For a small, conventional WordPress site, a free self-service migration is usually the sensible starting point—provided you can create and verify backups, access your files and database, test the new host, and change DNS safely. Pay for migration software or managed help when the site is large, revenue-critical, multisite, heavily customized, or when an outage would cost more than the service. The key is comparing what actually moves, who handles risk, and how you recover if the cutover fails.
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What a WordPress migration actually includes
“Migration” can describe two different operations. A full-site migration copies the WordPress files, database, uploads, themes, plugins, settings, users, and usually the existing URL structure to a new location. A content-only import transfers posts, pages, comments, categories, tags, and media, but leaves the destination theme and plugins in place. Those outcomes are not interchangeable: a content import will not reproduce custom templates, plugin settings, widgets, or many site-specific functions.
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Free self-service versus paid help at a glance
| Decision factor | Free self-service | Paid software or managed service |
|---|---|---|
| Cash outlay | Usually no additional migration fee; you still pay for the destination hosting and any unrelated services. | Could include a premium plugin, a paid hosting plan, or professional labor. |
| What moves | A full-site tool can move files and the database; a content importer is narrower. | Managed transfers generally target the complete site, while premium tools add automation around a full backup. |
| Technical work | You handle backup verification, access, compatibility checks, URL updates, DNS, testing, and rollback. | The provider or software removes some manual steps, but you still need to supply accurate access and approve the cutover. |
| Time and downtime | Often quick on an ordinary site; large databases and media libraries increase transfer time. | WordPress.com says assisted migrations typically take 2–3 business days and are performed while the live site remains unaffected. |
| Recovery | Depends entirely on the quality of your backups and your written rollback plan. | Premium tooling can add scheduled and cloud backups; a professional can document and execute a recovery runbook. |
| Best fit | Small, standard sites and owners comfortable with hosting tools. | Multisite, commerce, high-traffic, customized, or downtime-sensitive sites. |
When free migration is a good choice
Choose the DIY route when all of the following are true:
- The site is a conventional single WordPress installation rather than a multisite network.
- You can log in to the current and destination hosting accounts, access files, and use a database tool or equivalent backup method.
- You can make a restorable backup and confirm that it contains both the database and uploaded files.
- The destination supports your PHP version, database engine, WordPress version, and required extensions.
- You have a staging URL or temporary domain where you can test before changing DNS.
- You can schedule a maintenance window and know how to revert DNS or restore the old site.
Free does not mean consequence-free. You remain responsible for backup integrity, licensing and plugin compatibility, search-engine redirects, DNS timing, form delivery, payment processing, email, and the decision to roll back.
Free migration method 1: WordPress.com self-service tools
WordPress.com presents two distinct choices. Use its full-site route when you want the destination to reproduce the source site, including content, media, plugins, and theme. Use content-only import when you intentionally want the destination’s existing theme and plugins to remain in control.
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- Confirm whether the destination plan supports the plugins, theme, custom code, and storage used by the source.
- Create a fresh backup of the source and keep the original site online.
- Start the full-site migration in the destination dashboard and provide the requested source or backup details.
- Wait for the import to finish; a typical self-service operation is described as under 15 minutes, with large sites taking longer.
- Open the temporary destination address and test representative pages, media, navigation, logins, forms, search, and any commerce workflow.
- Only after testing, point the domain’s DNS records to the destination and monitor the old and new sites during propagation.
Content-only import
This route is appropriate when you want to rebuild the presentation on a different theme or keep the destination plugin stack. It brings pages, posts, comments, categories, tags, and media, but not the source theme or plugins. Recreate menus, widgets, custom fields, templates, redirects, and plugin settings separately, then test every content type that matters to your readers.
Free migration method 2: a packaging plugin
The free Duplicator plugin for WordPress.org packages a site’s files and database into a backup that can be installed at another location, including an empty destination site. Its listing describes migration, transfer, cloning, and backup use cases, and says a complete site can be packaged for download and installed elsewhere in a few steps.
Practical Duplicator workflow
- Install the plugin on the source site and run its requirements or scan checks. Resolve size, timeout, permission, and database warnings before building a package.
- Build the package and download every generated installer and archive file. Store a second copy outside the current host.
- Create the destination database and database user, or confirm that your host provides an empty installation target.
- Upload the installer and archive to the destination and open the installer URL supplied by the plugin.
- Enter the destination database credentials, review the detected site URL and path, and run the installation.
- Log in using the migrated administrator account, save the permalink settings once, and clear caches.
- Use a temporary host name or staging URL to test before changing public DNS.
A package is only useful if it can be restored. Keep the source site untouched until you have opened the destination, verified the database connection, checked media, and confirmed that administrator access works.
A complete DIY migration runbook
1. Inventory the site
Record the WordPress version, PHP version, database type, active theme and child theme, every active plugin, scheduled jobs, custom code, cron tasks, email provider, analytics, search-console verification, CDN, SSL certificate, and DNS records. Note integrations that depend on the old server’s IP address or file paths. This list becomes your acceptance checklist after the move.
2. Freeze changes and capture backups
Choose a low-traffic window. Ask editors to stop publishing, pause imports, and avoid plugin updates while you take the final backup. Export the database and copy the complete wp-content directory at minimum; a full hosting backup is preferable. Download the files, record their sizes, and test that the archive opens. If possible, perform a trial restore on a staging account rather than trusting a successful download message.
3. Prepare the destination
Match or exceed the source server’s PHP and database requirements, memory limit, disk space, upload limit, and execution time. Create a staging address or temporary host URL. Keep the destination private with authentication or an access restriction while you test, and prevent search indexing until the final domain is live.
4. Transfer and update environment-specific values
Restore the files and database with your chosen tool. Replace the old site URL only with a migration-aware process that handles serialized data; a blind text replacement can corrupt plugin settings. Check the home and site URL, upload path, table prefixes, salts, cache configuration, and server-specific environment variables. Reissue or copy SSL settings only after the destination resolves correctly.
5. Test the destination before DNS
- Open the home page, several posts, pages, categories, author archives, search results, and a 404 page.
- Check responsive layouts, navigation, images, downloadable files, embedded media, and custom post types.
- Sign in as an administrator and a normal user; test password reset and account email.
- Submit every important form and verify that messages arrive at the intended mailbox.
- For a store or membership site, test cart, checkout, taxes, coupons, subscriptions, webhooks, and transactional email in the provider’s test mode where available.
- Review redirects, canonical URLs, robots settings, XML sitemaps, analytics tags, and search-console verification.
- Inspect error logs and scheduled tasks for database, permission, memory, or cron failures.
6. Cut over DNS carefully
Lower the DNS time-to-live before the planned change when your DNS provider permits it. At cutover, update only the records required for the website and preserve mail records. Do not assume that changing an A record also moves email. Keep the old host available while DNS caches expire, and watch traffic, errors, form submissions, and orders on the new site.
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7. Keep a rollback window
Define in advance what constitutes failure—such as broken checkout, missing media, or unacceptable error rates—and who can make the rollback decision. Revert DNS or restore the previous host using the final pre-cutover backup. Do not cancel the old hosting account until the new site has remained stable through the agreed observation period and you have another verified backup.
What paid migration options add
Managed migration
WordPress.com’s assisted-migration documentation says its team can move content, media, plugins, and themes while the live site remains unaffected. It accepts secure site access or a link to a backup file, and says the team typically completes the work within 2–3 business days. You still need to provide accurate credentials or a usable backup, identify special integrations, review the staging result, and approve DNS changes.
WordPress.com also states that migration assistance is available from many hosts and that white-glove migration is included at no extra charge on its Business and Commerce plans. “Included” refers to the plan’s migration assistance, not to unrelated hosting, domain, premium-plugin, or custom-development costs.
Premium migration software
A paid plugin is useful when you perform migrations repeatedly or need stronger operational controls than a one-off archive. Duplicator’s paid tier adds scheduled backups, cloud-storage integrations, multisite support, and staging features beyond the free plugin. Those capabilities help with repeatability and recovery, but they do not replace compatibility testing or a DNS plan.
Professional labor
Professional migration services are the highest-touch option. A 2026 Duplicator cost guide gives an indicative range of $200–$1,000 for professional migration labor depending on complexity. The same guide cites hosting of roughly $3–$30 per month and gives $69.30 per year as an example paid Duplicator-plan price. These are vendor-published examples, not universal quotes: request a written scope, exact deliverables, support period, and rollback responsibility before paying.
Best Value
How to choose the right level of help
| Site situation | Most reasonable starting point | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Personal blog or brochure site, few plugins, low traffic | Free self-service | The transfer is straightforward and the outage cost is usually limited if you keep a tested backup. |
| Business site with lead forms and scheduled publishing | DIY with staging, or managed help if staff time is scarce | Form delivery, email, redirects, and publishing continuity need explicit verification. |
| Online store, membership, bookings, or subscriptions | Managed migration or an experienced professional | Orders, accounts, payment callbacks, and transactional email make an unnoticed defect expensive. |
| Multisite network or unusually large media/database | Premium tooling or professional service | Network-wide settings, domain mapping, and transfer time increase failure modes; paid Duplicator features specifically add multisite support. |
| High-traffic or revenue-critical publication | Managed migration with a documented rollback | Keeping the live site unaffected during preparation and having an accountable cutover plan can be worth more than the fee. |
| Frequent staging or host moves | Premium software | Scheduled backups, cloud storage, and repeatable staging reduce repeated manual work. |
Common failure points and fixes
The destination shows a database-connection error
Recheck the database name, user, password, host name, port, and permissions in the destination configuration. Confirm that the database was imported and that the table prefix matches. Ask the host whether remote database connections or a nonstandard port are required.
Images or links still point to the old domain
Search the database and exported content for the old URL using a serialization-safe migration tool. Check widgets, custom fields, CSS files, menus, and plugin settings, not just post bodies. Clear page, object, CDN, and browser caches after correcting values.
Permalinks return 404 errors
Open the WordPress permalink settings and save them once to regenerate rewrite rules. Verify that the destination web server has the required rewrite configuration, then test category, tag, author, and custom-post-type URLs.
Forms, email, or webhooks fail
Confirm the destination’s mail transport, sender authentication, API keys, webhook URLs, firewall rules, and scheduled jobs. Send a real test to an external mailbox and inspect both WordPress and server logs. Payment and subscription callbacks should be tested with the provider’s documented test process before accepting live transactions.
The site is unexpectedly slow or times out
Large archives can exceed upload or PHP execution limits. Use a host-supported import method, raise limits within the host’s policy, split media transfers, or use command-line/database tools if you are qualified. Disable conflicting caches during the import, then re-enable and warm them after the site is stable.
DNS appears changed but visitors see two versions
Different resolvers cache records for different periods. Check the authoritative DNS zone, confirm that the old host’s mail records remain intact, and monitor from more than one network. Keep both environments safe and consistent until propagation completes; do not make divergent content edits during that window.
Questions to ask a paid provider
- Does the quoted scope include files, database, media, themes, plugins, users, redirects, and DNS, or only content?
- Will you provide a staging copy and a written acceptance checklist?
- Who verifies forms, commerce, email, cron jobs, analytics, and search visibility?
- What access method is required, how is it protected, and when should credentials be revoked?
- What is the expected schedule, maintenance window, and support period after cutover?
- Who owns the backups, and can I download a complete copy before the old host is canceled?
- What specific conditions trigger rollback, and who pays for recovery work?
A final decision rule
Start free when you have a conventional site, a restorable backup, a staging destination, and the confidence to test and reverse DNS. Choose paid software when repeatability, cloud backup, staging, or multisite support justifies an ongoing subscription. Choose managed or professional migration when complexity, revenue exposure, or the cost of your own time makes an avoidable outage more expensive than the service.
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