Transitioning your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org offers greater flexibility and control. Many beginners start with WordPress.com but soon run into its limitations and seek more advanced features.
By moving to the self-hosted WordPress.org platform, you gain access to a wider range of themes, plugins, and customization options that aren’t available on WordPress.com.
At WPBeginner, we have 15+ years of expertise using WordPress.org. So, you can rest assured that we have a deep understanding of carrying out this transition. Plus, if you want more control over your WordPress site, we know that making the switch is worth it.
In this step-by-step guide, we’ll show you how to properly move your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, ensuring a smooth and seamless transition.
Why Move From WordPress.com to WordPress.org?
WordPress.com allows anyone to start a blog by creating a free account. This makes it easy for beginners to start blogging quickly without dealing with any technical issues.
However, many users realize their free WordPress.com blog has some limitations. These include the limited ability to monetize, the inability to install plugins, third-party ads displayed to users, and more.
This is why users often switch to the more powerful and popular self-hosted WordPress.org platform. Alternatively, you could upgrade to a paid WordPress.com plan.
We compared WordPress.com and WordPress.org thoroughly. This side-by-side analysis explains both platforms’ differences, advantages, and disadvantages.
We recommend using WordPress.org because it gives you complete ownership of your website and the freedom to control all its features. To learn more about all these features, see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.
That being said, let’s look at how to migrate your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org properly.
Things You Need Before You Start
To start with self-hosted WordPress.org, you’ll need a WordPress hosting account and a domain name.
We recommend Bluehost because it is one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.
They are also offering WPBeginner users a free domain name and a huge discount on web hosting. You can get started for $1.99 / month (and this also includes free SSL).
You’ll still need web hosting if your WordPress site has a custom domain name. Go ahead and sign up with Bluehost, and under the domain step, add your blog domain.
In the later steps, we will show you how to keep the same domain while transferring from WordPress.com to WordPress.org without losing search rankings.
In addition to the hosting account, you’ll also need access to your WordPress.com account to easily transfer your posts, pages, images, comments, and other data to your self-hosted WordPress site.
Bonus Free Offer: Since many of you asked for this, we are now offering a free migration service from WordPress.com to WordPress.org as part of our free WordPress blog setup service. During this guided transfer, one of our expert team members will do the entire migration for you (100% free). This means you can switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org without any risk.
However, if you like learning and doing things yourself, you can follow our step-by-step tutorial below.
Video Tutorial
If you’d prefer written instructions, then just keep reading.
Step 1: Exporting Data From WordPress.com
First, you need to sign in to your WordPress.com site and go to your account dashboard.
From there, you will need to switch to the WP Admin view for the blog or website you want to migrate. Simply click on the three-dot menu next to your site name and then select WP Admin.
This will bring you to the traditional WordPress admin dashboard.
From the left column, you need to click on the Tools » Export menu and then click on the ‘Export All’ button.
This allows you to export your WordPress site. Once the export file is ready, a download link will be visible. You can click to download the zip file on your computer.
WordPress.com will also email the link to your email address.
Once you have downloaded the file to your computer, you need to unzip it.
Inside it, you’ll find an XML file with all your posts, pages, images, comments, custom fields, categories, tags, navigation menus, and other data.
Step 2: Setting Up WordPress
Now that you have exported your WordPress.com data, setting up a fresh WordPress install on your web hosting is next.
WordPress is very easy to install, and it only takes a few clicks. If you signed up with Bluehost like we mentioned above, then WordPress will be automatically installed for you.
Alternatively, if you choose a different hosting service, then you can follow our 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 a Self-Hosted WordPress Site
To import your old WordPress.com site content to your new WordPress.org site, you will need to log in to your freshly installed WordPress website’s admin area.
From here, you need to visit the Tools » Import page and click on the ‘Install Now’ button below WordPress.
WordPress will now install the WordPress importer for you.
Once it’s done, click on the ‘Run importer’ link to continue.
It will take you to a screen where you will be asked to upload the WordPress.com XML file that you downloaded in step 1 of this tutorial.
Click on the ‘Choose File’ button to select the file, and then click on the ‘Upload file and import’ button.
Note: If your file size is larger than 2MB, you have two options. One is to ask your web hosting company to temporarily increase that limit so you can proceed with the process. The other option is to split your file using a WXR file splitter.
When you start importing, you can assign imported content to an existing user or create a new user.
You’ll also have the option to import file attachments. You must check this box so your image files are correctly imported.
Step 4: Importing Your Blogroll Links
If you have been using the Links feature on your WordPress.com blog to store blogroll or other links, then you need to follow these instructions to import them. Users who were not using this feature can skip to Step 5.
WordPress does not natively support the blogroll feature. If you don’t have too many links in your blogroll, then see our guide on how to add blogroll links in WordPress without using a plugin.
However, if you have too many links or you would like to keep the blogroll functionality, then continue reading.
Blogroll links are exported in OPML format. It is an XML format that allows you to export and import your links and link categories. Your WordPress.com links have an OPML file located at an address like this:
http://example.wordpress.com/wp-links-opml.php
Replace the example with your WordPress.com blog’s subdomain.
If you are using a custom domain with your WordPress.com website, then your OPML file can be accessed by visiting a URL like this:
http://www.example.com/wp-links-opml.php
Your OPML file will open in your browser window, and you need to save it to your desktop. Press CTRL+S (Command+S on Mac) to save the file on your computer.
Now that you have a backup of your WordPress.com links, the next step is to import them into WordPress. However, self-hosted WordPress does not have a link manager enabled by default.
You will need to install and activate the Link Manager plugin. The plugin’s page says it hasn’t been updated in many years. That’s because it didn’t need updating, and you can confidently install this plugin.
Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled’ Links’ to your WordPress admin bar.
Next, you need to install and activate the OPML Importer plugin. This plugin enables a new importer tool that allows you to import blogroll links.
Upon activation, you need to visit the Tools » Import page and click on the ‘Run Importer’ link below the Blogroll importer.
On the Blogroll importer page, you need to upload the OPML file you saved earlier.
Click on the ‘Choose File’ button to select the file, and then click on the ‘Import OPML File’ button to continue.
WordPress will now import your links and link categories from the OPML file.
You will be able to see the progress, and on completion, you will see the success message.
Step 5: Setting Your WordPress.com Blog to Private
Now, if you don’t want to redirect your old users to your new site, this will be your final step.
First, visit your old blog’s WordPress.com dashboard. From the left menu, you need to click Settings » General menu and scroll down to the ‘Privacy’ section.
From here, you need to select the ‘Private’ option and then click on the ‘Save settings’ button.
This will make your old WordPress.com blog private, and it will only be visible to you or other logged-in users that you approve.
Attention: If you have been writing for some time 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 by Google and other search engines.
You can keep all the search engine rankings and easily redirect your old users to your new blog by following Step 6 (highly recommended if your site is established).
Step 6: Redirecting Visitors and Preserving SEO
Redirecting users to the new location with the 301 header is a standard solution to keep search rankings while moving a site from one place to another.
Since you don’t have access to the .htaccess file on WordPress.com, you cannot make any changes to retain search engine rankings.
However, WordPress.com offers a paid upgrade feature called ‘Site Redirect’, which provides this functionality.
Simply go to the Site Redirect page. If you have multiple sites on WordPress.com, you will be asked which one you would like to redirect.
On the next screen, you will be asked to provide the domain name where you want visitors to be redirected. Enter your new WordPress.org site’s domain name and click on the go button.
Note: Site redirect is a paid upgrade and costs $13 per year. It will add a 301 redirect, which redirects your WordPress.com blog’s visitors and search engines 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, two 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, those links must be updated. You can use our article on how to update URLs when moving your WordPress site.
If you have a custom domain on WordPress.com, you don’t have to worry. Simply change the DNS record to your host, and you will retain all the SEO benefits.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
We wrote the first version of this article in January 2013. Since then, we’ve received tons of great questions. We’ve answered a lot of them via email or in comments, so we thought it would be nice to compile the popular ones in one place where everyone can see them.
What happens with my WordPress.com Subscribers?
Thankfully, WordPress.com allows you to migrate your subscribers with one condition. You must use their Jetpack plugin, which adds the same subscriber functionality that you had at WordPress.com.
Once you install and activate the Jetpack plugin, you will need to contact the WordPress.com team and ask them to migrate the subscribers for you. We hope that this will become easier in the later versions of Jetpack, and users will be able to do it themselves.
Can you help me transfer from WordPress.com to WordPress.org for FREE?
Absolutely. We offer migration from WordPress.com as part of our free WordPress blog setup service. If you need our assistance, then simply sign up. It’s free 
What are the costs of switching to WordPress.org?
WordPress is free. However, there are some minimal web hosting costs. We recommend that you read this article on: Why is WordPress free? What are the costs, and what is the catch?
I already paid WordPress.com. Can I get a refund?
Yes, you can. If you recently purchased a custom domain or a paid plan from WordPress.com, then you can ask them for a full refund.
Note: Domain registrations can be canceled within 48 hours of registration, and plans and other purchases can be canceled within 30 days of purchase.
Will my images break?
No, they will not. When you transfer using the import file, all attached images are downloaded, and the link is updated.
However, we noticed one caveat. If your image URL starts with files.wordpress.com, then they will not be converted. If you notice that the image URL has not changed and still points to WordPress.com, we recommend that you use the import external images plugin, which will take care of that.
I registered my domain through WordPress.com. Can I still move?
Yes, you can. WordPress believes in empowering users and giving them complete control of their content. If you already have a domain name through WordPress.com, then all you need is a web hosting account.
We recommend that you set up with Bluehost or any of these other WordPress hosting providers. During the signup phase, you will be asked if you have a domain or want to register a new one.
Simply select the ‘I have a domain name’ option and insert the domain you registered at WordPress.com.
The next thing you will have to do is change the nameservers to point to the hosting provider. We can assist with this as part of our free setup service. You can also ask your web hosting provider for support.
Will my website go down when I switch?
If you do it correctly, then NO. The method we’ve suggested above will ensure that your website never goes down. If you are worried, then know that we are here to help. You are welcome to use our free setup service at any time.
Can I add an online store to my WordPress.org website?
Yes, you can easily add an online store to your self-hosted WordPress.org website without any additional costs. Since Bluehost and other popular web hosts offer free SSL certificates, you simply need to install a WordPress eCommerce plugin to add an online store.
What are some of the must-have WordPress plugins that you recommend?
Now that you have switched to self-hosted WordPress.org, you can install as many plugins as you like.
Here’s our recommended pick:
- AIOSEO – to improve your website’s SEO rankings (used by 3 million sites).
- WPForms – to add a smart contact form on your website (used by 6 million sites).
- SeedProd – to easily customize your landing pages with drag & drop builder – works with all WordPress themes.
- MonsterInsights – to see how people find and use your website. It’s a must-have for bloggers and small business owners.
- PushEngage – to connect with visitors after they leave your website.
- Duplicator – to create daily backups of your new website in case of emergency.
- OptinMonster – to help you get more email subscribers and succeed in your blogging journey.
In addition to these, we recommend looking at our expert pick of the must-have WordPress plugins and useful blogging tools for managing and growing your blog.
You can install all of these plugins from inside your WordPress dashboard. We have created a step-by-step guide on installing a WordPress plugin.
I want to change my site’s WordPress theme, can I do that?
Yes, you can change your WordPress theme at any time. Another big benefit of switching to WordPress.org is that you get additional customization options and a larger collection of themes to choose from.
In your WordPress admin sidebar, click on the Appearance Menu dropdown and select ‘Themes’ to install a theme.
We have hand-picked some of the best themes to help users avoid choice paralysis. See our guide on the best free blog themes and best multi-purpose themes for WordPress.
You may also want to see our guide on how to properly change a WordPress theme.
We hope this article helped you properly move your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. You may also want to see our checklist of the most important things you need to do after installing WordPress and our ultimate guide on increasing your blog traffic.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Vale Guerra
Great Article, I moved my site from wordpress.com to in my own domain.
I’m concerned and working with SEO techniques to preserve and redirect my old links.
thank you
WPBeginner Support
Please take a look at our free blog setup service.
Admin
Angela Ho
Hi I have a wordpress.com and would like to swap to .org , is it possible once I get the domain from your advice site and would like your assist on the free blog setup service? I want to swap all my blogs from old to the NEW one.
WPBeginner Support
Yes, please follow the instructions on our free blog setup service page.
Admin
Christopher Brown
Hi,
I was advising a small business client that was thinking about switching from wordpress.com to .org. They have paid for a url they like and would keep.
If the switch doesn’t change the url then would you still need to get the “site redirect.” Would there be any concerns re SEO if the steps were followed as described above.
Thanks
kalaimani
I want to switch from wordpress.com to wordpress.org and i would like to use your assistance. I couldn’t connect to plugin. on the dashboard plugin not appearing what can i do. please help me
WPBeginner Support
If you were using a custom domain, then you are probably still being redirected to your WordPress.com website. Please refer to step 6.
Admin
Nathalia
Hello,
I have followed all the steps, payed for Bluehost, installed Wordpress through MOJO and bought a theme. It seems that I am still on the Wordpress.com platform because the ADD NEW THEME button is missing. Did I do something wrong?
Thank you!
WPBeginner Support
Please see the step 6 above.
Admin
Michelle Africa
I am currently following the tutorial on here. I now have an account with Bluehost and And my dilemma has been importing the .xml file from my wordpress.com blog using the importer plug-in. It says 405 not allowed. At this point, I availed of the free blog setup. I hope you could do this for me. Thank you.
WPBeginner Support
Please visit our free blog setup page and fill out the form.
Admin
Eloise Hamann
Does “all content” include the email addresses of followers so that they will automatically get new posts from the new site? I don’t need to “redirect” my followers since they aren’t entering a url, but merely clicking in an email.
Latoya
How can I solve this problem. A description for this result is not available because of this site’s robots.txt
This come up when I Google my site after switching from .com to .org.
Courtney
I’d like to add a second website to wordpress.org. My first and main site is one that I transferred from wp.com to wp.org (with the help of this tutorial). I’d like to add a second site to wp.org, and I already have the domain through wp.com and just set up the domain on my host. What do I do next? Thank you!
WPBeginner Support
If the second blog is also a WordPress.com blog, then you can follow the same instructions again.
Admin
Alice Elliot
Do I need to pay to register with BlueHost if I’ve already paid for my domain on Worpress.com?
WPBeginner Support
Yes, domain registration service is separate from web hosting.
Admin
Allison
I found this tutorial very helpful! I finally decided to make the switch from .com to .org. My only problem is, none of my photos uploaded when i did the export/import. I did it twice with no luck. Could be user error, but I made sure to select “all content.” So I’m a little stressed because I seem to have lost my images! Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Saviour
After the two years of paying for my redirects, will the search engines continue to index my new site instead of the old one?
Cat
Hi, I was hoping you could help. I seem to be struggling with the diverting of my old Wordpress.com blog to my new wordpress.org self hosted blog.
I went into Wordpress.com and used the domain mapping but I don’t think this is what I wanted. I have bought a theme on my Wordpress.org site and I want that to be my new theme. I just want to divert people who go to my wordpress.com blog to my new self hosted domain.
How do I go about that?
Maria
Thank you for this tutorial. I have my wordpress.com site which I am currently transferring it to a new wordpress.org site. I have imported all articles from the .com site. My question is: After I launch the .org site, should I delete the .com one?
I was told that Google could penalise the .org because it will violate its terms.. like copyrights etc. I would like to keep the .com and if possible make it not to be indexed from Google. Should I delete it? Can I just hide it from public so only I can have access? And if yes, would that be ok with Google?
Thank you in advance.
WPBeginner Support
Please see the step 5 to make your WordPress.com blog private. You may also want to follow step 6 to setup redirects.
Admin
maria
Thank you. I just wanted to make it clear that it would be ok if I set it to private, even if I copy all the content from .com site to .org. As I see, I won’t face any problems so I proceed. Thank you very much.
Eleanor
If I want to move my site intact, theme, images, forms and all, from .com to .org, will all of that transfer, even the theme?
Thanks!
WPBeginner Support
You will have to install the theme. If the .com theme is available for .org sites then you can use it on your .org site. Yes your images will import as well. For forms you will need to install a form plugin like WPForms.
Admin
suraj yadav
sir how to properly move own blog from wordpress com to wordpress-org. pls hindi laguage use
Wayne
Hi folks,
I availed of your WP setup and it’s worked great. However, the links from my old site aren’t redirecting.
Is there a way to remedy this?
Jenniffer
Hello,I recently started my blog in WordPress the free version. I was reading your article about setting up a domain in WordPress. When should I buy my domain in WordPress? Currently, I only get 50 viewers and I’m wondering if the $99 for the domain is a good investment or should I wait?Thank you for your reply!
WPBeginner Support
You may want to see our guide about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
Admin
Kaesmene
Hello! I exported my wordpress.com site according to instructions and received an email with the download link. I downloaded the file, unzipped it, and logged into my wordpress.org admin page. I imported the file but am getting this error: 405 Not Allowed . Any thoughts on what might be happening here? I’m working on a Mac, OS X Yosemite 10.10.4, if that makes a difference, and use Chrome as my browser. I registered my domain through Bluehost.
WPBeginner Support
Please contact your web host for support, they will be able to help you better.
Admin
Alice
Is this a regular problem on Mac?
Karen
I would like to switch over and have by own GoDaddy domain. You mentioned it takes 3-4 days. Is there a way to keep the .com one up while the switch happens? Don’t want to lose readers.
Thx
Katelyn Goddard
I have a client who I have set up WordPress.org website for. At the last minute, they remembered the have a Blog at WordPress.com that they would like to integrate into the WordPress.org site seamlessly. How can I integrate the blog over to the new WordPress.org site without losing my progress?
Dimitris
I moved form .com to my server and the browsers claim that “connection is not private”. As I understood it asks for the ssl certificate from wordpress.com. I also removed the domain mapping service from wordpress.com.
Michael Prime
Hi,
Thanks for this, so I have a custom domain which I bought from godaddy and I made it to
WordPress.com for $13.
Is it still possible to make the switch and retain my custom domain?
Do I have to pay to WordPress.org again for mapping it again?
WPBeginner Support
Yes, you can still switch to self hosted WordPress.org site. No you don’t pay anything to WordPress.org. You may want to see our guide on why is WordPress?.
Admin
Thanks for the reply
Do you help move another hosting service other than bluehost like c panel?
Do I have to pay to the hosting service
WPBeginner Support
Currently, no.
Yes, you will have to pay for the hosting service.
JAY
I want to create a company website, and I’m currently using wordpress.com but havent found a suitable theme yet, do you suggest i switch to wordpress.org?
WPBeginner Support
Yes, switching to WordPress.org will allow you to install from any of the thousands of themes available for self hosted WordPress sites.
Admin
Ali
How long would it take you to transfer wordpress.com site over to wordpress.org? thanks
WPBeginner Support
If you are talking about our free blog setup service, then it can take 3-4 days.
Admin
Liz
Thank you so much for sharing all of your tips and advice on your wonderful site. I recommend you to all of my fellow bloggers and I will certainly be in touch for your help when I make the switch to self hosting with Siteground in the future
Rizwan Amjad
Hi. I am fan of your site. Actually i have bought domain and hosting from local service provider and installed wordpress from cpannel. Is my site on wordpress.com or wordpress.org?
WPBeginner Support
Your site is a self hosted WordPress.org site.
Admin
Rizwan
Please advice, what is better for me? wordpress.com or wordpress.org
how can i differentiate in these terms? further more, advices for wordpress.org self hosted site security against malware, hack, etc
WPBeginner Support
Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Al Evans
I’ve followed this guide and I can see that all my old wordpress.com site’s images have been imported to my new wordpress.org site. I’ve also set up the theme I want.
However, none of the pages I made on the ‘wordpress.com’ site have imported. I’ve looked around for others with a similar problem but can’t seem to find any! T_T
Any help you can give would be hugely appreciated. I don’t fancy entering all the data in from scratch again!
WPBeginner Support
You can run the import again. The importer is designed to prevent duplicates. Download a new import file from WordPress.com and You can select to download only pages.
Admin
Caroline
Hi! So… I’m a complete newbie, and would oh so appreciate any help I can get! I have a wordpress.com blog, and then I decided spontaneously that I’m going to hold myself accountable to blogging by paying $$$ for a real blog, so I used Site Ground as my host which transferred everything from my wordpress.com blog on over to my new wordpress.org blog although technically it’s “my” website now. So, to clarify any confusion, what was once example.wordpress.com is now example.com.
I AM SO CONFUSED ON HOW THIS ALL WORKS SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME. I know I need to sit down and just read read read and watch videos all about wordpress.org, but I want to start following other blogs and every time I do so it’s through my wordpress.com account, but I want it to be off of my website (the wordpress.org account)!! Because that way, people who see that I’ve followed them can click on my page and can subscribe to my new and improved website, not my old wordpress account in which I deleted my blog off of, so it’s literally just an empty account! I used the same email for both the .org and .com, so that’s also making me SO confused. Please help??
Nik
I was able to successfully migrate my blog posts from my old wordpress.com site to my new wordpress.org site, however, I cannot get the posts to show up under my “Blog” page. Each individual post has it’s own separate URL. Is there a way to fix this so that when visitors click on the “Blog” tab they will see all of the posts in one place?
WPBeginner Support
Please see our guide on how to create a separate page for blog posts in WordPress.
Admin
Apoorva Bhardwaj
Hi , I currently have a personal domain on wordpress.com by the names of http://www.apoorva-bhardwaj.com.. I am looking at inserting an advertisement on my blog which I may then track through a UTM link using google analytics. However, I am unable to process the same. What do I need to do in this situation?
WPBeginner Support
You cannot do this on WordPress.com. Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Chris
Is there a way to work on/look at a site prior to redirecting the servers away from the wordpress.com site?
DJ
Hi I recently purchased hosting services with BlueHost in an effort to switch from wordpress.com to wordpress.org. Prior to the switch (over a yr ago) I purchased the domain name thru wordpress. I believe I properly changed the name servers and I also thought that I properly imported the wordpress.com content but I noticed when I typed in my web address there was no data there from my wordpress site. I also noticed on my laptop, whenever I typed my website which uses ‘http’ in its address, it automatically switched to ‘https’ and then gave me an error message saying the owner of the site configured the site incorrectly. Help!. Is it wrong for me to assume that if I import all my data, the wordpress.org site will look exactly like the wordpress.com site? Also, do you know why my http address is changing to https in the address bar?
WPBeginner Support
Seems like your name servers are still pointing to WordPress.com servers. You will need to point them to BlueHost.
Admin
DJ
Yes, I had to redirect it back to Wordpress because I didn’t want my site down. As the server names changed, I didn’t see my content come over.
Santje
Hey there wordpress!
I’m totally confused and I don’t have a clue what to do anymore.
This is what happened: First I made a wordpress.com which was example.wordpress.com
Then I wanted to get a Domain name for it. So I went to hostgator and bought the name.
I also bought the domain name with “Mapping” for wordpress.com so now my blogname is example.com. Everything is fine with the wordpress.com blog but now I wanted to make it a wordpress.org site. I read about it on the wordpress.org site that you need your own database for that, so I installed MAMP. I set up my own database and everything and I got the login screen for wordpress.org and I logged in. Till then everything was fine. But here it comes: Because I use MAMP, my wordpress.org site changed to localhost:8888/example.com.
Of course, I don’t want people to go to that site and just to example.com, so I went to general, and changed the setting of the name localhost:8888/example.com to example.com, but now every time when I try to login I get the wordpress.com dashboard. And I don’t want that because I want to change things myself on the theme. I have no idea how to get back in the wordpress.org site, I already changed my database 2 times because I couldn’t get in the wordpress.org site. Do i have to delete my .com site and start all over again with .org? Because I saw a lot of tutorials on youtube, where you didn’t even have to get MAMP and you just go to hostgator and download wordpress from there. But when I did that the first time, hostgator just downloaded the wordpress.com. Maybe you could make things more clear for me because I spent days trying to figure it out. Thanks already.
Santje.
WPBeginner Support
Santje, you were doing everything right except the part where you installed MAMP.
MAMP is used to create a localserver environment. This means that if you want to play with WordPress on your own computer, then you can do that with MAMP. Your website will stay on your computer and not on a live server.
In order to move your site to WordPress.org. You will need to purchase Hosting from a WordPress hosting company. After that you will need to install WordPress on your hosting account. Then you will have to import content from your WordPress.com site.
You can also take advantage of our free blog setup service.
Admin
Steve
Hello, I migrated from .com to .org using your tutorial. The most frustrating part was waiting for .com to release my domain name. The only problem I am having is that when my website is accessed on my mobile device, it still points back to my .com blog. When I go to the site via any other device, it works correctly. I can’t figure out what the deal is there. Any suggestions? I even deleted cookies/history to no avail.
WPBeginner Support
Try deactivating all WordPress plugins and then visit your website on mobile. See if it still redirects to .com site. Another quick way to troubleshoot is to delete your site’s .htaccess file and then refresh permalinks structure.
Admin
Maggie Carpenter
I just had a new website developed for me, and it’s on WP.org. I have an outside host. The information about the subscribers is extremely helpful, thank you. I have the jetpack installed, but couldn’t figure out how to get my subscribers over.
However, I have 325 “followers”. How do I deal with them? And I cannot, for the life of me (nor can my developer) find out how to put in a “follow” button on the .org site. (NOTE: Not follow by email, just follow)..
Can you help?
Thank you.
Brandon
Hi, it seems like the WP official plugin that you mention for importing blog posts or the full site is no longer working properly. It shows that it hasn’t been tested with the most current WP version. Any updates on your end on this? Or other recommendations for exporting and importing blog posts, pages, etc? Thank you for all the information that you have in this site. Truly helpful.
WPBeginner Support
You can safely install and use the plugin. See our explanation on installing plugins not-tested with your WordPress version.
Admin
Saana
Hi and thanks for this tutorial. I have been thinking about moving my blog self hosted for ages, and thought I would have some time to do it over Easter. I just have a couple of questions before I even start. I have used my own domain name since the very beginning, I have bought it from 1and1.com.
1) Is there a way of keeping the urls of my old posts the same after moving self hosted? You know how you need to have the date in the url when blogging with wp.com – will all my links break (e.g. when I have been sharing my posts all over social media, will none of those links work anymore)?
2) I have a bilingual blog, and with wp.com I have had my two languages, English and Finnish, separated by categories (which I’ve heard is one of the biggest mistakes thinking about SEO…? ) How should I deal with these posts when moving? Is there perhaps a tutorial for such topic? My blog can be found at if it helps.
Thanks a lot in advance.
WPBeginner Support
1. Yes, the article above explains how to keep the URLs same as your wp.com site.
2. You can use a WordPress multilingual plugin. After importing and setting up your website you can go to posts and mark them under the correct language. This could potentially break your URLs, but you can solve this problem by setting up redirects using Regex.
Admin
Saana
Thanks for your help. I would have another question about Polylang: Can I somehow use bulk actions to change the languages for multiple posts at once? As I have my languages separated with categories, I chose the Finnish category and tried to change the language for Finnish for all of them at once, but couldn’t figure out how and couldn’t either find any solution by googling… Do I really need to do it one by one for all 400 existing posts?
Saana
Hi again!
I got my languages sorted, and all my links seem to work even without Blue Velvets -plugin… but I have lost all my social share counts, which is a bit frustrating. I have tried to search for an answer to this issue for the whole day, but I haven’t found any definitive solution. Could you perhaps advice on that? Thanks again so much!
BJ
Hi I’ve succeeded in transferring the domain and switching over to .org,
1) however none of my media imported from my .com. Why? How do I get that corrected?
2) once the steps you mentioned above are done (in your tutorial), is it recommened or safe to just delete the old site (.com) and start using the new one (.org)?
Anna
I have a domain name and sub-domain for different language versions. I understood the transfer of the actual domain is not a problem. Does everything work the same way with the sub-domain?
BJ
THANK you so much for this extremely helpful and informative info. I was able to switch over to wordpress.org without a hitch! I appreciate it so much!
AS
i have a free wordpress.com blog and i would like to switch to wordpress.org, i havent paid anything till now, and i dont want to pay for anything premium or more, can i make this move without any payment?
WPBeginner Support
You will need to pay for hosting your self-hosted WordPress.org site.
Admin
karan
i bought a domain name and want to get hosting for my wordpress blog… Is Godaddy Good for wordpress hosting? and also Who will provide good SEO in most minimun (3.97$/MO) plan of hosting? Godaddy or Bluehost?
Elaida Biag
I got my domain name through EasyDNS.com, not form wordpress.com. If I plan to migrate to wordpress.org, will you be able to transfer the domain name for me as well through your free service? or do I have to ask EasyDNs for that? Thanks in advance.
WPBeginner Support
When signing up for a web hosting account you will be able to transfer the domain yourself. You will have two options, first you can move the domain to your new WordPress hosting provider. Second, you can keep your domain on EasyDNS and simply point it to your new WordPress host.
Admin
Cat
I have a pretty good grasp of how the transfer works, but I have a dilemma. I have a free blog at Wordpress.com for which I currently pay for my own domain (instead of “blog.wordpress.com” I pay to just be “example.com”) through Wordpress. That domain is set to expire in a few weeks, however, and while I wish to transfer my existing content (images, posts, subscriptions, etc) to a self hosted Wordpress.org blog, I want to transfer to a completely new URL (to become “”) but with my old content imported. How do I handle this? Do I renew the old URL through Wordpress.com since most of my readers know my blog without the “wordpress” in the URL or do I just let that expire and do the normal redirect/export? My fear is losing partial content or having a majority of my readers unable to be redirected to “differentblog” since they will be going to “example.com” instead of “blog.wordpress.com?” Does this long-winded question make sense?
WPBeginner Support
Changing domain names will affect your site’s search engine rankings. However, if you use Google webmaster tools on your WordPress.com site, then you can submit an address change request. Before you do that, you will need to make sure that all content from your old WordPress.com site is properly redirecting to correct posts and pages on the new domain name on some other webhost. Hope this helps.
Admin
Deborah
Hi, thank you so much for sharing this, but I was wondering if I still have to do all these even if I have a paid domain name from WordPress?
Or is it because I purchased my domain from WordPress instead of a self-hosted domain (such as Bluehost) that it does not show the plugin option on the Dashboard?
WPBeginner Support
Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Admin
ash
Question. After I move the posts, will the visit count follows and added up to my new self hosted blog? Or will it be like new post? Thanks.
Jessica
Hello,
I’m hoping to move to self hosted Wordpress however I though once you purchase the Wordpress plan that they give you a domain name and you use them to host? Sorry I’m new to this and have a lot of learning to do. Do I need to buy these separately please?
Thank you
Carolyn
Thank you for a clear, concise explanation.
I don’t understand how the website can NOT go down at least briefly if you have to wait 24-48 for name servers to point to a new host (from WordPress.com to new host, such as BlueHost).
I got all balled up in this process because I can do no more but change the name servers today then wait a day or two before I can login to the admin site for my new Wordpress.org account.
sinnead
I cant find ‘Tools’ on Wordpress.com any help with this would be really appreciated!
SJ
I’m having the same issue… My “dashboard” doesn’t show any of the things pictured on the tutorial video…
SJ
I just figured this out!
Instead of logging on through wordpress.com, go to [yourURL].com/wp-admin
Maryam
I want to switch from wordpress.com to wordpress.org and i would like to use your assisstance. I have a paid url with wordpress.com that i like to keep but i dont want to save my content. I want to start over. Is this possible? If so, how can i get started?
WPBeginner Support
Yes, it is possible. Please take a look at our free blog setup service.
Admin