How to migrate your WordPress site to a new host

Moving your WordPress site to a new host can feel overwhelming. You might worry about losing content, breaking links, or having hours of downtime. I have made many mistakes throughout my career working with WordPress sites. Simple mistakes I wouldn’t make now, and you won’t make because I’m going to explain you bit by bit how to migrate WordPress sites correctly.

What is a WordPress migration?

A WordPress migration is the process of moving your website from one hosting provider to another. This includes:

All your posts and pages
Media files (images, videos, documents)
Plugins and themes
Your database content
Site settings
Custom code, cron jobs, and server configurations

There are different ways to do this. Some are manual, and some use plugins. I’ll show you both approaches.

Before you begin: Preparation

Before starting the migration, gather some information:

From your current host:

FTP or SSH credentials
Database name, username, and password
Control panel login

From your new host:

New FTP or SSH credentials
New database details (or create these in your control panel)
Nameserver details (if you’re changing domain DNS)

Tools you’ll need:

A backup plugin (like UpdraftPlus, All-in-One WP Migration, or Duplicator)
FTP client (FileZilla is free)
Access to your domain registrar (where you bought your domain)

Are you running WordPress Multisite?

Before anything else, check whether your site is a standard WordPress install or a multisite network. Go to Tools > Network Setup in your WordPress admin — if this option exists, you’re running multisite. Multisite migrations involve extra steps around subdomain/subdirectory configuration and are significantly more complex. If that’s you, consider hiring a professional or following a dedicated multisite migration guide, as this tutorial covers single-site migrations only.

Check your PHP version compatibility

Before migrating, verify what PHP version your current site uses and what versions your new host supports:

In your current WordPress admin, go to Tools > Site Health > Info
Look for the PHP version
Check your new host’s supported PHP versions in their documentation

If your new host uses a significantly different PHP version, some plugins or themes may break. Update all plugins before migration, and use a staging environment to test (covered below).

Set up a staging environment first

Before touching anything on your live site, set up a staging environment on your new host. This is the single best thing you can do to avoid downtime.

Create a subdomain like staging.yourdomain.com on your new host
Install a fresh WordPress there

Add these lines to the staging site’s wp-config.php to lock it to the staging URL:

define('WP_HOME', 'https://staging.yourdomain.com');
define('WP_SITEURL', 'https://staging.yourdomain.com');

Complete your migration to staging first, test everything (see the checklist below), and only then migrate to the live environment

Set up SSL/HTTPS first

Set up SSL on your new host before you migrate or change your DNS. This ensures HTTPS is working from the moment visitors hit the new server.

Most hosts provide free SSL via Let’s Encrypt — find it in your hosting control panel and enable it
Once enabled, update your site URL to use HTTPS:
- Go to Settings > General in WordPress
- Change WordPress Address and Site Address from http:// to https://
Use WP-CLI or the “Better Search Replace” plugin to update all internal links from http:// to https:// in your database

Method 1: Using a migration plugin

Migration plugins handle most of the heavy lifting. This is the easiest method for beginners.

Step 1: Install a backup plugin

Install one of these popular plugins on your current site:

UpdraftPlus (free and paid versions)
All-in-One WP Migration (free, with paid extensions for larger sites)
Duplicator (free and paid versions)

For this guide, I’ll use UpdraftPlus since it has a free tier that handles most migrations.

Step 2: Create a full backup

After installing UpdraftPlus:

Go to UpdraftPlus. It’s on the sidebar.
In the first tab of UpdraftPlus settings, click Backup Now
Select all components (database and files)
Click Backup Now again

Wait for the backup to complete. This may take several minutes depending on your site size.

Step 3: Download the backup files

Once complete, you’ll see download links for:

A zipped file containing your database
A zipped file containing your files

Download all of these to your computer and keep them in one organized folder.

Step 4: Set up your new host

Before restoring, prepare your new server:

Install a fresh WordPress site on your new host
Install the same backup plugin (UpdraftPlus)
Do NOT configure any settings yet

Step 5: Restore on the new host

Go to UpdraftPlus > Backup / Restore on the new site
Upload your backup files to the new site. For this, scroll down and under Existing backups you will see a link Upload backup files. Click it.
Click Restore again
Select all components and confirm

The plugin will restore your database, files, plugins, themes, and settings.

Step 6: Test on staging before going live

Restore your backup to your staging subdomain (set up above) before touching your live DNS. Run through the full post-migration checklist below. Only proceed to Step 7 once everything passes.

Step 7: Test your new site using the hosts file

If you want to test the exact live domain on the new server before changing DNS publicly, you can edit your computer’s local hosts file to point the domain to the new server — only on your machine.

On Mac: edit /etc/hosts
On Windows: edit C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

Add a line like:

123.456.789.0 yourdomain.com

Replace 123.456.789.0 with your new server’s IP address (find this in your new host’s control panel). After saving, flush your DNS cache:

Mac: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDnsResponder
Windows: ipconfig /flushdns

Note that some browsers (especially Chrome) cache DNS independently. If the change isn’t reflecting, try a different browser or an incognito window. Remove the hosts file entry once you’re done testing.

Method 2: Manual migration

For more control or larger sites, you can migrate manually.

Step 1: Export your database

Log in to phpMyAdmin (usually in your hosting control panel)
Select your WordPress database
Click Export at the top
Choose Quick export method
Make sure format is SQL
Click Go and save the file

Step 2: Download your files

Connect to your server via FTP or SFTP (prefer SFTP when available — it’s encrypted)
Navigate to your WordPress directory (usually public_html)
Download all files to your computer

This may take a while for large sites.

Step 3: Create your new database

On your new server:

Log in to your hosting control panel
Create a new MySQL database
Create a new database user
Assign the user to the database with all privileges

Note the database name, username, and password — you’ll need them shortly.

Note on database prefix: If your new host uses a different database prefix (for example, wp_ vs a custom prefix like myprefix_), you’ll need to update your wp-config.php to match the new prefix. Update the $table_prefix variable in the config file to reflect whatever prefix your new database uses.

Step 4: Import your database

Log in to phpMyAdmin on your new host
Select your new database
Click Import
Choose your exported SQL file
Click Go

If your database is large (over 50MB), phpMyAdmin may reject it. See the “Database too large to import” section under Common Problems below.

Step 5: Upload your files

Connect to your new server via SFTP
Upload all your WordPress files to public_html

Step 6: Update database connections

Your new server has different database credentials. Update these in your wp-config.php file:

define( 'DB_NAME', 'your_new_database_name' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'your_new_database_user' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'your_new_password' );
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

Step 7: Update site URLs (if needed)

If your domain is changing, you’ll need to update URLs stored in the database. The most reliable way to do this is with WP-CLI (a command-line tool available on most quality hosts):

wp search-replace 'https://olddomain.com' 'https://newdomain.com' --all-tables

This safely handles serialized data that would break if you edited the database directly. If WP-CLI isn’t available, you can use the “Better Search Replace” plugin as an alternative, or edit the wp_options table in phpMyAdmin manually to update the siteurl and home rows.

If you’re keeping the same domain but changing hosts, skip this step.

Updating your domain DNS

Once everything is tested and working on the new server:

Log in to your domain registrar (where you bought your domain)
Find DNS settings or nameservers

Important: Before changing nameservers, write down your current DNS records — especially MX records (which handle email). If you change nameservers without preserving your MX records, your email will stop working. Your new host’s nameservers may not carry over your existing mail settings automatically.

Update nameservers to point to your new hosting provider, and manually recreate any MX or other DNS records that need to carry over
Save changes

DNS changes typically propagate within a few hours, though in rare cases it can take up to 24 hours. During propagation, some visitors may briefly see the old site.

Common problems and solutions

Problem: Images not showing

Cause: Paths in your database still point to the old server or domain.

Solution: Use WP-CLI (wp search-replace) or the “Better Search Replace” plugin to update old URLs in your database.

Problem: Redirect loop or 404 errors

Cause: The .htaccess file may have incorrect settings.

Solution: Regenerate your .htaccess by going to Settings > Permalinks and clicking Save.

Problem: Database connection error

Cause: Wrong credentials in wp-config.php.

Solution: Double-check DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, and DB_HOST in your wp-config.php file.

Problem: Site loads but looks broken

Cause: Missing files or incorrect paths.

Solution: Re-upload all files, making sure nothing was skipped during transfer.

Problem: Plugin errors or white screen

Cause: PHP version incompatibility between old and new server.

Solution:

Enable WP_DEBUG in wp-config.php to see specific errors:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );

Check your new host’s PHP version matches your old host
Update outdated plugins before migration
Contact host support if the PHP version can’t be changed

Problem: Database too large to import

Cause: phpMyAdmin has an upload size limit (often 2MB–50MB).

Solutions:

Use the command line: mysql -u username -p database_name < file.sql
Split large SQL files using a tool like “BigDump”
Ask your host to temporarily increase upload limits
Use the plugin method instead (UpdraftPlus handles large files more gracefully)

Problem: Email stopped working after migration

Cause: MX records were not preserved when nameservers were changed.

Solution: Log in to your domain registrar and add back your MX records. Check with your email provider (Google Workspace, Zoho, your old host, etc.) for the correct values. Email can take a few hours to restore once records are corrected.

Problem: Site appears cached or stale after migration

Cause: Your new host, a CDN (like Cloudflare), or WordPress caching plugins may be serving old content.