How to manually migrate a WordPress website to cPanel hosting

Note: This is an advanced guide and may take 1hr+ to complete. Please note that if the steps are followed incorrectly and the site fails to load, our support team will not be able to investigate or fix any development problems. If required, we could perform a manual migration to carry out these steps on your behalf. You can find more information in this guide.

The information in this guide is provided as a suggestion, and we can't provide detailed support for modifications to a Content Management System. If you require assistance with this, we'd recommend speaking to your website developer to ensure relevance and compatibility with your site.


You will need:

1 - A backup of your WordPress Files
2 - A backup of your WordPress SQL Database
3 - Your cPanel Login Details


Step 1 - Log into cPanel and use the cPanel File Manager to upload the website files into the public_html folder (click here for a guide on using the File Manager)




Step 2 - Use the MySQL Database Wizard to create a new database. Make sure to copy > paste the full mysql database name, username and password (including the cpanelusername_ portion) into notepad or another text editor, as they'll be needed in the next step. Click here for a guide on using the MySQL Database Wizard.




Step 3 - Using the cPanel File Manager, go into the public_html folder and edit the wp-config.php. You need to replace the old database name, user and password with the new ones created in Step 2. Make sure to put the data inside ' ' quotation marks.




Step 4 - Import the .sql file from your backup into the database you just created. Click here for our guide on importing a database using PHPMyAdmin


Once that's done, the migration should be complete. Before updating the DNS, you can preview the website using a Hosts file edit (click here for a guide on doing that). You can then update your DNS by changing your domain's A record to point to the A record of your cPanel account.


For more tutorials on website development and Wordpress troubleshooting, view our List of Wordpress Guides.