Best WordPress Migration Plugins
Creating a WordPress website is relatively easy, but when it comes to moving it to another host… that’s a completely different thing. It can be time-consuming and frustrating, and if you don’t know what you are doing, you might be putting your site at risk.
In today’s article, we’re looking at some of the best WordPress migration plugins out there. We have created this selection based on a number of factors, which we are going to mention toward the end of the article — such as support, reviews, update frequency, and functionality.
Top rated WordPress migration plugins
Duplicator Pro
There are several reasons why Duplicator Pro is one of the most popular WordPress site migration plugins currently available.
While there is a free version, the premium one can give you access to a lot more features. You can transfer your site to a new host within just several minutes. Duplicator includes both scheduled and manual backups so that you can protect what you have on your website.
Moving and cloning are part of the deal, too, and so is site duplication. It’s fast, it works, and it doesn’t call for a lot of effort on your behalf.
As for pricing, it’s worth noting that the paid version costs $59, and you can use it for three different websites. Larger plans are also available, so if you have fifteen websites, you can opt for the more expensive choice, in which case you’d pay $79. However, if you are the owner of a quite small website, don’t be wary to first try the free version.
UpdraftPlus Premium
While it is not a migration plugin per se, you can definitely try UpdraftPlus as it is among the best backup plugins out there.
You get a number of features from cloud integrations with services such as Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and more, incremental backups, and pretty much everything you need to do before migrating your website.
You can get the best of both worlds if you use the standard free version of this plugin (although the paid one offers you a lot more functionality), but you will have to use it with a different service such as the Migrator extension (paid).
JetPack
If you’ve built a WordPress website and you already use the JetPack plugin, you might have heard about it by now. But this one allows you to back up your site with as little effort on your part as possible.
Besides, since JetPack is largely focused on security, that’s one less thing to worry about. All of the data on your site is stored in the cloud, so you do not have to perform any manual backups as you migrate your website.
The downside to using JetPack is that the setup process can be a little too much if you are a complete rookie when it comes to migrating sites. You need a WordPress.com account, a JetPack subscription (costs a minimum of thirty-nine dollars per year), and two different plugins.
All in One WP Migration
Although there is a free version of this plugin, too, there are some limitations that you have to bear in mind. For example, if your site is larger than 512mb, you will have to upgrade to the paid version. There’s also no file exclusion capability available, which can be another con.
As for pros, All in One WP Migration is a pretty good plugin for what you need. It’s mobile-friendly, it has zero dependencies, and the drag and drop migration process makes it very easy to use, even for people who haven’t migrated their site before.
The paid version costs $69 (one-time payment), and you will need to get it if you have a large site or if you need features such as the ability to back up from the server.
Migrate Guru
When it comes to ease of use, this one is a clear winner. The biggest pro that we have to mention with respect to this plugin is that it doesn’t put your server in danger in any way.
All of the migration process is done through Migrate Guru, which means that there is no risk whatsoever for your site crashing or you losing any data.
Based on some experiments performed by technology bloggers, it seems that you can transfer or clone a 1GB website in a matter of just thirty minutes.
There’s another advantage to trying out this option, and it’s that it is by far one of the best free migration plugins for WordPress. It’s free for everyone.
BackupBuddy
This is another very popular plugin for migrating WordPress websites. It’s been around for more than a decade, and up to this point, it has been used to migrate more than 500.000 WP websites.
Even though it’s not specifically designed for migrating websites since it should mostly be used as a backup tool, you can migrate your site with BackupBuddy. The license includes a variety of features, from the ability to change your server or host to changing your domain, URL, staging and deployment, and everything else.
The main con that we discovered about BackupBuddy is that there is no free version available, so you can’t test it out before making up your mind. Licenses are available for $80 per year, and there’s also a $297 one available for unlimited websites and for lifetime updates, too.
Migrate DB Pro
This one is a tad more complicated to use compared to the other plugins that we have showcased in our selection. We recommend it for people who want to have more control over how everything is transferred to the new host.
However, you will need to have at least some knowledge of SQL files, and you will also have to use phpMyAdmin to import the SQL file to the correct database. If you work with a developer, you can ask them to handle the process.
What’s pretty neat about the plugin is that it is free. As it is expected, there is a paid version available, too, and it costs $139, and it lets you use the plugin for as many as four different websites.
Super Backup & Clone
This is another alternative that you should take into account, but right off the bat, we’d like to note that it’s paid and that it costs $35, which includes support for just half a year.
On the upside, Super Backup & Clone does have a number of features that make it worth considering, such as the ability to link to third-party cloud services like Google Drive, Rackspace, or Amazon S3.
You can also schedule your backups and perform custom migrations, so you have more control over the location of your files and exactly what you’re transferring — at least compared to other plugins.
Read more: Best Schema plugins for WordPress
Backup Guard
Backup Guard includes a variety of features, from the ability to back up your site to migrating it and also restoring your files. It might not be as well-known as some of the other plugins that we have showcased here, but it has pretty much anything you need for migrating a website.
One note that we have to make is that the migration feature is, in fact, not included in the free version.
You might expect Backup Guard to be more or less cheap, but the truth is that it is among the most expensive plugins in this category that we came across — it costs almost $10 a month, which can definitely add up if you want to use it for a longer period of time.
To sweeten up the deal, though, we’d like to note that you don’t even need an FTP client when you are importing your backups using this plugin. Also, the support seems to be excellent, at least based on the information that we found about Backup Guard in this respect.
BlueHost Migrator
If you want to move your website to Bluehost, what you might not know is that they have a specifically designed plugin for the migration process. Based on the info that we found about it, it seems that the BlueHost Migrator is extremely easy to use, and it basically deals with all of the problems by itself.
The best thing about it is that it is completely free since you are going to pay for the hosting of this company, too. On the downside, it can’t be used to transfer from localhost to a live site, and it also doesn’t support the transfer of several sites.
SiteGround Migrator
Like BlueHost, this plugin can be used conveniently by anyone who’s purchased hosting from SiteGround. It has pretty much the same functionalities offered by the BlueHost plugin, and it’s also free to use.
WP Clone by WP Academy
First of all, this plugin is free, so it’s worth considering. However, you’ll have to make sure that you have a really good backup since, according to many developers, about 10 to 20% of all of the migrations performed with this plugin end up failing.
But if you do not want to handle any FTP program and you aren’t seasoned when it comes to migrating websites, you should try it out — keeping in mind that you first have to back up your site as best as possible.
WPvivid Backup Plugin
If you are looking for all in one WordPress migration plugins, this one should be right up your alley. It has everything from the ability to perform backups, restorations, and migrations. Support for Google Drive, Amazon S3, FTP, and Dropbox is also available.
You can also schedule your backups and work with a myriad of page builders ranging from Beaver Builder to Elementor.
We’d say that the free version of this plugin is pretty generous, and the fact that it includes one-click migration is another pro to keep in mind. But the free version is somewhat limited in that you do not get any support for multisite migrations.
As for pricing, the pro version starts at just $99 for as many as three sites. If you get the bigger plan, which costs just about $200, you can migrate up to one hundred websites.
BlogVault
As you probably know, if you’ve ever handled a migration before, things can sometimes go very wrong. So the first reason to consider using BlogVault is that it offers a unique feature, especially when compared to its competitors — offline restoration.
Additionally, BlogVault can be used by people who want to migrate their entire site network from one host to the other — and this is another feature that’s not offered by too many other plugins out there.
There is a free trial available, so you can at least check it out before you decide to get the paid version, but we’d argue that it is worth every penny.
The paid version isn’t cheap, though, as the basic plan (which you can use for just one website) costs $7.4/month, and since you get billed for the whole year, the plugin will set you back by $88.8. More expensive plans are, of course, available, and you can use each and every one for a different number of websites.
Read more: Best WordPress security plugins
How to choose the best WordPress migration plugin
As you might have noticed, the vast majority of the migration plugins that we have included in this selection aren’t free, and some of them are actually pretty expensive. As such, you need to make sure that you’re spending your money wisely and, more importantly, that you aren’t putting your website at an unnecessary risk.
So what should you consider before choosing a migration plugin? Since this is a WP plugin, you can just go to the WordPress directory and see what other users are saying about the product. If it has a rating of 4.5 out of 5, this is a pretty good clue that it’s safe and relatively easy to use — and comes with the right functionality.
The next thing you have to consider is how often the plugin gets updated. Support is also quite important, especially if you do not have a lot of experience with migrating websites — you need someone to help you in case you experience any issue.
Finally, look at all of the features that the plugin includes.
If you want to migrate a whole site network, you need to find a plugin that comes with this capability. The average price of paid plugins for migration is $50 to $100, so you can pick the one that best suits your budget and that also comes with the functionality you need.
Need help with your SEO or digital marketing efforts? We have lots of plans and courses available. Get in touch to find out how we can be of assistance!
Craig Campbell
I am a Glasgow based SEO expert who has been doing SEO for 22 years.
Back to top
