WordPress.com is a different product from the WordPress you can host anywhere. Below the Business plan there is no database and no file access, so this is an import rather than a copy.
Content leaves cleanly. The platform built around it does not, and knowing which is which before you move is the whole job.
On plans without SFTP there is no database or file access at all, so the only thing that leaves is a content export. Everything else is rebuilt here rather than transferred.
Attachment URLs point at wordpress.com and keep doing so after the move unless every one is rewritten. We download the library and repoint it at your own domain.
Statistics, related posts and sharing were built into the product rather than installed as plugins, so each one is either matched with an equivalent here or dropped on purpose.
Email subscribers are an account feature rather than site data. We export what can be exported and tell you plainly what cannot — before the move, not after.
Their themes are products rather than distributable files, so the closest self-hosted equivalent is chosen and set up before cutover.
More of this move is a conversation than a file transfer. What matters is that nothing you relied on turns out to be missing after the DNS has already changed.
The largest change is not raw speed but control: caching, PHP limits and plugins become yours to set rather than platform decisions you live with.
These are the specific things this move needs, and most of them exist because the export carries less than people expect.
| Setting | What we do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Export format | XML import rather than a database copy on plans without SFTP | Below Business there is no database or file access, so a content export is genuinely all there is to work with. |
| Media library | Downloaded from their CDN and rehosted under your own domain | Attachment URLs otherwise keep resolving to wordpress.com long after you have stopped paying for it. |
| Platform features | Matched to equivalents here, or dropped by agreement | Statistics, related posts and sharing were product features rather than plugins, and none of them appear in the export. |
| Subscribers | Exported where the platform permits, flagged where it does not | Email subscribers belong to the wordpress.com account, and finding out they did not come after cutover is too late to do anything about it. |
| Theme | Rebuilt or replaced rather than transferred | Their themes are not files you can move, so the substitute has to be chosen and reviewed before the site goes live here. |
Every plan includes free migration, daily backups, SSL and 24/7 support.
Free migration, media rehosted on your domain, and the differences agreed before anything switches.