Your hosting renewal just tripled, or your site crawls every afternoon, and you know you should move. But every time you think about it, you picture a blank white screen, lost posts and rankings disappearing overnight. So you stay put and keep paying.
Moving a WordPress site is a well-worn process. Done in the right order, your visitors won’t even notice. Here’s the order.
First: Can Your New Host Do It for You?
Many hosts offer free migration for new customers. Their team copies your site and you check the result. If your new host offers this, use it. It’s the lowest-risk option.
Still read the steps below. Knowing what’s happening helps you spot mistakes, and the “before” and “after” checklists apply either way.
The Three Ways to Migrate
| Method | Skill needed | Time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Host’s free migration service | None | 1–3 days turnaround | Most beginners |
| Migration plugin | Low | 30–90 minutes | Small to medium sites |
| Manual (files + database) | Moderate to high | 1–3 hours | Large sites, or when plugins fail |
The walkthrough below uses the plugin method, which suits most blogs.
Before You Move: The Safety Checklist
- Don’t cancel your old hosting yet. Keep it running until the new site has been live and working for at least a week.
- Take a full backup and download it to your own computer. If something goes wrong, this is your undo button.
- Note your email setup. If your email addresses (like you@yourdomain.com) run through your old host, you’ll need to recreate them on the new host or move to a separate email provider. This is the step people most often forget.
- Pause publishing. Don’t publish or edit posts during the move, or those changes may be lost.
- Lower your DNS TTL (optional but helpful). If you manage DNS records, set the TTL to 300 seconds a day before the move so the switch spreads faster.
Step-by-Step: Migrating With a Plugin
Step 1: Set up the new hosting account
Sign up, add your domain to the new account, but don’t change your nameservers or DNS yet. Your live site stays on the old host during the whole copying process.
Step 2: Install a fresh WordPress on the new host
Use the one-click installer. You’ll overwrite this fresh install in a moment, so the settings don’t matter. You just need a working WordPress. Many hosts give you a temporary URL to reach it before your domain points there.
Step 3: Install the same migration plugin on both sites
Popular choices include All-in-One WP Migration, Duplicator and Migrate Guru. Each works slightly differently, so follow the plugin’s own instructions, but the basic idea is the same: export from the old site, import into the new one.
Watch the file size. Some free plugin versions cap the size of the import, and large media libraries can exceed it.
Step 4: Export from the old site
Run the export. This bundles your database (posts, pages, settings, users) and files (themes, plugins, uploads) into a single package. Download it.
Step 5: Import into the new site
Upload the package to the new WordPress install and run the import. Once it finishes, you’ll usually need to log in again, using your old site’s username and password, since the whole database has been replaced.
Step 6: Test on the temporary URL
Before switching the domain, click around the new copy:
- Open five or six posts. Do images load?
- Submit a test on any forms
- Check your menus and widgets
- Log in and make sure the dashboard works
- Go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save once (this refreshes your link structure)
Step 7: Point your domain to the new host
Change your nameservers (or A record) to the new host’s details. Propagation usually takes a few minutes to a few hours, sometimes up to 48. During that time some visitors see the old site and some see the new one, which is fine because they’re identical.
Step 8: Turn on SSL at the new host
Once the domain resolves to the new server, enable the free SSL certificate in the new host’s control panel. Then check that your site loads with https and shows the padlock.
After the Move: The One-Week Checklist
- Browse the site on your phone and on a laptop
- Check Google Search Console for new crawl errors
- Confirm your contact form emails actually arrive
- Confirm backups are running on the new host
- Check your email accounts are working
- Then cancel the old hosting, after downloading one final backup
Common Problems and Fixes
- Images missing: The uploads folder may not have copied completely. Re-run the import, or upload the wp-content/uploads folder via FTP.
- “Error establishing a database connection”: The database details in wp-config.php are wrong. The host’s support can fix this in minutes.
- Links go to the old temporary URL: Run a search-and-replace for the old URL using a plugin like Better Search Replace, doing a dry run first.
- Site looks broken or unstyled: Clear any caching plugin, your host’s cache and your browser cache.
How Long Does a Migration Take?
For a typical small blog with a few dozen posts and a modest media library, expect about an hour of hands-on work with a plugin, plus a few hours of waiting for DNS changes to spread. Bigger sites with thousands of images take longer, mainly because of file sizes. Plan the switch for your quietest traffic day, and leave yourself a spare evening in case you need to troubleshoot.
Takeaway
The safest migration is a boring one: copy first, test on a temporary URL, switch the domain last, and keep the old host until you’re sure. If you’re moving because of cost, read up on hosting renewal pricing first so you don’t land in the same trap at the new host.