Migrating Your WordPress Website From Shared Hosting to Your Plesk Panel Server

Using WordPress® in shared hosting is a great solution for small business and personal websites, but if you find yourself outgrowing the limited resources and configuration restrictions, then it might be time to upgrade to a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or Dedicated Server.

To do this, you need access to your shared hosting account and Plesk® Panel Server. You should also have an FTP client like FileZilla available to upload and download files quickly and efficiently.

For more information, see the WordPress codex.

To Migrate Your WordPress Website From Shared Hosting to Your Plesk Panel Server

1. Export your WordPress site's MySQL database. For more information, see Export MySQL databases.
2. Download WordPress site's files. For more information, see FTP: Upload my files to cPanel hosting.
3. Go to https://[ipaddress]:8443/ (where [ipaddress] is the IP address of your server).
4. Log in to Parallels Plesk Panel as admin.
5. Under My Webspaces, click Add a Webspace in Power User View.
6. Enter the following:
   • Domain name — coolexample.com (where coolexample.com is the name of your domain name).
   • IPv4 address — Select the IP address you want to use from the drop-down menu.
   • FTP username — Enter the FTP username you want to use.
   • FTP password — Enter the FTP password you want to use.
   • Repeat password — Enter the FTP password again.
7. Click OK.
8. Connect to the new server using the FTP information you just created. For more information, see FileZilla: FTP settings to upload your website.
9. Select all WordPress files and folders except the db_backups folder and upload them to the httpdocs folder on the server.
10. Under Websites & Domains, select Databases, and then click Add New Database.
11. Enter the Database name you want to use, select MySQL for type, and then select Local MySQL server for database server.
12. Click OK.
13. Click Add New Database User, and then enter the Database username and password you want to use.
14. Click OK.
15. Click Webadmin to open phpMyAdmin.
16. Import the SQL file you exported from your hosting account. For more information, see Import SQL files into MySQL databases.
17. Under Websites & Domains, click File Manager.
18. Click httpdocs, and then select wp-config.php.
19. Enter the following inside the single quotation marks:
    • db_name — Enter your database name.
    • db_username — Enter your database username.
    • db_password — Enter your database password.
    • db_host — Type localhost.
20. Click OK.
21. Change the domain's IP address to point to the server. Use the IP address you selected in Plesk. For more information, see Manage DNS zone files.

After the migration completes make sure to check your site's settings. You might have to reactivate plugins inside the WordPress dashboard. For more information, see Activating and deactivating plugins in WordPress.

Note: As a courtesy, we provide information about how to use certain third-party products, but we do not endorse or directly support third-party products and we are not responsible for the functions or reliability of such products. Third-party marks and logos are registered trademarks of their respective owners. All rights reserved. For more information, see the WordPress codex.