Moving from WordPress.com to Self-Hosted WordPress in Canada

WordPress.com is a hosted service with real limitations: plugin restrictions on lower-tier plans, inability to install custom themes, limited monetization options, and content stored on Automattic's US infrastructure. Moving to self-hosted WordPress on Canadian hosting removes all of these constraints at once.

What you gain and what you give up

WordPress.com manages hosting, updates, backups, and security on your behalf. Moving to self-hosted means those responsibilities transfer to you or to a managed hosting provider. What you gain is substantial: full plugin access including WooCommerce, membership systems, booking engines, and SEO tools unavailable on WordPress.com; custom theme installation; PHP and server configuration control; your data on a server you specify in a jurisdiction you control; and typically lower long-term cost compared to WordPress.com's Business or Commerce plans.

Before migrating: important checks

All WordPress.com plans allow export of posts, pages, and media, but the export completeness varies. The XML export contains posts, pages, comments, and some metadata. It does not include plugin data from plugins unavailable on your plan, custom theme settings that are plan-specific, or WooCommerce order history. If your site relies on WordPress.com-only features like the Jetpack-powered stats or specific blocks with no self-hosted equivalent, plan how you will replace those features before migrating.

Setting up Canadian hosting and migrating

Register your domain with a Canadian registrar if it is currently registered through WordPress.com. WordPress.com allows domain transfers out through your account settings. Set up your Canadian hosting account, install WordPress, configure PHP 8.2 or 8.3, ensure SSL is active, and verify the site loads over HTTPS. In your WordPress.com dashboard, go to Tools, Export, and download the XML file. In your self-hosted admin, install the WordPress Importer plugin from Tools, Import. Upload the XML file and map author accounts. The importer downloads media files from WordPress.com's servers during import, so run the import while your WordPress.com site is still live.

After the import

Install plugins that replace WordPress.com built-in features: Yoast SEO or Rank Math replaces WordPress.com's basic SEO tools, UpdraftPlus replaces the backup system, and Akismet replaces spam filtering. Lower your DNS TTL to 300 seconds 24 hours before the cutover to minimize propagation time. After updating the A record to your new Canadian server IP, verify SSL, test all post and page URLs, and submit the sitemap to Google Search Console to ensure the new URLs are indexed promptly.