In previous posts, I’ve covered a fair bit on how to develop (WordPress) websites on local web server. The question now is – how to transfer the nicely developed WordPress from local web server to live (cPanel) hosting?

I’ve tried a (big) handful of plugins, web-based and software solutions in migrating WordPress but only 2 solutions are in my list :

WP Duplicator – Free plugin (but no scheduled backup)

UpdraftPlus

For WP Duplicator, you can find more information on its website https://lifeinthegrid.com/labs/duplicator/. There is even a good overview video on how it works :

I’ll cover more about UpdraftPlus. I’ve the premium developer (unlimited sites) license of UpdraftPlus at $145. With many of the backup/cloning plugins/solutions I’ve tried over the years, UpdraftPlus is my current #1 favourite WordPress migration backup cloning plugin.

You can install the UpdraftPlus plugin directly from WordPress repository – it’s free btw – to try it out.

[browser-shot url="https://updraftplus.com/screenshots-7/" width="800"]

The plus points about UpdraftPlus :

It’s easy to use

It allows scheduled backup

It allows backup to 3rd party storage ie. Dropbox, Amazon S3 etc.

It’s restore works!

You’d be surprised on the last plus point – It’s restore works. That is because I’ve tried many other so-called premium plugins and solutions – they can backup, but restoration (cloning back) the WordPress site is crap*.

UpdraftPlus handles restoration very well and it takes care of the different (old/new) domain name/IP issue seamlessly.

I’ll not be covering too much on how UpdraftPlus actually work. Like I listed above, it’s easy to use. Plus, the original site provides very detailed steps and documentation on how to use it.

Happy backup-ing and cloning WordPress-es.