A lot of people use Joomla to manage and publish their websites. While Joomla is a good platform, it is definitely not for everyone. Maybe you are among those users who have decided that you want to switch from Joomla to WordPress. You have heard a lot of people talking about WordPress and it’s ease of use. You want to utilize the power of WordPress plugins and themes. Well if you want to migrate your Joomla site to WordPress, then you are in the right place. In this article, we will show you how to move your site from Joomla to WordPress.
First thing you need to do is choose a web host and install WordPress. Once you have WordPress up and running, go to the WordPress admin area to install and activate FG Joomla to WordPress plugin. (Learn how to install plugins in WordPress).
After activating the plugin, go to Tools » Import. You will see a list of import tools available for your WordPress installation. Click on Joomla (FG) from the list of available tools.
Now you have reached the Joomla Importer for WordPress page. On this page, you need to provide your Joomla website and database information.
You can get the database settings from your Joomla website’s administration area, under Global Configuration » Server tab. This information is also stored in configuration.php file in your Joomla website’s root folder. You can access this file by connecting to your website using an FTP client and opening configuration.php in a text editor like notepad.
After providing your database information scroll to “Behavior”. If you want to import media files such as images from Joomla to WordPress make sure that you have checked Force media import option. Finally click on “Import content from Joomla to WordPress” button.
The plugin will run a script and start importing your content from Joomla to WordPress. Depending on how much content you have, the import process may take some time. Once it is completed you will see a notice like this:
Once you have imported all your content from Joomla into WordPress, the next step is to fix all broken internal links. Scroll down to the bottom of the Joomla (FG) importer page and click on Modify internal links button.
Troubleshooting Joomla to WordPress Import
- The most common error people report during the import is “Fatal error: Allowed memory size of ****** bytes exhausted”. You can easily fix WordPress memory exhausted error.
- If you see database connection errors then you need to recheck your database settings and make sure you are using correct login credentials.
- Sometimes importing media may not work because your web host may have disabled allow_url_fopen directive in
php.ini.
We hope that this article helped you move your site from Joomla to WordPress. If you need help, you will find plenty of tutorials in our archives. WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress tutorials site for beginners, and we are excited for you to join the WordPress community.
Hello! Thank you for the great article.
I have a Joomla website that I want to migrate to WP. I have no subdomains available and I want to install WP on a subdirectory of the website, then install the plugin, import all the Joomla data into WordPress and finally change WP installation from the subdirectory to the principal root.
Do you think it’s a good way to do it?
Hi Giulio,
It will work. You can also import your Joomla website to a local install set everything up and then move it to live server.
Thank you for the article, but I do have a question: MySite has Joomla installed. As I understood, I need to have another domain+hosting where WordPress is intalled, so I can migrate from MySite.com to MyNewSite?
Is there a way to do it within the same hosting account?
Hi Gjergji Kokushta,
Please contact your hosting provider. Many Joomla hosting providers also support WordPress. In fact, your account may already be fully ready to install WordPress. However, if it is not, then you will need to move but you still wouldn’t need to change domain names as you can point your existing domain to your new WordPress website.
you have to test these migration settings on a staging server if there is issues involved.
I successfully moved my site from Joomla to WordPress. Thanks for sharing this important piece of information.
I am very new to this field. I want to transfer my joomla website to wordpress. I have 3 domains parked on 1 hosting. When I installed wordpress for one of my domain which was working on joomla already, other website started working strangely.
Can anyone assist me what should I do to use wordpress in place of joomla.
Converting a hacked joomla site. Will this bring over the nasty that infected it?
How is the current existing WordPress site affected by the import of Joomla data? Do photos transfer over without premium?
Does having a copy of the imported data live on another domain affect SEO?
Thanks so much WPBegginner you guys have been so great!!
Helene, WPnewbie
i have a lot of products in my joomla website and i want to move them to my wordpress site and i want to keep links for seo…
How can i move the products not articles?
kindly help with it
Thanks
Hi
I have question, i have a lot of products in my joomla website and i want to move them to my wordpress site and i want to keep links for seo…
How can i move the products not articles?
Hello All,
I am completely new in this field. I find one classified template on Joomla. and its almost related to my requirement. they using plugins for DJ-monster.
I am new on this. I want to start my classified web business on wordpress using woocommerece. can I use joomla classified template offline in my laptop and then transfer it in to wordpress or not. with DJ-monster plugins.
this is the joomla template which i want to use.
please your answer and guidelines will make life easier. as I am only the one person who investing limited budget on this business.
many thanks in advance
regards
faisal
Hello,
great stuff shown here.
I have a question. Is it possible to somehow “migrate” from joomla to wordpress if the joomla version is no longer online? I have everything stored locally.
Thanks
Yes, there might be a few hiccups but its possible. Try to import your old joomla site into a WordPress installed locally first.
Hey WPBeginner thanks for a great article!
I plan on moving my site from Joomla to WP but most pages on the Joomla site has a .html extension on the end of the URL.
From my research it seems that it’s hard or not possible for WordPress pages to have .html extensions, only posts.
Is there a way around this or should I just migrate the content and create the pages without the .html extension on the URL? I’m scared this will effect rankings and will take some time to get indexed by Google.
Regards
Josh
Hi you can use wordpress plugins to have .html extension of page and posts
like the below one :
Add HTML Extension to Specific Pages
this may solve your problem
Cheers… (y)
I want to migrate a decent size online magazine that’s on Joomla to WP,
Can you recommend someone that can do the actual migration for me?
Moshe
thanks for the article…I have, on the Joomla site, a customized theme/template…(home page)…Not sure of the correct term…I am assuming that I have to select or create a WP theme on the fresh WP site and that the import process will fit what it can and that I will have to make “adjustments” to get it all into WP?
Is there a particular step to prepare for receiving content that was in the customized theme on Joomla? Ta
WordPress comes with a couple default themes pre-installed. The latest of the default themes will be automatically activated on your site when you install WordPress. You can import content from your Joomla site and then adjust or change your WordPress theme.
Hi John,
There is a way. you must need to implement and activate the theme and installed.
Post that, you can see the latest imported content and with new layout.
Let me know, if any help required.
Hi There, will this plugin allow me to import my members list from Joomla to WordPress?
Any answer here? Can I import the member list from Joomla to WordPress if I use this plug-in?
Hi MICHAEL,
Yes, you can import members. Might need to go for premium plugin.
Let me know, if any doubts.
Regards,
FAD.,
This looks great!
Was wondering if by importing the Joomla site, if it erases all the data from the Joomla site.
For instance,
I would like to create a copy of the joomla site on a test WordPress domain and edit it. Once the site is ready to replace the original Joomla site, then I would point it to the WordPress site.
Would this be possible with this method?
Thank you!
-Arbel
Did you get an answer?
Thanks!! ☺
Helene
Thanks for sharing, this article help me to migrating
I was install wordpress on mydomain/dir and completely import content from Joomla using FG joomla to wordpress plugin. My question, how to move all content and database to public directory?
Did you have article about it?
Thanks before
Thank you so much for the link to the FG Joomla! to WordPress plugin!
Worked like a charm to import my 292 J! articles into my WP posts. Easy, quick and perfect!
which version are you talking about?
my is Joomla 2.5 and the import required a password..where i can find
Do modules transfer with the other content? If not, do you have any recommendations on how to transfer modules from Joomla to a WordPress page?
I don’t think this is possible.
Yes, once you have imported your content from you can delete the importer plugin.
Again, might be a silly question but I am new-ish to WP. I have my site all migrated and set up with content (mostly) as I want it for now. Moved my old joomla site to a protected folder on the same server just in case I should ever need to refer to it again.
Now my plugin manager keeps bugging me that there is a new version of the Joomla to WordPress available. But I shouldn’t need that, right? I’m all done with it. Can I delete the plugin without messing with the data it migrated for me?
can i migrate database from joomla to wordpress? If so, how?
if i import my website from Joomla to WordPress, the Joomla site will exist or will be automatically deleted?
well, import doesn’t mean move .. so your site will exist
You will need access to either phpMyAdmin on the server, or FTP access to modify configuration file.
May be dumb question but I only have access to Joomla Admin panel, not the installation directory. Is there a way to find DB password from admin panel without having access to configuration file?
You can install an extension for joomla file system. com_extplorer can do it for you.
Linda at the end of the import process you can fix your internal links by clicking on the modify internal links button.
maybe a dumb question, but how do I make the url go to my new wp-site instead of my old-joomla one? I guess I have to change that somewhere in my webhosting. But where?
Are there any issues with moving a Joomla site to WordPress on my local server to do development and then moving the new site back to replace the old site?
Only 1 item imported but joomla site contain many articles. My Joomla version is 3.2.1
This is a great add to your articles and it worked like a charm. In fact, imported 5 years of data off my old Joomla 1.5 install and brought the site back up on WP. Thanks for posting…
We are glad that you found it useful. Thanks for the feedback.
Do you know if there is a way of exporting the look and feel of the site not just the info?
Hi,
I read in the previous comments that it’s better to have a new database when migrating on the same server. But what does it mean? If my host only provide me with one database, I’ll buy another and when I install wordpress in a new directory I give the details of the new database and when migrating joomla I give the joomla database code in the plugin. Thoses database are completely independent aren’t they? Then I move up the wordpress directory at the root and I’m done? All my content will have gone on my new database won’t it?
By doing that, assuming I have kept the same domain name, I guess only my wordpress site will be live, but what about the old links that are still visible on google? Don’t I risk a duplicate content and be blacklisted? i’m a bit confused..
Thanks !
i have joomla site, i need convert all them to wordpress.
can i do export ALL THE THINGS into wordpress without deleting joomla site,
Yes you can and you should first import everything in WordPress. If you deleted your Joomla site before starting then you will not be able to import anything.
hi iam nagababu i want to Migrate my existing Joomla website (1.5) to WordPress and i have one question can you please help me
First what i have to do
may i need to uninstall Joomla and fresh installation Of wordpress in existing domain
Can you please clarify this
If you have joomla installed on the location where you would want to install WordPress then the best way to go is to create a new directory and then install WordPress in that directory. Once you have successfully migrated your Joomla site you can change your Domain’s settings to point to to the directory where WordPress is installed.
Hi there,
When you say a new directory, do you mean a new folder under public_html? Thank you.
Yes.
Thanks for this article ! Great Job !!
I have little different issue here,I’m facing a technical confusion !
Problem
One of our client want to purchase a WordPress theme and do a fresh installation on server ! (This can be done easliy)
but the old website is working with joomla and it has around 8 other websites running on its “subfolder”
eg : http://www.example.com ( main web) , http://www.example.com/abcd, http://www.example.com/1234 etc
all web is working on joomla.
This is sort of redirection done !
My task
I have to install and develop the main web ,and connect the other webs as it is
how to reconnect the sub installations on WordPress ?
eg : http://www.example.com ( will run on wordpress ) but can’t change the subdomains which is running on joomla
it should work as http://www.example.com/abcd even after the installation
What hosting people told me
They said, i can’t do this because different platforms , but there should be a solution right ?
Could you help me ?
Thanks in advance !
Links : (http://www.nispana.com) has to install wordpress , Sub domain, can’t change any installation (http://www.nispana.com/buildindiasummit/)
Thank You for Such a Useful Post
Anyone can help, I get this error
Import Joomla (FG)
This plugin will import sections, categories, posts and medias (images, attachments) from a Joomla database into WordPress.
Compatible with Joomla versions 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.1
thank you! this saves me a lot of time!
Please say that you have some similar method to move Drupal site to WordPress! ! !
I manage the Drupal site with simple membership content. When users register they can download some PDF files. I have a database of users with just main informations about them and that is all. So I would like to move the site with all members data to the WordPress. Could somebody tell me there is a easy way to do it? :o)
Thanks to the WPB stuff for doing a great job!
I think this plugin is useful for migrating joomla article to WP post/page, but i do not think this will do anything for joomla component/module/extension.
Hello, I have a question, mabye stupid but i really don’t know how this works. I want to move a joomla site on a wordpress platform (on the same server). I have to create a new database and user for wordpress, or do i use the same database and user?
Thank you very much!
It is better to create a new database and user.
Thank you so much, you’re doing a great job!
Really thanks for your helping
Great post! But is there a way to import links from the Joomla Weblinks Component to WordPress?
We keep getting the error “Fatal error: Class ‘PDO’ not found” when we try to run this plugin. We had SiteGround enable PDO globally (VPS) and we have confirmed that the extension is enabled.
Any help will be much appreciated.
Girendra.
Contact plugin support.
Hi, Thanks for the article it was great,
I just have a question, maybe is obvious, but you didn’t mention if this IMPORT, do not ERASE all that information from your actual Joomla site? Because I has been working on a WordPress Demo page, and I don’t want to erase anything from my original Joomla site… just make a copy of the content and images…
Thanks in advance for your answer…
Jimrelay
No it will not delete any thing from your Joomla site.
Great article, helped me immensely to migrate my site from Joomla to WordPress.
Good job!
Thanks also to Jack Cola and Zimbrul for additional comments.
Thank you for the article!, but i wanted to know how would we convert the theme from joomla to wordpress, we want to keep the design as well including navigation, sidebar, content each and everything. Basically it will look like the same website but with a different CMS in the background.
Can you suggest us something with this regard?
Keeping your theme the same theme will be harder, as they is no way to convert it. You will need to contact the theme developer to see if they offer the same theme on WordPress.
I know programs such as Artisteer allow you to export the same theme from WordPress and Joomla, so if your theme was built using that program, just export the WordPress version.
I have just completed moving my website from Joomla to WordPress. I problably spent 30+ hours getting it perfect, testing, ensuring there are no 404 errors.
Problems I found were:
-Needed to perform the migration on a local host to ensure as the URL structure would stuff up.
-Image redirects will result in 404 errors (which I manually had to change – only effects those -images ranking high on Google Image or those evil hot linkers.
-Comments needed to be migrated
Hi Jack
How did you migrate the comments over? I did my site a few years back and didn’t manage to migrate the comments but now I have to do our corporate intranet and it’s important that the comments get moved over too.