Brett has been starting, growing, and monetizing websites since 2014. While in college, he began to learn about digital marketing. After graduating, he continued to build a diverse portfolio of websites while working a full time job. After years of building the portfolio on the side, he made the jump to run his websites full time.
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The advantages of migrating your website or blog from Wix to WordPress are numerous.
If you’re using a website builder like Wix or Wix’s main alternative, Squarespace, what you can do as your website or blog grows will always be limited.
Websites built on content management systems (CMS) like WordPress are easy to scale and add new features.
That is why savvy blog owners who cherish flexibility, creativity, and functionality eventually migrate to WordPress.
Wix does not have an official way of exporting your website, hence the need for this guide.
This guide provides all the steps you need to migrate your Wix website to WordPress.
Five reasons you may need to migrate to WordPress include:
Wix does not allow you to apply a new template to an existing website. The only workaround is to create a new website from scratch. The reverse is the case with WordPress. You can switch your blog’s design when you want.
Wix has about 200 external apps that you can use to add functionality to your Wix website. WordPress has thousands of plugins needed to add functionality and customize your website as required.
WordPress is a powerful CMS; it powers over 40% of websites on the Internet. As such, it is easier to find tutorials and help for various challenges.
Aside from the fee you pay for hosting and domain, you can build your WordPress website solely on free plugins. Wix’s free plan comes with the platform’s branding on your website.
With WordPress, you have complete control over how your website appears. You can also edit the underlying code if necessary; this is not the case for Wix.
What You’ll Need to Transfer Content from Wix to WordPress
To follow this guide, you’ll need to:
Choose a web host, preferably a managed WordPress host.
Buy a domain name, preferably with the WordPress host provider.
Install WordPress
Customize your website by selecting a theme
Web Hosting
Wix handles your hosting needs while you house your website on the platform.
To migrate to WordPress, you need a place to host your website.
Although you can use the regular shared hosting plans, we recommend using managed WordPress hosts.
With the latter option, the hosting provider handles all the behind-the-scenes technical aspects for you.
Buy a New Domain Name or Transfer Existing Domain from Wix
If you bought and registered a domain name on Wix that you want to continue using, you can transfer this domain to a new provider, preferably the same as your hosting provider.
To transfer your domain from Wix to your new provider, follow the steps below:
Visit the Domains page on your account.
From there, you’ll see a list of all your domains. Click the icon next to the domain name you want to transfer.
Click the “Transfer away from Wix” option.
Next, click “Transfer Domain” and confirm your choice by clicking the “ I Still Want to Transfer” option.
You’ll receive a transfer authorization code, also known as an EPP code, in the email attached to your Wix account.
Your domain name and the code you received are the primary ingredients you’ll need to finalize the transfer to your new domain provider.
You can also forfeit the domain if you no longer need it.
You can buy a new domain name in that case.
Install WordPress
The installation process varies from host to host.
Most hosts have a quick-install option on the dashboard, while some providers have WordPress pre-installed.
After you’ve installed WordPress, log into your WordPress dashboard to set up and customize your website.
Set Up and Customize your WordPress Website
To transfer your website to WordPress from Wix, you need to put some semblance of structure on your new website.
At the minimum, you need to set your permalinks to be shorter, select a theme, and change the tagline and title of your website.
Changing permalinks allows you to simplify how your website links appear.
How to Change your Permalinks Before Transferring Wix to WordPress
From your dashboard, scroll down to settings and click “Permalinks.”
Select “Post name” as your preferred method, scroll down and click “Save Changes.”
How to Change your Website Title and Tagline
To change your website title and tagline, hover over settings from your dashboard and click on “General.”
Your site title should be the name of your website, and your tagline should describe what your website is about in a few words.
For example, our site title is Bloggingtips.com, while our tagline is “Start, Grow, and Monetize a Blog.”
Anyone who comes to the website quickly knows what they’re getting from us.
Select a Theme for your WordPress Website
It’s worth pointing out that it may be impossible to 100% replicate the design of your Wix website on WordPress.
How close you get is dependent on the theme you choose.
While looking at the thousands of free and paid themes available on WordPress, look at the live preview to ensure it has a close semblance to your Wix website.
If you’re searching for a new feel and appearance for your website, you may want to search for themes designed specifically for your industry or niche.
You can pair your theme with a page builder like Elementor, Astra, or BeaverBuilder.
This way, your experience is like using the Wix editor.
A word of caution on selecting a theme: Make sure you choose a website theme that is constantly updated and offers reliable support.
How to Select a Theme on WordPress
To choose a theme, follow the steps below:
Hover over “Appearance” on your WordPress dashboard and click “Themes.”
Your first view will be pre-installed themes by WordPress.
You can delete these themes by clicking on each WordPress theme and clicking “Delete” at the bottom right corner.
Click the “Add New” to search for and choose a new theme.
Use the “Feature Filter” to select features you want your theme to have and click the “Apply Filters” button.
Some options include the website niche, such as photography, e-commerce, education, entertainment, portfolio, blog, etc.
From the filter results, carefully sift through all the options to select the theme that fits your needs, and click “Install.”
Activate the theme here or activate it later from the “Themes” page.
You can then customize the theme and the appearance of your website by clicking “Customize” when you hover over the new theme.
Step-by-Step Instructions on How to Transfer Your Content from Wix to WordPress
To migrate content from Wix to WordPress, you have to:
Manually use RDF Site Summary (RSS) to export blog posts from Wix to WordPress and also recreate each Wix web page on WordPress; or
Use a paid service for migration.
Use RDF Site Summary (RSS) to Export Blog Posts from Wix to WordPress
This method allows you to copy all your blog posts from Wix and create new blog posts on WordPress in one swoop.
To follow this part of this guide, make sure your Wix site already has an RSS button.
Look out for any of the icons, such as the ones below.
You’ll likely find it on the website footer.
If your Wix website does not have an RSS feed already, you can follow the steps provided by Wix.
If everything is in order, then the steps to copy content from Wix to WordPress include:
Click the RSS icon on your Wix website.
It’ll open a new page that looks like the one pictured below.
Right-click on the page and save the file as an XML document to a folder that is easy to find. Leave the file name as “blog-feed.”
From your WordPress dashboard, hover over “Tools” close to the bottom of the page and click “Import.”
Run the RSS importer. If the “run importer” option is not visible, click “install now” before running the importer.
From the next page, click the “choose file” button to select the blog-feed XML file you saved earlier and click “Open.”
Next, click “Upload file and import” to continue the process.
After importing all posts, you’ll see “All done. Have fun!”
For this example, our Wix site only had three blog posts, and the RSS method successfully imported all three blog posts, including pictures.
This method mirrors the images from your Wix website on your WordPress website.
If the Wix website no longer functions, the pictures on your WordPress posts will disappear.
To this end, we recommend you upload these images to your WordPress media.
Then, replace the pictures attached to each blog post with the images you uploaded to your WordPress.
Recreate Each Wix Web Page on WordPress
Unfortunately, the RSS migration method above does not export your web pages like “Home” and “About Us” to WordPress.
You have to manually recreate each Wix web page on your new WordPress site. To do this,
Transfer each page one at a time.
Go to each Wix web page. Save all images on that page and upload them to your WordPress media.
Go to the Wix page you’re working on and copy the written content there.
Hover over “Pages” from your WordPress dashboard and click “add new.”
Paste the copied content into the editor.
Use the + sign to add different blocks to the page. The blocks you can add, include a gallery, paragraphs, heading, list, and quotes.
Access more design options by clicking the dark “Browse all” button.
You can also switch to the “Patterns” tab to choose a preformatted page to make your work easier.
You can edit the page to your taste by changing the content.
Repeat the same steps for all the other pages.
Use a Paid Service for Migration
If you’d otherwise use outside help to migrate your Wix website to WordPress, there are paid services you can use.
One of the most popular ones is CMS2CMS. Web hosting providers like Kinsta also have partners to help you with your WordPress site migration.
You can check with your hosting provider if they have one.
How much you pay depends on how many pages you have and the number of categories on your website.
You can estimate how much this service will cost on CMS2CMS with the pricing estimator.
For example, CMS2CMS estimates that migrating a Wix website with 50 pages/post and five categories will cost $159.
Wrapping Up: Converting a Wix Website to WordPress
Deciding to migrate your Wix website to WordPress is worth it in the long run.
While it is not an easy endeavor, the benefits are enormous, and we recommend doing it.
You either do it yourself with some semi-automatic steps or employ paid outside help.
Your choice depends on how many pages your website has and how much you’re willing to spend.
Whichever option you decide to use, we wish you all the best with your WordPress website.
If you have any questions while migrating your website from Wix site to WordPress, feel free to share them in the comments.
We’ll respond as soon as we can.
By Brett Helling
Brett has been starting, growing, and monetizing websites since 2014. While in college, he began to learn about digital marketing. After graduating, he continued to build a diverse portfolio of websites while working a full time job. After years of building the portfolio on the side, he made the jump to run his websites full time.
