How to duplicate WordPress site for new server

[Saannnvi]

My old server is on the edge of expiration. There is only a month left. The guy who built my site is not available. Now I had got a new server from Godaddy. I want to migrate my site on that. I had called the customer care people who said that I can do that by taking a full backup of site and then restoring that on the new server. This is like downloading the rar file which is a full backup and then uploading that on new server through ftp. And then unpacking the archive. I do not think this process is simple for me. I want to duplicate the site.

[Cauvery]

You can use a cloning plugin in WordPress through which you can duplicate the site and upload the same on new server. That is more simple and easy to use. Try Duplicator. It is a free plugin that can help you to generate a full site backup and then you can use that to restore it on the new server. But you have to cancel your old hosting account after doing this. Do not change the nx server details unless you had cancel your old hosting account. It gives you a archive which you can use later on to restore the site. Its very simple to use.

[FarhaS]

You can do that through third party plugins. But I am doubtful about the accuracy thing. Most of the time this does not work well if you are trying to migrate a html site to WordPress. You have to use WordPress to WordPress and things are going to work well. Instead of duplicating just backup the entire site in a rar format and unzip on the server. That is going to do the job. That is simple and effective and your site gets up within some hours. Plugin wise update can be time consume and less effective also.

[Haleema]

The best part of using Wordpress is that it comes with so many plugins which are easy to use and are good enough to work. WP Clone by WP Academy is a good plugin. And it is not really true that without using a plugin things are not going to work well. You must try WP Clone by WP Academy. This tool is simple and fast to use and it has all those option you need to duplicate your site. It is easy. You can backup your entire site and then import the back on new server instantly. I do not think you can get anything better than this.

[AliyaK]

When it comes to simplicity then I think NS Cloner - Site Copier is more better here. Because this one is easy and has less things to do. I found it much accurate compare to other tools. It is capable of cloning the site and give you the right kind of output. Sometime while cloning a few plugins and settings are messed up. This issue is not present in this plugin. It is good for everyone. There is a pro edition available which brings up more feature then the free one and also has more configurable settings.

[CamilleT]

I go with the manual way. What I do is use a ftp account for that. I create a folder on the desktop and I drag all the folders of server on the desktop folder through ftp. Then I put that thing back on the new server. In this way the file arrangement is not affected. Here yo just have to drag and drop things. That's it. The file is transferred. This take some time but this is really effective and simple to use. I do not think you will need any plugin for the same. Even you can use ftp account to transfer files from one sever to another.