How to Move Your Site from Joomla to WordPress

Although Joomla is a powerful and widely used content management system capable of running nearly any type of blog or website, it may not be the ideal choice for everyone. If you’re among those who have decided to transition from Joomla to WordPress—which now powers nearly a quarter of the world’s websites—the process is quite straightforward, thanks to plugins that can assist with the migration. Before you begin, you’ll need to select a hosting provider and install WordPress. For the best experience, opt for a host that offers a one-click WordPress installation, making setup as simple as using a website builder.

1 – Install the FG Joomla to WordPress Plugin

Although there are a number of plugins available for WordPress that greatly simplify the process of migrating from Joomla, we’ll be using the popular FG Joomla to WordPress plugin for the purposes of this tutorial.

1. Navigate to “Tools > Plugins” in your WordPress administrator dashboard, and enter the plugin referred to above in the search field.

2. Click on “Install Now,” click “OK” to confirm, and click “Activate Plugin” once the download and installation is complete.

 2 – Import Your Content from Joomla

Now that you have installed the plugin, a new option will appear in the import settings in your administrator dashboard. By using this plugin, you will be able to import categories, posts, images and attachments from your Joomla database into your WordPress one.

1. Navigate to “Tools > Import,” and click on the Joomla FG option from the list of import options. The Joomla import page will open.

2. Go to the administrator section of your Joomla website, and note down the database settings, or keep the page open alongside your WordPress administrator dashboard for reference.

3. Enter the database parameters, including the hostname, port, database, username, password and table prefix back in your WordPress administrator dashboard.

4. Check the box beside “Force media import” if you want to transfer images from your Joomla website as well.

5. Click “Import content from Joomla to WordPress” to continue. The process may take some time, depending on the amount of content on your Joomla website.

6. Click on “Modify internal links” once the migration is complete. You should skip this step only if do not have any internal links in your Joomla website pointing to other pages on the website.

There is also a premium version of FG Joomla for those who need to import additional content, such as that from outdated versions of the CMS, contact directory contacts and Virtuemart e-commerce content.