Is it time for you to break up with your current hosting company? Sometimes you may find that you have surpassed your host or maybe customer service is not so good. Other times, it has something to do with performance problems or lack of resources. Whatever the problem, there comes a time when you may have to switch to another host. That is why we are covering the best WordPress migration plugins in the industry.
These WordPress plugins download and transfer all site files from tables to multimedia files and themes to the entire user database. Without a quick migration tool, you may have trouble cloning your site to appear and run in exactly the same way as before.
The best WordPress migration plugins offer beautiful interfaces, one-click migration buttons, and other tools for backing up and moving files.
Is your migration plugin causing performance problems?
A disadvantage of WordPress plugins is that some of them cause conflicts with other plugins or themes. In addition, some plugins create performance problems for their hosting servers.
Migration plugins are usually the culprits because they work with site files. Note that you may not be able to use all the migration plugins mentioned below. Check with your host to make sure your plugins are compatible.
Best WordPress Migration Plugins
That said, we tested the best migration plugins and found that the following are the most useful in terms of features, interfaces, and prices:
- Duplicator – WordPress Migration Plugin
- Migrate Guru: Migrate & Clone WordPress Free
- WP Migrate DB
- All-in-One WP Migration
- UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin
- BackupBuddy
Now that we understand how migration files work and how you might have some conflicts along the way, read on to learn more about our favorite WordPress migration plugins.
#1. Duplicator – WordPress Migration Plugin
Duplicator is by far one of the most popular plugins for migrating WordPress site files to a new location. Some of the options included in the plugin involve copying, moving, and cloning, as well as a traditional migration of a complete site. It really is a wonderful solution to make a backup of your files on a local machine, especially considering that only one click is needed to select the items you want to download.
After that, Duplicator has several simple steps to move all these files to a new server/host. You can even take an active site and install it in a local environment for further development. Backups are also part of the equation, with manual and automatic options to ensure your files are always safe.
Along with the confusing functions of elimination, reuse, and import/export, Duplicator stands out as one of the best backup and migration plugins for all skill levels.
Many of the key features are included in the free plugin, but you have the option to upgrade for more functionality. For example, scheduled backups are included in the premium plan, along with cloud storage and email notifications. We also like multi-site migration options. Duplicator Pro has a personal license for $ 59. This gives you three site licenses. You can also pay more if you need support for more sites.
Features Duplicator WordPress Plugin:
- Duplicator has free and premium versions, both very useful for different skill levels.
- You can do more than migrate with Duplicator. It offers features for movement and cloning as well.
- It is one of the best plugins that can easily drag an active site to a local environment.
- WordPress is downloaded with just a few clicks. It is by far the easiest migration tool available in the market.
- It depends on your version, but Duplicator includes manual and scheduled backups to protect site content.
- Duplication of sites is also possible, either for an active site or a developing site.
- No need to worry about complicated import and export scripts. Your entire site is migrated with the click of a few buttons.
- The premium version has cloud storage in some of the most popular third-party options such as Google Drive, Dropbox and Amazon S3.
- You can configure email notifications.
- Duplicator Pro offers incredible support for multi-site migrations. Basically, you can move a complete multisite network with just a few clicks.
#2. Migrate Guru: Migrate & Clone WordPress Free
Migrate Guru has some advantages over the competition with respect to multiple sites and file size. The plugin can simplify the migration process even if you have a large multi-site network. In addition, you can download sites up to 200 GB in size.
The addon offers what you call true integration with just one click. This makes it one of the fastest solutions when it comes to moving websites to other servers. In addition, all site transfers are managed to Migrate Guru servers. This means that you don’t have to worry about downloading by pressing your site too much or even blocking it.
Migrate Guru does not require storage space or power from its own server. It is a simple and organized process, which clarifies the concerns that may arise if your site is too large or full of files. There is no need for plugins and it seems that almost all web servers are compatible with the Migrate Guru plug-in.
The only stipulation is that Migrate Guru does not have the resources to back up a site, which is usually included in the migration tools. That said, the entire Migrate Guru plugin is completely free, without updates or professional versions.
Features Migrate Guru WordPress Plugin:
- Migrate Guru is free for all users.
- All migrations are completed on Migrate Guru servers. This means that there is a minimal chance that your site will be blocked during the migration process.
- This is definitely one of the fastest migration plugins since you can clone a 1 GB site in less than 30 minutes.
- Migrate Guru is a true one-click migration plug-in, which means that all your migrations only require you to click on the Migrate button.
- Automatic searches and replace feature is included in the plugin.
- Alerts are sent as the migration occurs. This is done to warn if something goes wrong or simply to say how long the change will take.
- The plugin supports more than 5,000 hosts worldwide. This is good considering that many hosts cannot work with some migration a plugin s.
- This is one of the easiest migration tools to move a complete multi-site network.
#3. WP Migrate DB
WP Migrate DB has a more complicated solution to migrate a site, but it is a great option for those who want a little more control over the progress of the transfer. In short, WP Migrate DB does the trick for many advanced users.
The main addon completes a MySQL data dump, which exports the site’s database. The plugin does most of the work by replacing file paths and URLs, as well as managing serialized data. At the end of the process, you get an SQL file on your computer.
For migration to occur, you must use phpMyAdmin to import the SQL file to the correct database. These steps ensure that developers have a good method to move local and active sites, according to their own needs.
Everything we’ve talked about so far is available in the free plugin. If desired, $ 139 gives you access to the premium plugin. This allows four active sites and one user.
By updating, you not only get premium support via email but also a wide range of essential features to extract databases and synchronize media between two sites. Some of our favorite tools include the ability to exclude types of posts, migrate from multiple sites to a single site, and options to pause and cancel migrations.
In general, the premium version offers a much easier-to-use migration plug-in, with some interesting features to make things easier.
Features WP Migrate DB WordPress Plugin:
- It offers developers a difficult way to download complete databases and move them to another location.
- The free version is sufficient for most developers who want to download the files and migrate them to other servers.
- All file paths, URLs and serialized data are handled in the background. The plugin provides a complete SQL file for download.
- The pro version allows you to extract or send databases.
- WP Migrate DB is considered one of the safest migration plugins.
- You have the option to synchronize complete media libraries between two sites. This and many of the following features are included in the premium version.
- WP Migrate DB has a unique feature to move a site from a multi-site network to a single site. This can also be reversed.
- You have options to exclude certain types of Posts.
- WP Migrate DB allows you to choose which tables you want to migrate. Decide to move all your tables or select the ones that matter most to you.
#4. All-in-One WordPress Migration
The WP Migration All-in-One plugin has impressive tracking, with millions of installations and thousands of excellent ratings and reviews. The main objective of the plugin is to download your WordPress files without any technical knowledge.
The interesting thing about WP All-in-One Migration is that it provides a drag-and-drop interface to load your site into a new location, creating a wonderful interface. Search and replace options are available during export and also correct any problems with serialization.
The WP Migration All-in-One developers have done a great job of partnering with hosting companies. That way, you generally don’t have to think about whether conflicts or performance problems will occur.
In addition, the plugin does a great job of circumventing some of the limitations in WordPress load size. This is done by migrating the site to pieces, keeping all those pieces below 2 MB. All-in-One WP Migration is open-source software, but a premium plugin is available for $ 69 / lifetime.
Additional features in the premium version include options to delete files, restore backups and work with WP CLI commands.
Features All-in-One WordPress Migration:
- All-in-One WP Migration offers a free plugin with all the basic functions necessary to download the site and upload it to another location.
- No technical knowledge is required to complete the transfer. In fact, a simple drag-and-drop interface is included in the loading section.
- Unlimited location, replacement, and serialization solutions are provided.
- The plugin has a long list of hosting providers with which it works well.
- You can load larger sites, since the plugin loads the site in pieces, overcoming the need to keep the entire file a certain size.
- Larger sites have the option of uploading to premium, which offers customer support and options to delete files and restore backups.
- There are dozens of extensions available to link to third-party cloud storage services. Some of them include OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive.
#5. UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin
UpdraftPlus is mainly used as a backup tool. But you can do much more: it has the ability to not only restore files to a new location but simplify the entire process. For example, it only requires the use of a one-click button to back up the site files. After that, you can perform a restoration in the same place or in another place. And everything is done with a button.
The reason why UpdraftPlus can be attractive for migrations is that it completes one of the fastest backups with the help of cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive.
Automatic backup schedules are possible with UpdraftPlus. This default backup procedure is provided in the free version. The upgrade to the premium solution offers even more features, such as incremental backups, duplicates, and quick migrations.
You also get access to a larger list of cloud storage options such as Azure and OneDrive. UpdraftPlus Premium appears as $ 70 for two licenses. You can upgrade to 10 licenses for $ 95 and more from there. plugins for items such as smoother migrations and multiple storage destinations are sold on the site.
Features UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin:
- UpdraftPlus creates a fast and secure backup for all your sites. All this is done for free in the main complement.
- The addon is backed up and restored. Files can also be moved to other locations manually or using one of the one-click migration extensions of the website.
- UpdraftPlus has one of the longest lists of cloud integrations. Some of them include Rackspace Cloud, Openstack Swift, and Microsoft OneDrive.
- The free version of the plugin has automatic backups, which is generally not the case with migration and backup plugins.
- Incremental backups are possible. You can back up and migrate multi-site networks. You can move files other than WordPress to other servers.
- The migration extension helps with clones and moves files from local to active environments.
#6. BackupBuddy – The Original WordPress Backup Plugin
BackupBuddy can backup your WordPress site, restore files and move it to a completely different location. This backup and migration plug-in is produced by the people of iThemes and has been installed on more than half a million websites since its launch.
Similar to UpdraftPlus, BackupBuddy serves primarily as a way to backup and protect site files. Therefore, you would install it to restore your older files if you delete files, are hacked, or find user errors.
That said, all downloaded files can be migrated to another location. In its simplest form, you can store a backup file remotely using Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3. Then, the ImportBuddy integration ensures that all your files are restored to the same site or migrated to another location.
BackupBuddy has a dedicated migration feature that allows you to change hosts and servers. You can also adjust the domain and replace the URLs in one step. Cloning is also provided to developers, along with a tool to send or receive preparation sites.
There is no free version available for BackupBuddy, but $ 52 allows you to implement the plugin on a site. The $ 83 plan is for 10 sites, and the $ 130 plan works for unlimited sites.
Features BackupBuddy WordPress Plugin:
- BackupBuddy is sold only as a premium backup and migration plugin. Therefore, you get much better customer service because you are paying for it.
- The plugin has excellent options for pushing and extracting content between test sites and live.
- You can clone your WordPress sites with the click of a button.
- Create any site in a temporary domain and use BackupBuddy to migrate that site to an active domain.
- The migration part of BackupBuddy has an excellent URL replacement, domain change, and host change, all done in the background for you.
- The plugin offers much more than the migration functionality. For example, you get site protection through serialized data, malware scans, and backups.
- Backups are excellent for when you need to restore your files or move them to other servers. Some of the features for backups include email notifications, scheduled backups, and remote storage.
Which of the best WordPress migration plugins?
Not all migration plugins are suitable for all sites. Sometimes it is better to find one that is linked to cloud storage. Sometimes it is better to find one with automatic backups and security tools.
We have covered many of the best WordPress migration plugins, but here are our final recommendations:
- Duplicator: go with this plugin if you want the best general migration plugin.
- Migrate Guru: we like this one to migrate very large sites.
- WP Migrate DB: It is best for developers who want more than just a one-click migration button. This way you have more control over the process. It can also be confusing for beginners.
- WP all-in-one migration: this plugin is good for people who want a light and clean interface.
- UpdraftPlus: Consider this plugin if you want to make high-level backups with a good migration tool.
- BackupBuddy: Choose this if you are interested in more than one complete set of tools.
That’s all we have to get the best WordPress migration plugins! What is your favorite? Let us know in the comments section below.
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