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Migration

How one-click migration works

What happens between pasting your WordPress URL and switching DNS: four importers, plugin mapping, and theme capture.

By the Presscomet teamPublished 5 min read

Most CMS migrations are really rebuilds: export content to a neutral format, lose half of it, then redo the design. Presscomet avoids that by storing data the way WordPress does. The database tables mirror wp_posts, wp_postmeta, the term tables, comments, users and options, so an import is mostly a copy.

Four ways in

  • Live REST. The migrator pages through the old site’s REST API with an application password, including drafts, private posts and meta that is exposed to authenticated requests.
  • WXR. The XML file from Tools › Export covers posts, pages, comments, terms and menus. Attachments are downloaded from their original URLs.
  • SQL dump. The most complete option. Tables are read directly, PHP-serialized options are decoded, and nothing depends on the old site being online.
  • Companion plugin. For hosts that block the REST API, a small exporter plugin streams the database and uploads as one package.

Plugins become settings

Each bundled plugin declares which WordPress plugins it replaces. During import, the migrator reads active_plugins, switches on the matching built-ins, and calls each one’s migrate() with the old options and an ID map. That is how Yoast titles, ACF field groups, Redirection rules and Contact Form 7 forms arrive working.

Theme capture

PHP themes cannot run, but their output can be recorded. The migrator fetches representative pages from the live site, separates the theme’s shell from the post content, and stores the shell with its stylesheets. The Captured theme then renders your imported content inside that shell. Menus and widgets stay dynamic, so editing them still works.

Checking before you switch

When the import finishes, every imported URL is requested on the new site and compared with the old one. Anything that can’t keep its address gets a 301 in the Redirection plugin. Your old site keeps running until you change DNS, so there is no cut-over window.

You can click through the whole flow on the migration page.

Keep WordPress. Lose the PHP.

Presscomet keeps your wp-admin, editor, URLs and content, and serves pages without PHP or MySQL. Check your site for free, then migrate in one click — your old site is only ever read.

Check my site

Keep reading

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  • MigrationYour WordPress site as plain files

    Static export renders every public URL — archives, feeds, sitemaps and the 404 page — so you can host on Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages or S3.