There are times when you are changing hosting services for your website to get better performance and features. Then, the next step is migrating your website data from the former site to the new site. How to do this easily and quickly? 

Fortunately, there are several plugins that can help you migrate websites. That’s why in this article we’re covering one of the best WordPress migration plugins, WP Migrate DB by Delicious Brains. 

Getting Started

WP Migrate DB is a WordPress plugin for migrating databases from your old WordPress site to the new site. It allows you to export your database, perform a find & replace that handles serialized data, and save migration profiles. Migrating sites is easy, fast, and straightforward with WP Migrate DB. 

This plugin is created by Delicious Brains, who are known for their popular plugins such as WP Offload Media and SpinupWP. Therefore, no wonder this plugin works wonderfully and has helped 300.000+ users in WordPress. 

If you want to use WP Migrate DB to help migrate your website, there are 2 versions that you can choose from. So, you can use it with no charge with the WP Migrate DB free version or go for the Pro version. 

How Does Traditional Migration Work?

The migrating site manually requires a complicated process:

• Moving the MySQL database
• Downloading the database from the old server
• Uploading it to the new location
• Replace all mentions of the site’s old location with that of its new home, either via MySQL statements or the search and replace script
• And so on. 

All those processes certainly take a lot of time and attention. Also, there are often unforeseen problems such as timeouts in phpMyAdmin and other errors that might test your patience. However, you don’t need to worry anymore because WP Migrate DB can simplify them.

How Does WP Migrate DB Work?

To put it simply, WP Migrate DB works neatly in three processes:

• Export the database of your current site (the free version is limited to this functionality)
• Pull a database from another website and replace the current one
• Push the current database to another location and overwrite the one found there 

What Are the Features of WP Migrate DB?

WP Migrate DB offers a free and pro version in its service. However, the free version includes features that are already capable of migrating sites, such as: 

Find & Replace that handles serialized data

Avoids corrupting any serialization by detecting serialized data and running a special find & replace on it. 

Beautiful Progress UI

The user interface of the plugin is beautiful in its simplicity and integration with the native WordPress UI. 

Pause & cancel migration

Pause, resume and cancel any import or migration. Also, you can see exactly how much of the database has been restored.  

Compatibility mode

Reduce the performance issues and possible code conflicts by letting you load selected plugins as must-use plugins. 

Export your database 

Export your website database as a MySQL data dump. However, in the Pro version, you can also import a website backup directly by uploading the backup file and push-and-pull functionality. 

Exclude spam comments and transients

Exclude content like spam comments and transients through the migration tab. In addition, you can replace globally unique identifiers (GUIDs). 

Save migration profiles 

All custom settings you choose for migrating sites can be saved as a profile for future use. 

Secure code

All the migrated databases are secured by code so rest assured your data is safe with WP Migrate DB. 

Meanwhile, the pro version includes all the free version features plus additional support, such as: 

Priority email support

Get a prompt reply via email from a developer who works on WP Migrate DB Pro. Then you will get priority email support which guarantees your request is assigned the highest priority. 

Push and pull your databases

Pull the live database down and replace your local database or push your local database up to staging. 

Backup your database before replacing it

Select the backup option before running a migration to back up your database and give you peace of mind before running the migration and replacing it. 

Media Files Addon

Sync the media libraries of two sites. You can push and pull them. Copy all your media files over or choose to compare both libraries and only migrate the media that’s missing or updated. 

Theme & Plugin Files Addon

No need for FTP access, simply push or pull your theme and plugin files between two WordPress installs with the Theme & Plugin Files addon. 

CLI Addon

Set up migrations to run automatically with a cron job. The CLI Addon integrates with WP-CLI and gives you push, pull and import commands. You can also specify all the arguments to run a migration. 

Multisite Tools Addon

Export a subsite as an SQL file which you can then use to import as a single site install. With this addon, you can migrate from multisite to single site back and forth. 

Select which tables to migrate

Migrate all tables for the current install (default) or select exactly which tables to migrate. This is useful for excluding large tables containing logs or something similar. 

Exclude post type

Select which post types you don’t want in the migrated posts table. It’s useful for excluding unwanted post types like revisions. 

Why Should I Use WP Migrate DB?

• It is easy to download full databases and move them to other places. 
• The free version is enough for migrating sites to other servers. 
• Backs up your existing database before migration 
• Easily find and replace information in your database 
• Theme and plugin file add-on available 
• All of the file paths, URL paths, and serialized data are handled in the background. The plugin then delivers a completed SQL file for you to download. 
• The pro version lets you pull or push databases that means you don’t need to download the data first to the hard disk and re-upload it to the new server. 
• One of the most secure migration plugins.
• You have the option to sync full media libraries between two websites. 
• There is a feature for moving a site from a multisite network to a single site. This can also be reversed. 
• You can exclude certain post types. 
• The pro version lets you choose which tables you want to migrate. Decide to move all of your tables over or select from the ones that are most important. 

How to Install WP Migrate DB?

For the free version, you can get WP Migrate DB directly from the WordPress admin bar or you can download the plugin from here. Then the next step is:

• From your WordPress admin bar, open Plugin 
• Search “WP Migrate DB by Delicious Brains”
• Click install then activate the plugin 

How Much Does WP Migrate DB Cost?

The pricing for WP Migrate DB premium version is divided into 2: for individual use & organizations. 

Individual

Personal – $49

• Includes 1 active site, 1 person supported, 1 year of software updates & email support.

Side Hustle – $99

• Includes 2 active sites, 1 person supported, 1 year of software updates & email support, CLI addon.

Developer – $199

• Includes 3 active sites, 1 person supported, 1 year of software updates & email support,  CLI addon, media files addon, theme & plugin files addon, support for multisite.

Full Stack – $249

• Includes unlimited sites, 1 person supported, 1 year of software updates and email support, CLI addon, media files addon, theme & plugin files addon support for multisite, multisite tools addon.

Organizations

Workshop

• Includes unlimited sites, 1year of software updates and email support, support for multisite, CLI addon. 

Studio

• Includes unlimited sites, 1year of software updates and email support, support for multisite, CLI addon, media files addon, theme & plugin files addon. 

Agency

• Includes unlimited sites, 1 year of software updates and email support, support for multisite, CLI addon, media files addon, theme & plugin files addon, multisite tools addon. 

The prices for the organization’s plan are based on the number of seats requires. The seats are scalable so you can check them out here.

How to Use WP Migrate DB?

Pros 

• Simple
• Time-saving
• The free version is pretty useful
• Great support from developers
• Ideal for quickly and conveniently copying WordPress data
• Great for developers, with advanced code options 

Cons

• The cheap premium versions do not offer much
• Requires multiple add-ons for complete migrations
• Not suitable for beginners 

What Are the Alternatives to WP Migrate DB?

Here are a few migration plugins that can be used as WP Migrate DB alternatives:

• UpdraftPlus – Versatile plugin for migrating, restoring, and backing up a website quickly and safely
• WP Vivid – All-in-one plugin containing backup, migration, and staging functionalities.
• Better Search Replace – Fast & simple plugin for migrating sites.
• VaultPress – Highly-secure migration & backup plugin

Conclusion 

WP Migrate DB is a plugin for migrating databases between WordPress sites. This plugin helps to move a site from pretty much any environment to another. Instead of downloading the database to your hard drive and then uploading it again, the pro version allows you to sync it directly between two sites. It’s suitable for developers who are in need of flexibility when it comes to choosing specific migration items like tables.

You can get WP Migrate DB as a free version and a pro version as well. While the free version is perfectly capable of doing the basic migrate job, the pro version gives you more support and extra addons that make site migration easier.

References

• WP Migrate DB Pro Official Website
• WP Migrate DB Pro Official Plugin
• Transfer You WordPress Database with Ease: WP Migrate DB Pro Review – Winning WP
• Review of WP Migrate DB Pro – WPEngine
• WP Migrate DB Pro Review – Simple WordPress Database Migration – WP Kube
• 7 Powerful WordPress Migration Plugins (Pros and Cons) – Meridian Themes