM interface shows per-account and per-destination storage consumption to help you manage growth.
Can clients purchase additional backup storage or frequency? Yes. JetBackup’s per-account configuration allows you to offer tiered backup plans — standard clients with daily backups and seven-day retention, premium clients with more frequent backups and longer retention. This is a legitimate upsell opportunity that many hosting providers monetise effectively.
Does JetBackup work with CloudLinux CageFS? Yes. JetBackup 5 is fully compatible with CloudLinux and CageFS. Backup operations run correctly within the CageFS environment without requiring special configuration.
Can I restore to a different account or server? Yes. JetBackup supports cross-account and cross-server restores, which is useful for migrating accounts between servers or restoring data into a new account. This makes JetBackup useful not just for disaster recovery but for routine account migration operations.
What happens if a backup job fails? JetBackup logs all backup job results and can be configured to send alerts when jobs fail or when storage thresholds are reached. The WHM interface shows the status of every backup job across all accounts, making it straightforward to identify and investigate failures before they become a problem.
Is JetBackup compatible with Plesk? JetBackup 5 is designed specifically for cPanel. For Plesk servers, alternative backup solutions are available. The Tremhost JetBackup license is for cPanel environments.
JetBackup as part of the complete hosting stack
JetBackup is included in Tremhost’s VPS and Dedicated license bundles alongside cPanel, CloudLinux, Imunify360, LiteSpeed, WHMReseller, Softaculous, Sitepad, and FleetSSL.
VPS License Bundle: $15/month ($7.50 with 50% off) Dedicated License Bundle: $16/month ($8 with 50% off)
If you are setting up a new hosting server or reviewing your existing licensing stack, the bundle is the most cost-effective way to get JetBackup alongside every other essential license in a single order. JetBackup alone at $0.84 per month within the bundle represents extraordinary value for what it protects.
The bottom line
Backups are not optional for a hosting business in 2026. They are the foundation of client trust, the difference between a recoverable incident and a business-ending one, and an expectation that every hosting client brings to the table when they sign up for a plan.
JetBackup 5 is the tool that makes your backup infrastructure professional, automated, auditable, and client-accessible. It eliminates the manual restore support overhead, the backup failures that go undetected until they are needed, and the reputational risk of running a hosting business without a reliable recovery capability.
At $2.50 per quarter during Tremhost’s current 50% off promotion, it costs less per month than almost anything else in your hosting stack and protects more. There is no rational argument for running a cPanel hosting server without it.
Order your JetBackup license or get it included in the complete hosting bundle at tremhost.com/licenses.html. The 50% off promotion is live now.
