Migrate a WordPress site from WP Engine

Before you touch DNS

• Lower the DNS TTL a day ahead if you can, and write down the current A, CNAME, and MX records.
• Export the site from WP Engine the way their panel allows: a full file archive and a database dump. Confirm wp-content, including uploads, is in the archive.
• Do not cancel WP Engine. Mail, if it is in the same account, must keep working. WPHost does not host email.
• Note the production URL exactly, including https and whether it uses www.

Create the new site

Create the WordPress site on WPHost. The install has its own MySQL database, its own files, and HTTPS on a preview hostname. The WordPress administrator for that fresh install is owner. The temporary password arrives once by email. On Business, send the archive and dump instead and the eligible site is moved for you.

Put the old site on the preview

• Keep the old host online until the preview looks right. Do not cancel it first.
• Create the WordPress site here. It gets its own database, its own files, HTTPS on a preview address, and an owner login. The temporary password is emailed once.
• On Business, an eligible client site is moved for you. Eligible means a normal single WordPress site: theme, plugins, uploads, and its database. Bring a file archive and a database export, or the access your current host uses for a transfer.
• If you replace the database yourself, WordPress users become the users from the old site. The fresh owner password only works before that replace.
• Review the homepage, an interior page, wp-admin, and a form on the preview URL. Take a recovery point before you change DNS.
• Attach the domain the way the dashboard shows. After the certificate is on that domain, set both WordPress addresses to that https URL.
• PHP is 8.4. Confirm plugins on the preview before the public domain moves. A plugin that only runs on an older PHP version will fail here too.

Cut over

• Point the domain using the record the dashboard shows. Leave MX, SPF, and DKIM alone.
• Wait until the certificate is on the domain, then set WordPress Address and Site Address to that https URL.
• Open the public URL from a network that is not your office cache. Check one form and one logged-in page.
• Take another recovery point. Keep WP Engine for a few days. Cancel it only after mail and the site have both survived a business day.

Several client sites

Move one. Then use the same checklist for the rest. Do not switch every domain on a Friday afternoon.