By default Joomla is setup to send mail from the server using the PHP Mail() function. Some servers do not allow this or restrict it to the point that it is not functional in which case this could be an alternative to freely giving out your email address to thugs. While some (myself included) use Gmail and Google Docs for business it just makes sense. This also is a great way to ensure your messages get to where they are going.
There are situations where using Akeeba Backup is not an option. One such event would be if you neglected to keep you site updated but updated Akeeba itself. While the developer does keep older versions available if you are not prepaired and keep backups of these older versions you may be left high and dry. Before there was great tools like Akeeba Backup we had to perform these backups manually. While different website control panels offer different ways of getting to the required features I will only be describing how to do it on cPanel.
Most of the extensions and templates that we use on our Joomla! websites requires a subscription in one form or another. We just want something that works, works well and is not prone to hackers and is compatible with the rest of our site. So we fork out the extra money for a quality application to use. This is all great for the duration of the subscription but can break you down over the life of the website.
