Guided Transfers to .org
When we launched Jetpack a few days ago Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg said to Techcrunch, “If you’re on WordPress you’re part of the family, it shouldn’t matter if we host you or not.”
Today we’re taking that a step further: we’ll actually help you move from WordPress.com to .org.
We’re launching a new upgrade called Guided Transfer where for a $99 one-time fee we’ll handle every detail and tech thingamajig involved in moving your content, theme, domain, and more to any one of the recommended hosts we’ve vetted. (And of course your new site will be Jetpack-powered.)
Of course we love having you here with us at WordPress.com, but we understand that there are situations where a self-hosted WordPress.org site may be a better choice.
What’s included:
- Install the WordPress software at the recommended host of your choice.
- Transfer over your entire WordPress.com site.
- Install and configure Jetpack and a few other plugins to provide features that you have been using on WordPress.com.
- Configure and test permissions so that you’ll be able to have one-click installs and upgrades.
- Switch your domain(s) over.
- Provide full support for you on your new WordPress installation for a two week period.
While we’re doing that–you can:
- Head to the beach!
- Read that novel you’ve been meaning to dig into.
- Chase antelope on the savannas of Africa.
- Work on that rocket ship that is “just a few tweaks” away from liftoff.
- …or do anything else. (Be sure to take pictures and blog it later!)
Update: Please note that there has been a price change, read our Guided Transfer Guide for more information.
Mar 11th at 3:52 pm
This sounds awesome but does it mean that all of the search traffic I’m getting today will be directed to my self-hosted blog going forward? Will my existing .wordpress.com domain remain in existence? Thanks, Frank
Mar 11th at 4:26 pm
Yes, all of your existing traffic will redirect transparently if you already have a custom URL mapped here at WordPress.com,. We also have a Site Redirect feature if you don’t that accomplishes the same thing.
You will continue to own the existing .wordpress.com blog (and domain) after the transfer. It will remain here (hidden) unless you intentionally choose to delete it.
Mar 11th at 4:01 pm
The WordPress team’s got tiger blood.
Mar 11th at 4:06 pm
If i were to pay the $99 one time fee would that include hosting forever, or would i still have to pay for hosting?
Mar 11th at 4:23 pm
It doesn’t include hosting. You will still have to pay your new host.
Mar 11th at 4:09 pm
So if we have to pay, I’ll lose my blog if i don’t have the money?
Mar 11th at 4:32 pm
This is a totally optional upgrade that is only if you are wanting to move to a self-hosted instance. Nothing is changing about the way WordPress.com works.
If you’re interested in full details about WordPress.com vs WordPress.org sites, I’d recommend this article: http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
Mar 11th at 4:12 pm
It’s a bit to pricy for my taste. Why so much?
Mar 11th at 4:15 pm
@Grandmom I’d assume you have the option whether to upgrade to the self-hosted .org or stay with your current blog.
Mar 11th at 4:27 pm
You guys got an awesome business! Even better than Starbucks.
Mar 11th at 4:29 pm
One of the issues that arise when moving from a wordpress.com free hosted blog to a wordpress.org self hosted install is the loss of stats. The insallation of the stats plugin has not included stats in the past. Will a guided transfer include the transfer of stats?
Another issue is the loss of wordpress.com in-house widgets that are not included in the wordpress.org install. Will a guided transfer include the wordpress.com in-house widgets?
Mar 11th at 5:11 pm
The old stat data is not transferred over, but it will always remain accessible via the WordPress.com dashboard.
Yes, most of the WordPress.com widgets have already been released as plugins. We configure those during the transfer to ensure smooth transition. There are a few that are only available within WordPress.com still, but we will be closing that gap in the future with Jetpack.
Mar 11th at 4:34 pm
I just paid for domain mapping through WP like two days ago and I’m so excited about it! I’m definitely going to keep this in mind when I’m ready to do the full self-host option.
Thanks again WordPress—you guys rock my socks!
Mar 11th at 4:35 pm
Hew, just to go over the first comment in more detail. I have my own domain, which is a Google PageRank 3. But the wordpress.com domain to my blog is a pagerank 5 and I believe I get plenty of traffic from it.
With this transfer, will my .com and personal domain traffic come with me?
Mar 11th at 6:25 pm
Let’s pretend you have http://crazyhamster43.wordpress.com/ here at WordPress.com and a custom domain of http://crazyhamster43.com pointed (mapped) to it. When the transfer is complete, both of those URLs will seamlessly bring users to your new site.
If that’s the scenario you are describing, the answer is yes.
Mar 11th at 4:49 pm
I noted a few days ago that Jetpack “will make it easier to migrate from .com to another WordPress host.”
Now it’s even easier.
This is a brilliant move by Automattic. People feeling restricted by WP.com and thinking of moving are more likely to stay with WP, rather than switch platforms. Then there’s the $99 per transfer, plus, I expect, a referral fee from the new host.
Mar 11th at 4:55 pm
I have no idea what Jetpack is, even though I read your announcement twice. And why would you suggest chasing antelope? Don’t they have enough worries about being chased by lions without a bunch of technology addicts running after them?
Mar 11th at 5:15 pm
That’s very interesting. I assume we could also take the premium themes that we might be using along the way from WP.com to self-hosted blog.
Mar 11th at 5:24 pm
Wow WordPress moving one step further, that’s a nice step. Hope this will not affect for freelancers which are offering WordPress.com to WordPress.org service like me.
Mar 11th at 5:28 pm
Uh, … hi … family don’t charge family, in my family!!! He he! No, that’s good price & if I was thinking of becoming an org, I’d apply. Will pass for now though. Thanks!
Mar 11th at 5:33 pm
What a fabulous service! I have several clients I’ll pass this on to… thanks.
Mar 11th at 5:43 pm
Great. i was hoping for this. would you suggest webhosting service providers? what would be annual costs? would the domain name carry through without additional url cost? if not , how much? cheers
Mar 11th at 5:46 pm
This is a quick response! Thanks for making WordPress more accessible.
Mar 11th at 5:54 pm
Is this a limited-time offer or a new set price? I anticipate becoming a .org user someday, but I’m not ready yet. When I do, I’d love to take you up on the offer.
Mar 11th at 6:33 pm
Nope, not a limited time offer. This is the price.
Mar 11th at 6:02 pm
Sounds fabulous. I just did the transfer myself a week ago….could have done with this help. I’ll certainly pass the information on as it could be very useful to many other people I know.
Mar 11th at 6:53 pm
Great option. Thank you!
Mar 11th at 7:00 pm
greatest thing ever. now I might actually do this!
Mar 11th at 7:02 pm
Excellent! Those needing a little extra help moving house will definitely keep this in mind when the time comes for that big upgrade to self-hosting. But it isn’t clear to me what happens to the Theme we’ve chosen to use here on WordPress.com. Will our Theme be transitioned for us as well to the new home, especially if we’ve purchased a Premium Theme?
Mar 11th at 8:42 pm
The theme you are using at WordPress.com will be installed and configured on the new site with the exception of premium themes. Premium themes purchased at WordPress.com are only valid here at WordPress.com.
Mar 11th at 7:13 pm
This is honestly the best news ever! I have been wanting to upgrade to self hosting for a while now, but it boggles my mind. Thank you!
Mar 11th at 7:21 pm
That’s great! What about move TO wordpress? I have a Square Space blog I want to move to WordPress, but don’t know how to do it.
Mar 11th at 7:22 pm
FANTABULOUS!!! El Perfecto! Count me in. I am in the middle of another muddle right now, but as soon as family matters allow I will be signing up!
Bob B
Mar 11th at 7:37 pm
Wondering what you do if your several million bloggers on wp.com order this upgrade
Mar 11th at 7:48 pm
Once the transfer is made, can a different WordPress theme, not one limited to .com, be used?
Mar 11th at 8:43 pm
Yes. You can install any theme you like.
Mar 11th at 7:58 pm
This is a very good “upgrade”. Congrats for taking the decision to propose it (this is far more a strategic decision than a technical difficulty). As an opensource web application creator, I don’t think I would need it for myself, but this is definitely a great option for standard users. The price is really low compared to the list of services included in this pack!
This is the way all web services should go: easy to start with a hosting included or host it by yourself (and with the very same features).
What about the premium themes? If I buy a premium theme on WordPress.com, would I keep it if I move to another host?
Mar 11th at 8:00 pm
Is there an option to say ‘no’ to this?
Mar 12th at 12:52 am
This is totally optional. You don’t have to leave; we’re super happy with you here on WordPress.com, and WordPress.com is not going away.
Mar 11th at 8:47 pm
What a great idea. I wish this had been available when I moved my blog.
Mar 11th at 9:28 pm
It’s getting more and more tempting to self host. Great work guys
Mar 11th at 9:31 pm
This is a wonderful offer and I am seriously interested but I don’t think I’m ready for this type of commitment, I mean we’re only at second base.
Mar 11th at 9:48 pm
Great timing. I’v been here a while and have been thinking of doing this for the last few months. Since I’m technically challenged I was too chicken to make the jump. Terrific news.
Mar 11th at 10:01 pm
Guys, that’s fantastic! But just because you’re offering us solutions to the problems we don’t know there exist, I’m reluctant to leave .com family
Mar 11th at 10:22 pm
Thats great, it really is
However, if we are all big one happy family….why do the blogs/sites who get free hosting miss out on all the great theme choices? After all, it doesn’t matter if you host us or not, right?
Mar 11th at 11:55 pm
Is this another dark chocolate temptation or something better? Team Automattic/WordPress Warlocks have done it again! Neat!
Mar 12th at 12:18 am
Thanks for the quick response. This sounds like a great idea.
Mar 12th at 1:26 am
Does this service also apply to moving an existing blog from a Blogspot account to a self-hosted WordPress account?
And if so, how do I bring my existing traffic from Blogspot with me? My present blogger account is not a registered domain, but I would be happy to use my web domain to make this move, and consolidate my website and blog into one site. If I could bring my established Blogspot traffic with me.
Mar 12th at 1:33 am
You guys, rock!
Mar 12th at 1:37 am
Beyond Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elizabeth
Mar 12th at 2:47 am
After doing some pricing about whether or not to make the jump from WP.com to WP.org, $99 is VERY reasonable, especially considering you guys at WordPress know the in’s and out’s of both WP.com AND WP.org.
Question: I have over 800 email subscribers on my WP.com blog. Will I lose all these subscribers in the transition from WP.com to WP.org? Do you have a way of transferring these email addresses to my new WP.org blog? THIS is crucial in my decision to make the jump.
Thanks.
Mar 12th at 4:27 am
There isn’t a WordPress.org direct equivalent of the WordPress.com email subscription feature at the moment, but you can download a CSV of all your subscribers here at WordPress.com at any time via the Site Stats->Site Subscriptions->Email Subscribers->Download as CSV (at bottom) section of your dashboard.
Mar 12th at 3:55 am
Jetpack by itself didn’t seem worth the hassle of transferring my own blog. I already did that once, and it involved more tech headaches than I had expected, plus the blog never fully recovered traffic.
Guided Transfer is the final missing piece of the puzzle, I think. Thank you so much. I will be using it soon, I think. Bravo!
Mar 12th at 6:38 am
yeah,I feel a little confuse,why you create it? what do you really want?
Mar 12th at 6:45 am
Is there any possibility in future that you would smoothly transfer all the blog subscribers from com to org? If so, that will be great. Thanks.
Mar 12th at 7:20 am
Very helpful for anyone with some bucks and no knowledge on how to accomplish this. For me, manual transfer is very fun. However, what will happen to my Search Engine Optimization? I mean, let’s say I have a custom domain name for my wp.com blog and I transferred. Is 301 redirect upgrade purchase the one I’m inquiring about?
Mar 12th at 7:25 am
Thanks a lot for this option. If I had a WP theme from themeforest.net, would that theme installation be facilitated in the transfer?
Mar 12th at 8:33 am
I have 5 sites, not word press, I would like to transfer them to WP.org How your offer applies to me?
Mar 12th at 9:11 am
This appears to be a good deal.. My question is…
I have a word press account, purchased a Photocrati theme and I have few available .com domains with Bluehost. Right now, I am not using word press, I havent figured out a way to load my photocrati theme and set them up on my Blue Host account. Will this $99 set everything up for me?
Mar 12th at 2:20 pm
Is traffic only directed if you have the domain mapping or if you pay for the $99 upgrade? Is traffic always redirected? Thanks for the info!
Mar 12th at 4:34 pm
oh thank you thank you…how I have been waiting for this. I am totally technically inept and didn’t want to try it myself and lose all my 1000 posts.
Mar 12th at 5:30 pm
Winning, tigers blood, Andonis, etc.
I like this! I wanted to move to .org and really didn’t feel like figuring out the specifics of how to do so. I’d gladly pay 99 so I wouldn’t have to figure it all out :3
Mar 12th at 7:05 pm
Gee I’m getting tempted to self-host now.
Mar 12th at 10:42 pm
Is it $99.00 per Blog? I have 8. May have to pass…thanks. Love E
Mar 12th at 10:49 pm
Top notch. As another of those who have thought using .org for the flexibilty/control it provides, this is welcome news. When I’m ready to take the plunge, the knowledge that there’s a cost-effective helping hand to manage the process is hugely reassuring.
Mar 12th at 11:01 pm
Thats such a Great IDEA!
Mar 12th at 11:08 pm
I am sorry, but anyone who pays $99 for this is a fool. Read an eHow guide or something – besides, the experience of transferring .com to .org is a technically enlightening experience – though I’m a tech savvy guy, I wasn’t especially tech savvy in the ways of website hosting, and switching to .org enhanced my knowledge no end. A waste of $99, and a waste of an opportunity and incentive to learn something new.
Mar 13th at 3:35 am
I’ve been considering starting a new blog at WordPress.com and eventually moving it to WordPress.org. Pointing my future domain name to the WordPress.com blog solves one problem and guided transfers seem to go a long way to solve another one. There’s only one thing keeping me from starting now instead of waiting to just start on WordPress.org. That one thing is comments. When I transfer I would like to use Disqus or possibly Facebook comments. Will guided transfers help with transferring my comments to Disqus or setting up Facebook comments? I don’t think comments can be imported into Facebook’s commenting system yet, but if so would guided transfers include that?
Mar 13th at 8:38 am
Nice, but I think I’d rather save the $99 and do it myself.
Mar 13th at 6:02 pm
We understand that this upgrade isn’t for everyone. For those who would prefer the DIY route, we have a full guide right here: http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#moving-to-wordpress-org
Mar 13th at 10:46 am
Sounds like a great service – but it also makes me worry that moving over to .org must be a difficult thing to do! – or maybe that’s only if you’ve got a big and complicated site already on WordPress.com. Am hoping moving a very little site that I want to move will be simple!
Mar 13th at 4:36 pm
This is definitely a good option for professional and business blogs, for a personal blog $99 seems high rate…
Mar 13th at 4:41 pm
It’s a good option for non-tech bloggers, tech bloggers can save this money by following the easy guidelines available at wordpress.com.
Mar 13th at 11:03 pm
Hi… just want to find out whether you can also help me find a host if I do this? I don’t know much about technology so am wondering if it is worth it for me to do so – what are the steps to get this going?
Mar 15th at 10:38 pm
You can read the Guided Transfer instructions here:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/guided-transfer/
We have a list of recommend hosts that you can choose from here:
http://get.wp.com/hosting/
Mar 14th at 12:36 am
This seems a ridiculous question but exactly how do I start using this service? I can’t find a button to click anywhere to get this happening….?
Mar 14th at 9:22 am
this is a good service,
but it seems too expensive
Mar 14th at 1:06 pm
Great one Hew, i guess i love this gesture
Mar 14th at 3:26 pm
What are the advantages and disadvantages of self hosting?
Mar 14th at 5:14 pm
WordPress rules. WordPress.com and WordPress.org both. I’m glad you can switch between them easily! Also, thanks for having EcoPressed and FoodPress – they rule!!
Basically, thanks WordPress.
Anyone who doesn’t use WordPress… well, shame on you. 
Mar 14th at 5:23 pm
I don’t quite understand what the advantage to me would be to upgrade ro WordPress.org, especially I don’t understand what advantage there would be in have having another web host. What I want most of all is my blog to appear on more lists of blogs so that I would have more hits. Would upgrading do this at all?
Mar 14th at 11:26 pm
WIll this allow for easier email use for those WP.com sites wanting their own domain email withoiut having to use the cumbersome google app email redirect?
Mar 15th at 12:14 am
This is an awesome feature!
Mar 15th at 12:33 am
Question: While you’re transferring the stuff, I can’t blog for two weeks? Or I can continue to blog at the .com site, while you guys transfer to the .org?
Mar 15th at 5:55 am
I’d do the antelopes!
Mar 15th at 8:05 am
I think its good idea. Thank you.
Mar 15th at 11:02 am
Awesome – BUT what about my subscribers on wordpress.com…do they move to the new org site or will they continue to get updates when i post stuff on the .org?
Mar 15th at 3:35 pm
Wow… great idea!
Mar 15th at 7:20 pm
this is a great option, glad ya’ll are offering it -
move my “content, theme, domain, and more to any one of the recommended hosts” – nice
though i have no time frame for moving on with my wordpress blog, it’s possible someday i may need to or want to
great job guys, glad i started my blog w/ya’ll
Mar 15th at 7:49 pm
I love WordPress the way it is for what I’m doing right now, but it’s nice to hear there are other options avaliable.
Mar 16th at 12:19 am
Do you know any free hosting sites?
Mar 16th at 2:16 am
Aloha, this is what I’ve been LOOKING for! :0)
What about comments? Will those migrate over easily?
Mar 16th at 3:03 am
Yep, they sure will.
Mar 16th at 2:44 am
I think it would be highly beneficial if you or someone published an article on the details of changes and how things like traffic reroutes from .com to .org will be handled so as not to disrupt SEO maturity for many existing .com implementations.
Mar 16th at 6:10 am
Very helpful for anyone with some bucks and no knowledge on how to accomplish this.
Mar 17th at 7:41 am
This is perfect. I’ve been trying to figure out how I’ll make that transition if my wildly-unrealistic pipe dreams about my blog’s popularity ever come to fruition. I had already figured out that I would leave behind a redirect “shell” at my old WP-hosted URL, but I knew that moving everything would be difficult for someone who knows only a little HTML and who is completely ignorant of RSS. It looks like this is a very reasonably-priced way to accomplish this task when (if) I’m ready to move. Great idea.
Mar 18th at 4:23 pm
actually I dont really mind paid wordpress for my wordpress.org.. too bad it doesnt offer much flexibility compared to selfhosting
Mar 20th at 12:03 pm
So good.
Mar 21st at 7:12 am
This is great! You can spend time to save money, or spend money to save time. I opt for the latter.
Mar 22nd at 1:53 pm
I know that the stats themselves won’t transfer over, but will the new .org version have the same (or similar) site stats format? I find the WP stats format so much friendlier and easier that google Analytics. Any way to have BOTH on the .org version?
Mar 22nd at 3:12 pm
That sounds awesome, but it’d be easier for me to just move my stuff myself. I had to do that every time my site was hacked. I just found ways to back up my pages and posts.