Moving a WordPress site isn’t hard for some, but the less technically minded you are, the harder it is. To make it easy, check out WP Sync DB.

This free plugin allows you copy site A’s WordPress database to site B. It does all the hard work and you just need to fill out a few fields. It’ll even search the database and change the old domain to the new domain. All in just a few minutes.

One prerequisite before you start is that WordPress need to be installed and accessible in both locations; source and destination site. This plugin just copies the database, it doesn’t install WordPress so do that before you start. It also doesn’t merge data, it just overwrites data.

How does it work?

First, install the WP Sync DB plugin on both sites. While you’re installing it, install the WP Sync DB Media Files plugin too so you can move your media.

Second, configure the plugin on the source site. You’ll need to enable the ability to do pull requests which is just a checkbox. Don’t forget to check the box for media files if you want to move media too.

Third, go over the destination site and make a pull request. It’ll ask you for a few details and then hit go.

Fourth, wait. The plugin will do the rest of the work and copy the entire database from the source site to the destination site. It even updates the source domain as saved throughout the source WordPress database to the destination domain. No need for MySQL. If you check the box to move media files, it’ll do that too.

It should only take few minutes, however that depends on the size of your site. I’ve done it many times moving a rather large WordPress site and it only took minutes. However, I only moved the database, not the files. If I checked the box for files, it’d probably take much longer as they have lots of files; but I don’t know for sure.

This is a great solution for moving or deploying WordPress sites and it’s free, however there is one minor detail. It seems that this plugins is/was a copy of a paid plugin. Forking and making available a pro version of a GPL licensed plugin for free is acceptable under the terms of the GPL license so it’s not technically stealing. Plus they’ve made updates since then. Lets call it a grey area.

Grab our copy of WP Sync DB and make moving or deploying WordPress sites simple. Stop making things harder than they need to be.