Migrating Sites to InstaWP Live
InstaWP Live is a managed WordPress hosting platform that offers robust features like built-in CDN, enhanced security (WAF), and automated backups. Migrating to InstaWP Live allows you to benefit from optimized performance and scalability for your WordPress sites, ensuring a seamless experience for both you and your visitors.
Let’s explore the two efficient approaches for migrating your sites to the InstaWP Live managed WordPress hosting:
1. Via a Staging Site on Our Staging Platform
2. Using Our Automated Migration Tool
Note: For large sites, you can also request Managed Migration. Here’s how.
While the next section covers step-by-step guides, here's a quick overview to help you decide which approach is best for your situation. 🚀
This approach is ideal for complex websites with many plugins or customizations, allowing thorough testing in a full-fledged, feature-rich staging environment. It suits the best for eCommerce sites, major redesigns, or agencies managing client sites to ensure everything works smoothly before going live.
- Site Size > 5GB: For sites exceeding 5GB in size, using staging (and migrating via the SSH method) is faster and has a higher success rate because some hosting providers don’t keep external connections alive for long periods.
- eCommerce or Mission-Critical Sites: For online stores running WooCommerce or other eCommerce plugins, downtime can lead to lost sales. A staging site lets you test product functionality, payment gateways, and customer flows before migration.
- Ample Time and Money for Testing: If your site has multiple plugins, customizations, or complex functionalities, testing is essential before migrating live. This approach allows you to check for compatibility and performance issues in a safe environment.
- Major Redesigns: When you’re planning a big site redesign or overhaul, it’s crucial to test your design changes and ensure all elements work smoothly.
- Agency or Professional Use: Agencies managing multiple client sites with custom code or high customization need to be certain that every feature works seamlessly before going live.
InstaWP's migration tool is an excellent option for quick migrations, especially for users who need more resources for extensive testing upfront. The built-in progress tracker helps monitor the process, and if the migration is successful, you save both time and effort. If issues arise, you can switch to the staging approach (Approach 1) for more thorough testing.
- Cost Efficiency: For those without resources for initial testing, this approach offers a cost-effective way to proceed and track the progress via a migration tracker. If the migration goes smoothly, you avoid needing a staging setup.
- Testing Not Critical: If you’ve already tested everything on your current server or you're confident that there’s minimal complexity, you can use the automated tool for a smooth, quick migration.
- Tried and Tested: Ideal when agencies have successfully used our migration tool for similar websites and are confident in the process, especially when migrating client sites.
- Quick Switch: When you need to migrate quickly, and the site is straightforward or content-focused (like blogs or portfolios), this method offers the fastest transition to InstaWP Live.
- Small Websites: Simple sites with minimal plugins or features are easy to move directly, as there’s little risk of things breaking.
- Frequent Updates: For sites that require frequent migrations or updates, using the automated tool can save time and effort when compared to setting up a staging site first.
You can first create a staging site on our Staging platform, which allows you to make changes and test your site before going live.
Use either of the following ways to connect your site:
Path 1: Using InstaWP
In your InstaWP dashboard, go to the Connects page and click Connect Site.
Paste the live website URL in the popup modal and click Connect Site to approve the connection.
Path 2: Manually
Go to your existing live website’s WordPress admin dashboard and install the InstaWP Connect plugin on it. Go to Tools > InstaWP to create staging (quick, full, or custom) and follow the guided process.
- Quick Staging: Create a staging environment without the media folder.
- Full Staging: Create an exact copy of your live site (time may vary based on site size).
- Custom Staging: Select options that match your requirements.
Once the staging site is ready, go to the Staging Sites page and click on the "Go Live" icon to migrate your staging site to InstaWP Live.
You'll need to choose InstaWP Live to proceed.
Click Next Step and choose a plan for your site before it goes live.
If you prefer a more direct approach, you can use our automated migration tool to migrate any site to Live directly. You can just create a blank WordPress site first, and use our WordPress Migration tool to proceed. Here’s how:
In your InstaWP dashboard, go to the Hosting page and click New Site.
Now, you must choose InstaWP Live to proceed.
Click Next Step and choose a plan for your site before it goes live.
Note: Make sure your destination site is a blank WordPress installation without any plugins or themes because migration will override this site’s content.
Visit migrate.instawp.com to access our automated migration tool.
Enter the URL of the site you want to migrate (source site), click Connect, and approve the connection.
Paste the URL of your blank WordPress site (destination site), click Connect, approve the connection, and start the migration.
Your site’s content will be migrated to InstaWP Live from your current hosting provider. However, it won’t affect your live site.
Click Track Migrate if you wish to see the progress of your site’s migration process.
Once the migration is complete, you'll need to map a custom domain to your newly migrated InstaWP Live site. Domain mapping allows you to use a custom domain (e.g., yourdomain.com) instead of the temporary InstaWP URL.
To map your domain:
Go to the Hosting page in your InstaWP dashboard and locate the live site to which you want to map a domain.
Follow the steps outlined in our Domain Mapping Guide, which explains how to configure DNS records and link your domain through providers like Cloudflare or Namecheap.
Once your DNS is set up, map the domain to your InstaWP Live site, and you're all set!
Note: Ensure that SSL is enabled for your custom domain to secure your live site.
After migrating your site to InstaWP Live and verifying everything, you can safely cancel your old hosting plan to avoid any unnecessary charges.
Still have questions? Contact support using this link or reach out to us via live chat.
Helpful Documents
- Create Staging Site
- Add Connect Plugin to Site
- Migrate a Staging Site to InstaWP Live
- Using InstaWP’s WordPress Migration tool
Let’s explore the two efficient approaches for migrating your sites to the InstaWP Live managed WordPress hosting:
1. Via a Staging Site on Our Staging Platform
2. Using Our Automated Migration Tool
Note: For large sites, you can also request Managed Migration. Here’s how.
While the next section covers step-by-step guides, here's a quick overview to help you decide which approach is best for your situation. 🚀
Use Cases for Approach 1 (Via a Staging Site)
This approach is ideal for complex websites with many plugins or customizations, allowing thorough testing in a full-fledged, feature-rich staging environment. It suits the best for eCommerce sites, major redesigns, or agencies managing client sites to ensure everything works smoothly before going live.
- Site Size > 5GB: For sites exceeding 5GB in size, using staging (and migrating via the SSH method) is faster and has a higher success rate because some hosting providers don’t keep external connections alive for long periods.
- eCommerce or Mission-Critical Sites: For online stores running WooCommerce or other eCommerce plugins, downtime can lead to lost sales. A staging site lets you test product functionality, payment gateways, and customer flows before migration.
- Ample Time and Money for Testing: If your site has multiple plugins, customizations, or complex functionalities, testing is essential before migrating live. This approach allows you to check for compatibility and performance issues in a safe environment.
- Major Redesigns: When you’re planning a big site redesign or overhaul, it’s crucial to test your design changes and ensure all elements work smoothly.
- Agency or Professional Use: Agencies managing multiple client sites with custom code or high customization need to be certain that every feature works seamlessly before going live.
Use Cases for Approach 2 (Using Our Automated Migration Tool)
InstaWP's migration tool is an excellent option for quick migrations, especially for users who need more resources for extensive testing upfront. The built-in progress tracker helps monitor the process, and if the migration is successful, you save both time and effort. If issues arise, you can switch to the staging approach (Approach 1) for more thorough testing.
- Cost Efficiency: For those without resources for initial testing, this approach offers a cost-effective way to proceed and track the progress via a migration tracker. If the migration goes smoothly, you avoid needing a staging setup.
- Testing Not Critical: If you’ve already tested everything on your current server or you're confident that there’s minimal complexity, you can use the automated tool for a smooth, quick migration.
- Tried and Tested: Ideal when agencies have successfully used our migration tool for similar websites and are confident in the process, especially when migrating client sites.
- Quick Switch: When you need to migrate quickly, and the site is straightforward or content-focused (like blogs or portfolios), this method offers the fastest transition to InstaWP Live.
- Small Websites: Simple sites with minimal plugins or features are easy to move directly, as there’s little risk of things breaking.
- Frequent Updates: For sites that require frequent migrations or updates, using the automated tool can save time and effort when compared to setting up a staging site first.
Approach 1: Via a Staging Site on InstaWP
You can first create a staging site on our Staging platform, which allows you to make changes and test your site before going live.
Step 1 - Connect Your Existing Live Site to Your InstaWP Dashboard
Use either of the following ways to connect your site:
Path 1: Using InstaWP
In your InstaWP dashboard, go to the Connects page and click Connect Site.
Paste the live website URL in the popup modal and click Connect Site to approve the connection.
Path 2: Manually
Go to your existing live website’s WordPress admin dashboard and install the InstaWP Connect plugin on it. Go to Tools > InstaWP to create staging (quick, full, or custom) and follow the guided process.
- Quick Staging: Create a staging environment without the media folder.
- Full Staging: Create an exact copy of your live site (time may vary based on site size).
- Custom Staging: Select options that match your requirements.
Step 2 - Migrate to InstaWP Live
Once the staging site is ready, go to the Staging Sites page and click on the "Go Live" icon to migrate your staging site to InstaWP Live.
You'll need to choose InstaWP Live to proceed.
Click Next Step and choose a plan for your site before it goes live.
Approach 2: Use Our Automated Migration Tool
If you prefer a more direct approach, you can use our automated migration tool to migrate any site to Live directly. You can just create a blank WordPress site first, and use our WordPress Migration tool to proceed. Here’s how:
Step 1 - Create a Blank WordPress Site
In your InstaWP dashboard, go to the Hosting page and click New Site.
Now, you must choose InstaWP Live to proceed.
Click Next Step and choose a plan for your site before it goes live.
Note: Make sure your destination site is a blank WordPress installation without any plugins or themes because migration will override this site’s content.
Step 2 - Access the Migration Tool
Visit migrate.instawp.com to access our automated migration tool.
Step 3 - Connect the Source Site
Enter the URL of the site you want to migrate (source site), click Connect, and approve the connection.
Step 4 - Connect the Destination Site
Paste the URL of your blank WordPress site (destination site), click Connect, approve the connection, and start the migration.
Your site’s content will be migrated to InstaWP Live from your current hosting provider. However, it won’t affect your live site.
Click Track Migrate if you wish to see the progress of your site’s migration process.
Step 5 - Map Your Domain
Once the migration is complete, you'll need to map a custom domain to your newly migrated InstaWP Live site. Domain mapping allows you to use a custom domain (e.g., yourdomain.com) instead of the temporary InstaWP URL.
To map your domain:
Go to the Hosting page in your InstaWP dashboard and locate the live site to which you want to map a domain.
Follow the steps outlined in our Domain Mapping Guide, which explains how to configure DNS records and link your domain through providers like Cloudflare or Namecheap.
Once your DNS is set up, map the domain to your InstaWP Live site, and you're all set!
Note: Ensure that SSL is enabled for your custom domain to secure your live site.
After migrating your site to InstaWP Live and verifying everything, you can safely cancel your old hosting plan to avoid any unnecessary charges.
Still have questions? Contact support using this link or reach out to us via live chat.
Helpful Documents
- Create Staging Site
- Add Connect Plugin to Site
- Migrate a Staging Site to InstaWP Live
- Using InstaWP’s WordPress Migration tool
Updated on: 09/10/2024
Thank you!