It can be tricky trying to migrate a website. Not only do you need to move the site files, but you also need to export the database, and potentially do a search and replace to update all of your permalinks if you’re changing URLs or moving to a local environment to make edits.

While it’s certainly doable without a plugin, it’s sometimes not worth the hassle. Downloading an entire site with S/FTP takes forever. SSH moves more quickly, but you may not have access to that depending on your hosting setup.

Enter WP All-In-One Migration! This plugin handles everything for you, allowing you to save your export to a single *.wpress file for one click imports and exports. It handles everything, including your database.

Grab the Import Extension

Out of the box, you will be limited to a very small maximum file size for your imports, but there is a free extension to bump that up to 512mb. This should cover most basic websites.

They also offer personal and business plans to cover unlimited import file sizes, which you can look into here. For personal use on a single website, a lifetime fee of $69 isn’t too bad, but that business plan is a little steep at $29/month, so you’ll have to consider your ROI if you’re going to be using it to help you run your business.

Manage Your File Size

If you’re struggling to stay within the restriction of your free plan, you have some options for reducing filesize. On the export page, there is a dropdown for advanced options that you can experiment with. The most obvious choice is to ignore any unused themes if you have more than one installed. The media library is another option that can save you a ton of space, and can be migrated separately without too much trouble.

Extending Functionality

For developers, you should know that you can extend these advanced options by adding the following filter to your functions.php file!

add_filter( 'ai1wm_exclude_content_from_export', function( $exclude )
{ $exclude[] = '/path-to-exclude/'; return $exclude; } );

All-in-one will export anything inside your wp-content folder, so this filter allows you to designate folders to exclude from your export. This is helpful for keeping your site size small by ignoring any config files that aren’t necessary for your production build. A great use cse for this is to ignore your node_modules directory if you’re using any local dev tools, or to ignore your sass files and only include your compiled stylesheet.

If you have a small site and need to migrate it between development, production, or from one host to another, WP All-In-One Migration can save you a ton of time!