Ok so you’ve been a user of WordPress.com for a while now. Things have been pretty nice so far, but you’ve come to a point where you’re ready to go beyond WordPress.com. You want to install plugins and customize your themes. You want to really start monetizing your site and be in full control. Well you are at the right place. While today’s article won’t discuss the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, we will take a look at a question that a lot of users have been asking us: how to move your existing WordPress.com blog to a self-hosted WordPress.org site. In this step by step tutorial, we will show you how to properly move your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. We will cover how to transfer all of your WordPress.com content to a WordPress.org site (yes this include images). We will also cover how to keep all of your search engine rankings along with how to redirect your existing users to your new site. Are you ready? Let’s start transferring your WordPress.com blog over to your new self-hosted site.
Things You Need Before You Start
You will need to have a domain name and a good web hosting company that knows WordPress. We highly recommend that you use Bluehost because they will give you a free domain and 50% off their hosting plan (special for WPBeginner users). Bluehost is also an officially recommended hosting provider of WordPress.
If your WordPress site already has a custom domain name, then don’t worry. We will cover that as well. Lastly, you will need access to your WordPress.com account, so you can easily move all of your posts, pages, images, comments, and other data over to your self-hosted WordPress site.
Before you get started with this migration tutorial, we want to let you know that we can migrate your site for FREE as part of our Free WordPress Blog setup service. This will be less hassle for you, but if you are someone who like learning and doing things themselves, then follow our step by step tutorial below.
Step 1: Exporting Data from WordPress.com
Sign in to your WordPress.com account and go to your blog’s Dashboard. Click on Export under Tools menu.
Clicking on the Export tool will take you to a new page where you will be asked to choose between Free or Guided Transfer.
Choose the Free option by clicking on Export. On the next screen you will be asked which data you want to export. Select “All Content” and press the Download Export File button. An XML file will be downloaded in your computer which will contain all of your posts, pages, images, comments, custom fields, categories, tags, navigation menus and other information.
Step 2: Setting up WordPress
Now that you have exported your WordPress.com data, the next step is to set up a fresh WordPress install on your web hosting. WordPress is very easy to install, and it only takes a few clicks. We have a step-by-step tutorial on how to install WordPress within 5 minutes. Once you have installed WordPress, it is time to import your content into your new self-hosted WordPress website.
Step 3: Importing Content into Self Hosted WordPress Site
To import your old content from WordPress.com to your new site, you need to click on Tools » Import option in your self-hosted WordPress.org dashboard.
Next click on WordPress. You will be asked to install the WordPress Importer plugin. Once you install it, activate and run the importer plugin. It will take you to a screen where you will be asked to upload your WordPress.com XML file that you downloaded in step 1 of this tutorial.
Note: if your file size is larger than 2MB, then you have two options. One is to ask your web hosting company to increase that limit temporarily, so you can get on with the process. The other option would be to split your file by using a WXR file splitter.
When you start importing, you will have the option of assigning your old content to a current user or create a new user. You’ll also have the option of importing your old attachments (you want to make sure that you check this box to ensure that your images are imported).
If you took the optional step of exporting your old links/blogroll, then you should take this time to import them. The process is pretty much the same as above. Go to the Import page from the Tools tab, click on Blogroll, install the plugin, choose the location of the exported link/blogroll file and import it.
Step 4: Setting your WordPress.com blog to private
The final step would be to set your WordPress.com blog to private. If you don’t want to redirect your old users to your new site, then go ahead and follow this step. Go to the Reading page under Settings tab, from your WordPress.com Dashboard and select the last option, “I would like my blog to be private, visible only to users I choose”.
Attention: If you have been writing for sometime, and you have a loyal audience, then it does not make sense to leave them hanging. Furthermore, if your blog has been out there for a while, then chances are that it is indexed in Google and other search engines. You should keep all the search engine juice and easily redirect your old users to your new blog.
Step 5: Redirecting Visitors and Preserving SEO
Redirecting users to new location with a 301 header is the standard solution to keep search rankings while moving a site from one location to another. Since you don’t have access to .htaccess on WordPress.com, you can not make any changes by yourself to retain search engine rankings. However, WordPress.com offers a paid upgrade, Offsite Redirect, which provide this functionality. Go to WordPress.com blog’s dashboard and click on the Store menu item. The upgrade you are looking for is called Offsite Redirect. At the time of writing this tutorial, this update was reasonably priced at $13 USD per year. This upgrade provides 301 redirect which allows your site’s visitors and search engines to be automatically redirected to your new site.
Some of you will ask how long should I keep paying for this Offsite redirect feature? The answer is for as long as you want to. However, we personally think that 2 years would be enough time for your old users to memorize your new domain name 
If you are changing domains, then another thing you want to do is update all in post URLs. If you ever inter-linked your posts, then those links have to be updated. Use our article on how to update URLs when moving your WordPress site.
We hope that you found our guide on switching from WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress.org to be helpful. If you have any questions, then please let us know by leaving a comment below.
thanks for the tutorial, but I’m looking for tutorial about How to import and make 301 redirection from one WordPress blog to another without loosing any ranking
if you have anytutorial on that please share with me a link
I’ve done all of the above for my blog LDNshopaholic.com – apart from the make this private – is this a must?
I can’t figure out how being self-hosted has made a difference, my admin login just takes me to wordpress.com and logs me in as it did before I did any of this.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks
Hey Saima,
While your admin panel will look similar, it is definitely different. You should be seeing a new menu like Plugins. You should also see more features under other menus as well. As for making it private, it is not necessary. However if you care about SEO, then it is. The best solution is to get offsite redirect from WP.com unless you were using the same domain. If you were using the same domain, then you are good to go.
Hi guys, thanks for the tutorials. I’m in the process too and need a little clarification.
When I purchased a subdomain update (premium) for my blog, I got offered a free .com site. What I need is a .com site that allows me to upload and use wordpress plugins. Should I go ahead and accept this and then point this new .com site to the old one?
1. Will doing this change my address to mysitename.com automatically or is there more I need to do?
2. Will I be able to use plugins with this new mysitename.com?
Thanks in advance
Even if you get the .com upgrade from WordPress.com, you still will NOT be able to use plugins.
Hello. Great tutorial! If I sign up with Bluehost with you, you will transfer for me for FREE? Can I use a theme of my choice if I choose to have you transfer? Thanks!
Yes, you can use the theme of your choice.
What about themes? Is there any way to move the theme over if I bought one that I am using on wp.com?
Unfortunately that is not possible. However most paid themes that are available on WordPress.com are usually available to purchase for WordPress.org as well. You would have to repurchase the theme.
Thank you – this is the most helpful tutorial I’ve read. I have one important question before I go through with it though. My current blog is hosted on WordPress.com. I understand one option is to redirect, but instead can I move my blog to WordPress.org and keep the same domain name/URL? (In other words, I have http://www.staceyalevine.com – can I keep that and move it to wordpress.org?) Thank you!
Yes you can keep that same domain. All you have to do is change the nameservers to the new host.
Thanks for a great tutorial! I had been putting off a transfer thinking it would take a long time, but it was pretty straight forward.
I had my own domain and just transferred the name servers over. I’m still waiting for the changes to propogate, but I had a question on my images. I had all my images hosted through wordpress.com previously. I chose to export then import into my new wordpress.org hosted site – what happens if someone was linking to my images from the wordpress site or they were indexed in google images. Would these show up as broken images. Do I need to do the redirect service so this won’t happen?
Thanks!
During the export/import, all images are migrated. Since you are using the same domain, nothing will break.
Help! I have my own domain name and host through blue host. Transferring my blog from wordpress.com to wordpress.org I am all set to complete the process but I do not know what to do to shut down the .com ? I am confused! Please help! Thank you!
The best course of action is to do a off-site redirect to preserve the SEO rankings.
Hello, I have a couple of questions. I just purchased Bluehost account. I currently already have a WordPress blog thehealthyflavor.com. I want to change my theme and just simply transfer everything currently to the new design/theme which is a WordPress upgraded theme. Do I do this before I do the whole WordPress install transfer thing to self-hosting? Or do I do it all after I transfer?
Also, I’m no longer going to use thehealthyflavor.com but instead TheVegan8.com which I just got today when I purchased a Bluehost account…I selected purchase a new domain.
How do I transfer a new theme and new domain name without messing everything up…basically what order do I do this in? Thank you so much!
You would follow the same steps. In the last steps, simply point the old domain to the new one.
What if you first downloaded wordpress.org and then later connected with free wordpress.com?
do i have to go through all of the same steps to put is all back under the .org?
Thanks for your insight.
Great tutorial. Helped me immensely with my move from wordpress.com to wordpress.org.
I do have a couple of questions though – I purchased the site redirect package and now if you type in the old blog name, it redirects you to the new site, which is fine. However, I still get emails saying “XYZ subscribed to the [Old Blog Name]“. Is that normal? Shouldn’t the messages be reading as “XYZ subscribed to the [New Blog Name]?
Also, since I have purchased the site redirect package, should I be making my wp.com blog private or even opting for search engines to not index the site?
The redirect upgrade takes care of everything. If you connect your new site with Jetpack, you can ask the WordPress.com staff to move your subscribers to the new site.
This is what I did:
I signed up for Dreamhost and clicked that I already owned a domain (so I didn’t get a new domain). I have already purchased (travelworldheritage.com) from wordpress.com.
Then I did a wordpress.org install. When it asked what domain, I picked the one I already owned. [Currently, I am still updating and working on the site through wordpress.com.]
I got a link through my email that the installation was successful, but when I click on that link, it directs me to my old subdomained site (http://juliosworldmarvels.wordpress.com/wp-admin/install.php) website which isn’t even the one I use now since I bought a domain. It also says “oops that page cannot be found.”
I am super confused.
1) I can still update my site through wordpress.com. But my dreamhost account says that the site is not “fully hosted.” Which site really is hosting my site right now?
2) Why don’t the links that dreamhost sent me work? Did I miss something?
You cannot work and update the site from WordPress.com. The moment you decide to switch, you have to stop all updates. Download the export file. Point the DNS of your domain to your hosting provider in this case (Dreamhost). Then install WordPress and import everything. Once done, your site is ready to use.
From this point on, you will login to your site to manage and do updates (not WordPress.com).
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for this! My current webhost is Namecheap. I would love to switch over to Bluehost because I keep hearing such great things about it. Is there an easy way to do that?
Thanks again for your time!
hi, thanks for your tutorial!
i have couple questions.
1, i ow a domain of my old wordpress.com site. how can i transfer it to my new wordpress.org site? i got the domain from godaddy.
2. i paid $99 for that wordpress.com site. can i get it back?
thanks for you help.
Hey,
1. All you have to do is point the nameservers on your Godaddy account to your new host (Bluehost, or whichever one you decide to go with). They will be able to assist you with that.
2. You can ask them to see if they would refund you, but we cannot make any guarantees.
So right now I have a wordpress.com site (www.lovexcess.net) & as you can see, I’ve purchased a custom domain from wordpress.com. I’m now wondering… doesn’t that make wordpress.com my host? or do I need an additional host? I’m confused. I want to transfer for more customization of my website. I want the same domain name also.
Yes that makes WordPress.com your host, but as a host they have restrictions. They are not like other web hosts that give you full control. If you want more customization, then you would have to find a new host. Yes, you can use the same domain on the new host like Bluehost.
Hello, great tutorial. Very clear. Thank you.
Question: I was confused about one thing. Do I have to use the Offsite redirect feature if I am transferring the exact domain name like http://www.blogsite.com from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. Also, would I still need to set my site on wordpress.com to private if I am using the same domain?
I haven’t even started my blog yet, I’m just doing all my research first. Deciding on wordpress.com or wordpress.org.
Thank you!
You don’t need the offsite redirect if you are transferring custom domain like yoursite.com.
Hello
And i had posts with more than a 100 likes. Is it possible to transfer also this to .org?
Tks a lot for the tutorial. I have transfer my blog to .org and everything seems to be ok, unless the “likes” and “twitts” i had on every post (the number of them) had all gone
Hey Lucila,
If you were using the subdomain and have switched to your own domain now, then yes you will lose the tweets. If you are on the same domain, then you shouldn’t lose them. As for Likes, you would need to use the Jetpack plugin, and contact the WordPress.com staff to see if they would be able to move all your subscribers and likes from the .com account to .org account that is using Jetpack.
Tks a lot for ur answer.
Hello,
Thank you for the post.
There is something I’m not sure I understand though:
If I want a custom design (editing CSS or changing theme to a theme that isn’t on the WordPress.com site) I will have to pay anyway ?
I mean, if I stay on wp.com, I’ll have to pay for tweaking my code.
Besides, if I go to wp.org, I’ll have to pay for a hosting.
So basically I’ll have to pay any way.
Sorry this is confusing I’m still young and english is not my native language so I may have done some mistakes
Hey Daisy,
With WordPress.com, you are limited to the themes that they have made available. With WordPress.org, you can get many other free themes. If you get commercial themes, then yes you have to pay. However, you don’t have to pay anything to modify an existing theme. You can also modify much more than just CSS.
Just to modify an existing theme’s CSS, you have to pay WordPress.com for that upgrade.
Yes, you will have to pay for hosting. But for most small sites, a simple $3.95 / month plan of Bluehost would work. Let’s say you use WordPress.com, buy their custom domain ($17 per year), pay for ad-free option ($29.97 per year), and get custom design upgrade ($30 per year). That total is $76.97, and you are still not in full control.
For WordPress.org, you can use Bluehost (officially recommended by WordPress) which costs $3.95 per month so $47.4 per year, and it includes a free domain name.
You are also free to place all type of advertisement on your site and earn money.
But what if you bought your domain name for the 18 or $26 a year? Do you still have to pay that after transferring to wordpress.org?? Or do you only have to pay the Bluehost fee? I just don’t understand the domain transfer, how do I do it with Bluehost?? Thanks!! -Amy
I believe there is a transfer fee. You can ask the Bluehost folks to confirm it.
-Syed
Do the stats (blog hits) transfer when you export your blog from wordpress.com to wordpress.org?
No they do not.
Okay thanks. I may wait and pay for the guided transfer. While I was waiting on your reply, I found under the WP Guided Transfer FAQ that the stats do transfer. I also asked BlueHost if the stats transfer and they indicated that they do. I wonder what’s the difference between the stats transferring and not transferring …… maybe it’s if you take the export route.
Hi guys,
Just wondering if you do the transfer to wpengine – because I can’t find that option in the drop down menu when selecting the web host? Cheers
No we do not.
I have a question about the sign up process with BlueHost.com. I’ve got a domain name for my website, but i haven’t purchased it yet. I’m on the page where you pay for the service, and it has the line that shows the $3.95 charge for the monthly fee, plus 4 other, what i would call options, that you can pay for. It works out to about $85-90 a year, which isn’t that much, considering all they offer. I’m nervous about signing up for something like this that i’m not too sure about.
OK, my question is: do i absolutely need all those other things to make my website active online, or can i go without them and get them later?
Hey Paul,
You don’t need any of the upsells. You simply need the hosting and that’s it.
Great tutorial. I think I did it right. The question I have right now (and there may be more), will the WordPress.com blog “go away?” Right now, when I try to go to my new WordPress.org site, it just takes me to the old .com one. Did I do something wrong, or do I just need to wait a while for everything to get into place. I just did the transfer, using BlueHost, half an hour ago.
Thank you,
Sandy
Hey Sandy,
Did you change the DNS (name server) of your domain? That can take from few hours upto 48 hours to propagate.
No, I kept the same custom domain name that I had (purchased a few months ago) at WordPress.com. Maybe I should give it a day or two?
Thanks for your reply,
Sandy
Okay, I knew I should have let you all do the moving of my blog from WP.com to WP.org. I think I’ve really messed it up.
It still takes me to the old .com blog when I type in the URL (somewhereinthesand.com), and it’s now a day later. Also, the posts do not show on the Home page of the new site (they did yesterday), and some of the other things I did yesterday are not showing.
I would really appreciate any help I can get. I’m sorry to be such a pain.
Thank you so much,
Sandy
You are more than welcome to hire us to do this for you
Hi, I am fairly new to all this, but confused about one point. I currently have a blog running on wordpress.com http://serenephotographyblog.wordpress.com I never know of the differences between .com and .org until a few days ago. I managed to download wampserver and wordpress.org and have it all set up, with a new database but not sure if it is live online or even the http.
I get the export thing from .com to .org but you mentioned hosting.
I am not sure about this and would really need a bit of help.
1 I dont know if my wordpress.com site already has a custom domain name. All i did was sign up with log in details, I have not bought anything from .com
2 is wampserver a hosting company, for I have it installed on localhost (hope im making sense here, sorry) and database set up for new wordpress.org, but it is different files from my .com
Basically I have installed wordpress through wampserver looking to transfer my .com to .org but not sure if i have a custom domain name or if I have a hosting company?
Sorry if this all sounds foolish, but its genuine confusion on my part.
Many thanks
Mark
Hey Mark,
First of all no question is a stupid one. All of your concerns are fairly common and others have them too.
1. No, you do not have a custom domain name. A custom domain name looks like wpbeginner.com. What you have is called a subdomain which looks like xyz.wordpress.com
2. Yes, you will need a web hosting company. WAMP is a local server (i.e not connected to the internet). So only you can see your site. With web hosting, anyone in the world with internet access can see your site. Developers use WAMP or other local servers for testing and development purposes.
http://www.wpbeginner.com/wordpress-hosting/ < < Here is an article that will explain more about hosting.
http://www.wpbeginner.com/how-to-install-wordpress/ << Here is an article on how to easily install WordPress
Hi Guys, many thanks for you reply. That has clarified a lot for me. Have signed up with bluehost and got domain, so the fun probably begins here!!
Take care and your site is amazing, thank you again
Hi, I read that if you currently have private domain registration and you plan to transfer your blog and domain to wordpress.org, then you need to take your registration off private before you transfer your blog/domain?
Yes that is correct.
Thankyou for this article. I have a custom domain from wordpress.com, so just to double-check… does your free setup service from wordpress.com to wordpress.org transfer this domain to the new wordpress.org site? I also want to keep my SEO and search ranking so do I need to purchase the site redirect or is that part of the setup service as well? Cheers
Pete,
Yes we can help with that.
Cheers, I’ve noticed that you recommend WPEngine as a Host provider, but it’s not actually an option in the drop-down menu for ‘Which host did you sign up with?’
Thank you for the useful article. I have 2 beginner questions concerning themes. If I have a free wordpress.com site that I move to self hosted site with wordpress.org, would the wordpress.com ad still be displayed at the bottom of the page?
Also, if I am using a wordpress.com theme, won’t that theme still have its customization limitations that are imposed by wordpress.com’s free service? Or would I have to pick a new theme altogether? It doesn’t appear that the library of available themes is the same with wp.com and wp.org.
Hey Zane,
1. When you switch, the WordPress.com ads will no longer be there. You would be free to add your own ads if you choose to.
2. If that theme is available on .org, then you would be able to use/customize it in any way you want. If it is not available for .org, then you would have to find another theme.
One other thing bothering when moving from WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress is replacing the old URLs in the post content to the new URL domain.
Here’s some tricks to overcome that:
http://www.wikihow.com/Move-a-Wordpress-Blog-From-One-Domain-and-Host-to-Another
http://gabrielharper.com/blog/2012/10/replace-changed-url-in-wordpress-posts/
Or these plugins also could be useful:
- Search & Replace
- Velvet Blues Update URLs
*Hope this won’t end in spam since I’ve posted some links
Updated the article
Can’t believe we didn’t interlink one of our older articles that covered this 
Thank you so much for this post!
I’m a newbie yet I did it all perfectly because of your tutorial!
I’m confused. I successfully made this whole switch thing so I could (eventually) monetize my site. But I didn’t go from wordless.com to wordpress.org
i went from
talespinsbooks.wordpress.com to talespinsbooks.com (The latter has a web
Is this the same thing? Thanks!
sorry – typo!
“But I didn’t go from wordpress.com to wordpress.org … “
Yes it is the same thing.
Once you transfer your wordpress.com blog to your wordpress.org blog is the wordpress.com posts automatically published or can you pick and choose what to put up?
All of your posts will be transferred over as they were on WordPress.com. So if they were published, then they will be transferred over as a published post (with the right published on date, comments, images, and everything).
Thanks for this post. As you advised, if the Offsite Redirect is terminated after 2 years, the site viewers should have noted the new URL. But what happens to the pagerank?
Google too would have transferred all the URL juice by then. But again, if you are worried, then you can keep it for as long as you want.
I have allso moved a wordpress this way. Only thing you have to remember is, that images dont allways gets exported.
Excellent tutorial. Good deal on the bluehost service too…they were the first hosting company I chose years ago and still prefer them over others because of their support staff.
Nice and neat guide, nothing could go wrong for a new WP user now.
Moving WordPress site is a difficult business. I always relied on manual handling rather than on plugins. But to move a site with everything and preserve its functionality looks to me like a hit and miss thing.
I think would be very interesting to have a series of articles about moving WordPress blof form local server to a live server, moving WordPress from one server to another server preserving the domain and moving to another domain and another server, etc.
What I find tricky is the part with the database: renaming database and stuff and disabling and enabling cache plugins.
Moving from WordPress.com to self-hosted is not that hard. The tutorial above shows you exactly how to do it. The sites you are talking about are not simple like WP.com sites which is why it can be tricky.
I have had problems in the past with importing large amounts of images. On several different hosts, and with upload limits changed accordingly, the import would hang aftef a few hundred images. I solved this by installing a local wordpress installation and iimporting my images to it.
Thank you for sharing your experience because it will be handy for those who run into that issue. From our experience when we have migrated blogs from WordPress.com, we simply ask the host to temporarily increase the upload limit. This takes care of most problems.