Migrate a WordPress site from Kinsta
Kinsta is a separate company. WPHost is not a Kinsta migration partner. You leave with a copy of the WordPress files and the database, and the public domain stays on Kinsta until the copy looks right.
Take the copy while Kinsta is still live
- Download a full backup or use the site tools Kinsta gives you for files and the database. You need both.
- Write down the primary domain, the redirects, and every MX record. Email does not move with the website.
- Make a list of plugins that talk to Kinsta’s cache or CDN. They do nothing useful here and can be switched off after the preview works.
- Leave the Kinsta site running.
Stand up the WPHost site
A new WordPress site gets an isolated database and a preview URL with HTTPS. Use that URL for the review. Do not attach the client’s domain yet. On Business, hand over the backup and the eligible site is placed for you.
Check it as the client will
- Keep the old host online until the preview looks right. Do not cancel it first.
- Create the WordPress site here. It gets its own database, its own files, HTTPS on a preview address, and an owner login. The temporary password is emailed once.
- On Business, an eligible client site is moved for you. Eligible means a normal single WordPress site: theme, plugins, uploads, and its database. Bring a file archive and a database export, or the access your current host uses for a transfer.
- If you replace the database yourself, WordPress users become the users from the old site. The fresh owner password only works before that replace.
- Review the homepage, an interior page, wp-admin, and a form on the preview URL. Take a recovery point before you change DNS.
- Attach the domain the way the dashboard shows. After the certificate is on that domain, set both WordPress addresses to that https URL.
- PHP is 8.4. Confirm plugins on the preview before the public domain moves. A plugin that only runs on an older PHP version will fail here too.
DNS last
- Change only the web records, using what the dashboard shows.
- Set both WordPress addresses to the https domain after the certificate is issued.
- Submit one real form. Open wp-admin. Take a recovery point of files and database together.
- Cancel Kinsta after the domain has been serving from WPHost long enough to notice a mistake.
More than one Kinsta site
Questions
Can you pull the site from Kinsta with their API?
No. The move uses a file archive and a database export, or the access you already use to download that site.
Will Kinsta’s CDN keep serving the old site?
It can, until DNS and their cache both expire. Review on the WPHost preview hostname, which is not behind their CDN. Do not judge the move by a cached tab of the old domain.
Who is the WordPress admin after the import?
The administrators from the Kinsta database. The temporary owner user exists only on the fresh install, before the database is replaced.