Migrating to WordPress.com: A Comedic Odyssey (Or Nightmare)

Have you ever thought: Should I migrate to WordPress.com? Me too. So much so thatI recently embarked on what I thought would be a simple migration to WordPress.com. I have many self hosted wordpress websites. I have changed hosts and providers many times over the years. This meant I came into the wordpress.com migration with an impression that 15 years of experience would make this a breeze. Boy was I wrong.

The initial Purchase.

I decided on the creator plan. It was easy to buy and the checkout was easy sailing. I was taken in with the bundling and figured I would get the 3 year plan with the giant discount. There was no free trial or 7 day paid trial, I would have liked that but here goes.

After purchasing a creator plan, the onboarding process began. The first issue, I found myself trapped in an account with a non-customizable domain name. The original account had been created without me being prompted to set a subdomain. I tried all I could to find how to change it, and the buttons seems to be inactive. Id get stuck with a redirect or nothing would happen. Hmm. A sign of things to come? I brushed that off.

I told myself – that’s not a big problem. I will be mapping my domain name later anyway. Let’s move onto moving my self hosted wordpress site into the new environment.

The migration

The promised migration tools were nowhere to be found. I checked the documentation, and the buttons kept trying to make me to sign up for another website. I could import from other platforms, like wix or squarespace etc. That was out of the question as I was using WordPress.

My experience told me, just use your normal method.

I installed WP Migrate and the wordpress.com site panel began to do something strange. It made a whole new domain on a staging version of what I thought was already a staging site.

That was unexpected but I figured it was okay, as maybe you can only install plugins in staging and then migrate to production. I got stuck on a random error page. This meant I had to run the install twice. No idea why. After installing wp migrate on my other site, I began the migration. It started well and all the files moved over relatively quickly. It was fast, really fast. I was pretty excited about this because a fast migration is generally a good sign of a solid hosting solution.

I thought it had gone perfectly. Little did I know that I was about to enter a redirect loop of hell.

The redirect troubles begin

I logged back into the site as this often happens with a WP Migrate. The users change so that was not a surpise. I reactivated Akismet and Jetpack. These seem to be critical for wordpress.com and despite them being an MU (Must Use) plugin the are not MU. So I activated them and got stuck pretty fast.

The staging domain and production site plan I purchased was no longer connected to my site. Why?

This was especially confusing because it looked like I was inside a WordPress multisite, but I couldn’t use my site. Hmm. What to do?

I click on the jetpack reconnect process. It didn’t work. It just redirected me to a document that didn’t show what I was seeing. The documentation was a complete failure. I figured I would go into the website and check the plugin setup for Jetpack and Akismet.

I went ahead and activated jetpack via the admin plugin panel and then fell into a redirecting black hole.

Everything I clicked inside the WordPress.com hosting backend now led me to the WordPress admin page on my CMS. There was no impact of any click. I got only two results, WordPress Dashboard or a 403 error saying Im not allowed to access that page.

I was looking for a sync tool to send the site to my production site, but that had now disappeared as well.

At this point I was not feeling great about the product. I realised WordPress.com’s decision to merge their control panel with the WordPress.org interface created a Frankenstein’s monster of a system. I was constantly met with “you’re not allowed to access this page” errors, despite having the necessary permissions.

The support kanundrum

At this point I noticed the live chat panel. I could really use some help here. Unfortunately the Live chat is not a live chat anymore. Like many companies WordPress decided that a bit showing the same useless information would be a good thing to implement. It is not. I tried to get a real person by thumb downing each response and finally I got a notification that “someone” would respond in the next 24 hours. Gee, thanks,

What an amazing premium experience. For any host out there, make live chat live chat. No one ever said “Gee this bot is great, no need for real people any more”.

The domain decider

I figured I would wait for the support response. I moved on to work out what was going to happen with my domain name. I was being nagged about a free domain earlier so figured I should check that out.

I was shocked with what I found: domain mapping restrictions. WordPress.com requires full DNS delegation, a deal-breaker for many users including myself and countless potential clients. This single requirement is a big part in explaining why WordPress.com isn’t a major player in the hosting market. Migrating to wordpress.com for a whole DNS setup? That is a big ask and you need an alternative.

I like using Cloudflare DNS for Turnstile and admin login access. I would have to say “good bye” to these features if I moved my DNS.

I left Kinsta some years ago when they said there DNS setup with Cloudflare Cnames was going to fix everything. It didn’t. It broke heaps of stuff. I warned them it would but hey, what do I know from 20+ years of making websites.

Time to admit defeat

At this point I decided I should not go any further, I cancelled the account. I had spent all of 1 hour in the platform to realise, this sucks. The documentation is missing all vital information I need and the support is not-present in Australian hours. This is one of the reasons I love WP Engine. They have Australian support hours with real people in the live chat.

Now, I have to wait how long for a refund? 5 to 7 days. Apparently refunding a paypal payment is very difficult for WordPress.com – Im not surprised. Making a Hosting panel and migration process seems hard for them too.

What can WordPress.com do to improve their hosting platform?

1. The platform desperately needs improvements in migration. Make my migration easy peasy. It’s easy to find inspiration for this. Blogvault?
2. Control panel design – I need more separation from the WP admin. It’s really confusing and I get this weird admin thing that is just – weird. You could at least make the menu readable.
3. Remove DNS domain restrictions – Let me map using my own DNS. I should be able to just add cname or a records. No need for all the other stuff. I know you do email, but if I don’t want it, why are you asking me to setup SPF records? Please don’t. Please remove the my mailbox etc. if I don’t want it. Note: I later found there is a tiny link to use direct A name records.
4. Data center location choices – I should be able to choose where my website is. Why can’t I select Australia as my core data centre? This is important for a lot of users. You guys aren’t really that clear about where my website is. I know you have co-location but give me some peace of mind and let me choose. The happiness engineers did respond saying the site is fast in Australia, however that is not my concern. Most Australians want a website in Australia. Its a security thing and part of a fit for purpose discussion that most cyber security people recommend.

With these changes, WordPress.com could become a game-changer. It could be a market leader and start to take business from other hosts. They clearly have an excellent platform in terms of speed. It’s just making all the other stuff work is clearly not good.

Until these kinds of changes are in place, I’ll be sticking to my self-hosted WordPress environment providers.

To be specific I find Nexcess, WP Engine and Cloudways great for standard WP and WooCommerce. Anything that is custom, I use a Digital Ocean server and the Spinup WP controller. It works and is pretty easy to use.

If you’re considering migrating to WordPress.com from a self hosted WordPress, proceed with caution and be prepared for potential headaches. You only really know how good a company is when something goes wrong.

Footnote

A day after this adventure the team of happiness engineers got back to me. They had identified a few things to help me out,

1. The DNS can be external to WordPress but its actually pretty hard to find as its all small text links. I looked at it but I was not at all certain anything would work at this point. Id lost confidence in the system.
2. They gave me a week to free trial it, but again, I was just to un certain.
3. Happiness engineers take too long to respond. If I have to wait hours for a response then its really not something I can work with. I got spoiled by WP Engine and other hosting providers.
4. The jetpack connection had something to do with needing a user with the same email as my WordPress account.

Even after the support I just couldn’t bring myself to switch the domain. I had no confidence in the platform. It’s a shame to see that it came to that. I have seen this in the past, once your confidence is gone in a product, you get too scared to use it and have to find an alternative solution.

Hope that helps you all with your WordPress hosting. If you need help making a hosting choice for WordPress, reach out to the team here at MRK or use my social handles. Always happy to share our experiences.