remember those critical moments when I started creating my online store using WordPress based on one of the best hosting providers, only for them to stop hosting a month after I started on the pretext that my personal card was not suitable for accrediting the account because it was not in English.
And the result? After correspondence with customer service, we eventually refunded my money and allowed me to move my WordPress site to another hosting provider!
Of course, we look for the best options before starting, but despite the impressive reviews that convince us to choose one of the hosting providers, you may encounter problems or want to get better performance, which in the end will take you down one path, which is moving your WordPress site from one hosting to another.
Therefore, in this article, we present the most important ways to transfer a WordPress website from one hosting to another, and we know all the aspects you need to do so without experiencing problems.
How to transfer a WordPress website from one hosting to another?
Moving a WordPress site from one hosting to another is not a huge matter as you think, and it does not require a lot of programming experience and may take a short time depending on the size of your site, and in all cases it depends on the method you use to move the site.
The methods for transferring a WordPress site are divided into three:
- Manual transmission , which is the most difficult but most accurate method.
- Automated transfer , and you need to be careful to ensure that your entire site is transferred without losing files.
- Relying on the service provider , as some hosting providers provide the site transfer service for you, or you can even search for an independent to carry out the transfer task for you.
Manually move your WordPress site
You will follow the following steps in order in order to transfer the site manually. It may be the most difficult method, but it is the most accurate in ensuring that you do not lose any files from your site. The steps will be as follows:
First: Choose a new hosting
Regardless of the reasons that made you abandon the services of your current hosting provider, make sure that you choose a better hosting provider in terms of performance and the impact of hosting capabilities on the speed of your site, as well as its ability to save your files and protect them from theft or hacking.
In addition, it should be noted that each site has requirements that must be met in hosting, as personal sites are light compared to electronic stores and news sites that receive thousands of visits daily.
For example, if you are starting a personal blog or a website to showcase your work, you can choose from medium-cost hosting plans such as shared hosting. However, if your WordPress site is huge and needs speed in performance, go to hosting that provides separate servers specifically for you, or cloud hosting. Or the VPS.
Second: Download files
After selecting the hosting to which you will transfer your site, you will begin the first step to transfer your site by uploading the files in the old hosting, and downloading them to one of the computers.
1. Log in to the cPanel control panel, then to the File Manager.
2. Go to the (public_html) file located within (File Manager) files. It contains all WordPress website files. Go to it by double-clicking on it.
3. If your hosting includes one website, the files will be located directly within the (public_html) file. However, if the hosting includes more than one website, each of them will have its own file, and the file name may be the same as the domain name linked to it.
To save the location you want to transfer, go to its file, then select all files through the (Select All) option located in the middle bar, then press the (Compress) button located to the left of the top bar. The compression process will take several minutes.
The compression process is important in this case to save time when uploading files to the new hosting, and to avoid accidentally losing any files during downloading.
4. After the files are compressed, select the compressed file and download it to your computer by selecting it and choosing Download.
Third: Upload the site files to the new hosting
After downloading the WordPress website files and saving them on the computer, you must go to the new hosting and upload them to it through the following steps:
- Go to the new hosting and go to the (public_html) file.
- Upload the compressed file that you saved on your computer through the Upload option, and wait for the download to finish.
3. Select the compressed file and press the Extract button in the top menu to unpack its contents. Thus, you have completed the third stage, which is transferring all your website files to the new hosting.
However, if the file size is large or the hosting does not provide you with uploading files through (cPanel), you must upload it through (FTP), which is the protocol for uploading files to the hosting, and there are some applications such as (FileZilla) that provide this.
Fourth: Save the database
The next step to manually transfer the site is to go to the database on the old hosting and save a copy of it as follows:
- Go to the control panel (cPanel) of the old hosting, and click on the (phpMyAdmin) option, which is located in the (Database) menu.
2. You will find in the section on the left the name of the databases for your sites. Click on the database you want to import to access it, then scroll down and click on the “Check all” option, and from the top menu click on the “Export” option.
3. On the (Export) page, make sure that the selected format is (SQL), then click (Go) and the database will be downloaded to the computer automatically.
Fifth: Create a new database
Before uploading the saved database, you must first create a new database with the target hosting to move the site to, as follows:
- Go to the control panel (cPanel) of the new hosting, and click on the (MySQL® Databases) option, which is located in the (Database) menu.
2. On that page, start adding the required data, including adding a new user in the (Add New User) section and saving his data.
3. After completing, click on the (Create Database) button at the top of the page, and thus you have created a new database.
Sixth: Upload the database to the new hosting
At this stage, the database that was saved on the computer is uploaded to the new hosting as follows:
- Return again to the (phpMyAdmin) option, but for the new hosting.
- The database you created will appear, click on it, and once you enter, you will find the (Import) button in the top menu, choose it, then select the saved database file, and press the (Go) button at the bottom of the page, and the database will begin uploading to the new hosting. .
3. Go to the File Manager of the new hosting, then to the (public_html) file, and there look for the (wp-config.php) file.
4. Select the file and click (Edit), and on the pop-up page make the following modifications:
- In (DB_NAME): Type the name of the new database you created.
- In (DB_USER) : Type the name of the user you created within the new database.
- In (DB_PASSWORD): Type the password of the user mentioned in the previous point.
Thus, you have finished transferring your site manually without losing any file, and all that remains is to direct your site’s domain name to the new hosting so that users will be directed to it when using the site’s domain.
Seventh: Scope Orientation
Directing your domain to the new hosting requires changing the domain’s DNS through the hosting provider where it is located. In my case, I use Godaddy, and although the steps for changing DNS differ from one provider to another, they mostly go the same way, the idea is the same.
- Go to Products, and then click the (Manage) button for the target range.
2. Scroll to the bottom, and click (Manage DNS).
3. In the Nameservers section, choose Change, and add the new URLs, which you can get from the spreadsheet on the cPanel page.
After completing these steps, you will have finished transferring your entire site and pointing the domain to it, and within 48 hours the DNS transfers will be completed and users will be directed to the new hosting.
Transferring a WordPress site with a plugin
There are many plugins that support automatic transfer of a WordPress site, the best of which is (Duplicator), and we will talk about that plugin in detail and how to transfer the site through it.
First: Save the site files
- Install the Duplicator add-on first.
2. In the WordPress control panel, the (Duplicator) option will appear. Click on it, and there click on the (Create New) button in the upper corner.
3. On this page, specify the information that should be transferred. If the entire site is transferred, you will not need to specify anything, just click the (Next) button.
4. Finally, click on the (Build) button to start the building process.
5. After completing the process of building the site data, the download option will appear for you. Click on it to save the two data files on the computer.
Second: Import files to the new hosting
- Go to cPanel, and click on File Manager.
- Go to the new hosting and go to the (public_html) file, then to the site file if the hosting includes several sites.
- Upload the saved site data files (Duplicator) to the (public_html) file.
Before moving to the next step, you should follow the steps of the fifth stage of manual transfer to create a new database. In addition to directing the domain and linking it to the new hosting, as we explained in the seventh stage of the manual transfer as well.
The third stage: data stabilization
- Use the following URL to access the installation page http://www.example.com/installer.php (changing the example with your site’s domain address).
2. The previous link will take you to the data import page. Check the terms and conditions box, then click (Next).
3. In this step, add the data for the database you created previously, then click (Next) for Duplicator to start importing the data.
4. The next step is to enter the new domain name, and if the site is operating with the same current domain, and most likely it will be, so you can skip this step by clicking (Next).
Congratulations, you have now finished automatically transferring your WordPress site to a new hosting using the Duplicator plugin.
Transfer via the hosting service provider
The third way to transfer a WordPress website from one hosting to another is to submit a request to the new hosting provider, so that the hosting provider’s technical team does all the previous steps. Some sites provide this service, such as (Hostinger), (A2hosting), (Hostgator), (Siteground), and other companies.
If you rely on a service provider that offers you a free transfer service to one location, you can write to technical support and ask them for the transfer process easily.
In this example, we will rely on a request to transfer the site through Hostinger, where the steps are as follows:
1. Go to account options by clicking on the side icon at the top right, and choose ( Migrate Website ).
4. On the next page, click on ( Request Hosting Migration ).
5. A window will appear, requiring the following data to be added:
- Link to access the site’s WordPress control panel.
- Username and password to log in to WordPress.
- The link of the hosting provider from which you want to import the site.
- The name and password of your account with the previous hosting provider.
Once you add the necessary data, click (Submit) and the request to transfer your site will be completely fulfilled within two days. This is the best and easiest method if you want to transfer a WordPress site from one hosting to another, provided that the hosting providers provide that service.
common questions
What technical experience is required of me, so that I can transfer the site myself?
Whether you intend to follow the manual or automated method, you must be familiar with how to use the cPanel control panel. If you don’t know, that’s okay. You can hire a programmer to do this, or submit a transfer request to the hosting service provider if it provides that.
What is scope mode? Do you need to transfer it to the new hosting or change it?
When transferring a WordPress site from one hosting to another, you will only need to redirect this domain to the new hosting, and this can be done through the service provider that provides you with the domain, without the need to transfer the domain to the new hosting or change it, and you can do this as we explained in the stage The seventh method is to transfer hosting manually.
Do all hosting providers provide WordPress site transfer service? Is it free if available?
Not all hosting providers provide this service, as it requires someone from the technical team to move the site himself. However, there are some companies that are interested in providing this service to their customers in a professional and safe manner, such as:
- Kinsta
- SiteGround
- InMotion
- A2hosting
- Hostinger
Does the website address change after moving it from (HTTPs) to (HTTP)?
This matter is related to the presence of an SSL certificate or not. In this case, if you want to obtain the necessary insurance and keep your site with HTTPs protection encryption, you must obtain an SSL certificate and install it within the new hosting.
You can contact your hosting provider to obtain an SSL certificate, then install the Really Simple SSL add-on to convert your site link to HTTPS. Don’t forget that this is an important step to gain visitors’ confidence in your site.
What will happen to the data on the old hosting?
When the old hosting period expires and you stop paying for it, the data will be automatically erased, and you can delete it yourself if you want to be sure that it will not be exploited, but do not jump to that step directly and keep it for a while after the transfer, until you are sure that your site has been transferred safely and without any problems.
As we saw in the previous guide, there are many ways to transfer a WordPress site and differ in terms of difficulty and steps. However, this process will not take a long time depending on the method that is used, and the most important thing is to carefully follow the previous steps or enlist the help of the hosting provider’s support team to help you transfer the site.
