Joomla to WordPress Migration

Why Migrate from Joomla to WordPress

Joomla and WordPress started out in the same era and grew side by side for years, but the gap between them has widened a lot since then. Joomla has slipped from second place among content management systems down to around 2.7% market share today, while WordPress now powers more than 40% of all websites. That single stat drives most of the other reasons site owners decide to convert Joomla to WordPress.

WordPress has a far larger plugin ecosystem

Joomla’s Extensions Directory currently lists around 6,000 free and paid extensions. WordPress, by comparison, has over 60,000 free plugins and more than 10,000 free themes available in its library alone, with new ones added daily by an active developer community. In practice, that means almost any feature you want to add to your site already has a ready-made WordPress plugin, rather than something you need custom-built.

WordPress is easier to use day to day

Joomla ships packed with functions out of the box, which also makes its admin heavier and more technical to navigate, especially for non-technical editors. WordPress takes a leaner approach: the block editor and dashboard are built around everyday content editing, so your team can publish and update pages without needing developer help for routine changes.

WordPress has a bigger community and hiring pool

WordPress’s community isn’t just larger, it’s still growing, while Joomla’s developer pool has been shrinking for years. That translates directly into practical terms: it’s considerably easier to find a WordPress developer, agency, or freelancer than a Joomla specialist, and that gap keeps widening.

WordPress costs less to maintain over time

Because WordPress needs less specialized development time and draws from a much larger talent pool, ongoing maintenance and development costs tend to run lower over the life of a site. Joomla’s smaller, more technical hiring market pushes agency and freelance rates up by comparison.

WordPress is built with blogging at its core

Joomla offers only limited native tools for managing a blog, and it doesn’t have a dedicated content type built specifically for blog posts. WordPress, on the other hand, started as a blogging platform and still treats posts as a first-class content type, with a much deeper library of blog-focused themes and plugins to match.

Joomla vs. WordPress at a glance

What Data Can Be Migrated From Joomla to WordPress

The supported store data depends on the Joomla eCommerce extension used by your website. Where applicable, LitExtension can migrate:

• Products: core product details, pricing, stock, images, variants, and SEO fields, along with product categories.
• Customers: contact info plus billing and shipping addresses.
• Orders: order details, items, pricing breakdown, and linked customer and address data.
• CMS Pages: page title, content, category, and thumbnail image.
• Blogs: post title, content, category, and thumbnail image.
• Manufacturers: name and logo image.
• Taxes: tax classes and rates by country.
• Coupons: coupon codes, discount rules, and validity periods.
• Reviews: ratings, comments, and reviewer details.
• Multiple Languages: translated content for products, categories, CMS pages, and blogs (additional fee may apply).

Keep in mind that Joomla has no native eCommerce of its own. Whatever store data you have, products, orders, customers, actually lives inside whichever shopping component your site runs on. Since different Joomla shopping components structure their data differently, our team confirms exactly which one your site uses and scopes the migration around it during consultation, rather than assuming a generic Joomla export will cover it.

What doesn’t transfer automatically

A few parts of a Joomla site need to be rebuilt in WordPress rather than migrated directly:

• Joomla template and design: Joomla and WordPress use entirely different theming systems, so your site’s look and feel needs a new WordPress theme rather than a like-for-like transfer.
• Custom modules and complex content: content built with certain Joomla-specific extensions generally has no direct WordPress equivalent and needs to be rebuilt or replaced with a comparable WordPress plugin.
• Navigation menus and custom routing: Joomla’s menu structure and custom links don’t carry over automatically and need to be recreated in WordPress.
• ACL and permissions structure: Joomla’s access control levels don’t map one-to-one to WordPress user roles, so permissions need to be reconfigured for your new setup.
• Component-specific settings: configuration specific to your Joomla shopping component or other extensions stays behind and needs to be set up fresh in its WordPress equivalent.

How to Migrate from Joomla to WordPress

There are two practical ways to migrate Joomla to WordPress: do it yourself with a free content import plugin, or let LitExtension experts manage the whole Joomla to WordPress migration for you. Which one fits best depends mostly on how much content you have and whether your site runs a Joomla shopping component.

Option 1: DIY Migration with a Joomla-to-WordPress Import Plugin

A number of free WordPress plugins are built specifically to pull content out of a Joomla database and into WordPress. This kind of plugin works well for small, content-only sites, but it has real limits worth knowing before you start.

• Step 1: Back up your Joomla site. Before touching anything, back up your Joomla database and files. It’s also worth taking screenshots of your site and jotting down every extension, module, and custom feature you’re using, so you have something to reference while rebuilding on WordPress later.
• Step 2: Set up the plugin. Install and activate a Joomla-to-WordPress import plugin on your WordPress site from the Plugins menu. Some offer a paid tier with extra options like custom fields, user accounts, SEO data, or URL redirects.
• Step 3: Identify your Joomla database parameters. In Joomla, go to System > Global Configuration > Server to find your database host, database name, username, and table prefix. The password isn’t displayed there, so open the configuration.php file in your Joomla root folder (through FTP or your hosting file manager) to copy it. Keep this window open, or note the values down, so you can copy them over.
• Step 4: Test the database connection. Back in WordPress, open the plugin’s connection settings, enter your Joomla site URL and database parameters, then run a test to confirm WordPress can reach your Joomla database before importing anything.
• Step 5: Run the import. Once the connection is confirmed, start the import and let the plugin pull your Joomla content into WordPress. You can usually choose which content types to include as it runs.

One Joomla quirk worth knowing before you import: Joomla treats all of your content as “articles,” with no separate distinction between pages and posts the way WordPress has. Most import plugins ask you to choose whether that content comes in as WordPress posts or as WordPress pages. If you choose pages, keep in mind your categories won’t come along, since WordPress pages don’t support categories the way posts do. For most sites, importing as posts first and converting specific ones to pages afterward is the more reliable path.

A typical free import plugin handles the basics: Joomla articles become WordPress posts and pages, categories carry over, featured images and media land in your WordPress media library, and internal links point to your new URLs. User accounts, SEO fields such as meta descriptions, and URL redirects are usually limited to paid versions. It also won’t handle Joomla extensions with no WordPress equivalent, custom templates and design, menus and routing, or structured data. Each of those still needs to be handled separately, by hand or with additional tools.

Option 2: Migrate Joomla to WordPress with LitExtension

If your site includes eCommerce data, custom components, or you’d simply rather not manage the technical work yourself, LitExtension’s All-in-One service handles the entire Joomla to WordPress migration on your behalf. Here’s how the process works from start to finish.

Step 1. Technical consultation with LitExtension experts

Your migration starts with a personalized consultation with our technical team. We review your Joomla site’s structure, size, and any custom components or extensions in use, and identify which shopping component, if any, powers your store data, since Joomla itself has no native eCommerce. This lets us scope the migration accurately and flag potential challenges early, before signing off on a clear project plan together.

Step 2. Pre-migration setup and data mapping

Next, our team prepares both your Joomla site and your target WordPress site for the transfer. We collect the access details needed to connect securely to both platforms, then map your Joomla data, articles, categories, users, and any eCommerce records from your shopping component, to their matching structure in WordPress. Custom fields or unusual data types get configured individually so nothing gets lost in translation.

Step 3. Run a demo migration

Before touching your full dataset, we run a demo migration using a sample of your Joomla content. This gives you an early look at how your data will appear in WordPress, and gives our team a chance to catch and fix any formatting or mapping issues before the full transfer runs.

Step 4. Perform the full Joomla to WordPress migration

Once you approve the demo results, we move ahead with the complete migration. Your Joomla site stays live and fully operational throughout the process, so there’s no downtime and no need to pause your business while the transfer runs in the background.

Step 5. Migration results testing

After the full migration completes, our team runs a thorough QA review to confirm your content transferred accurately, articles, categories, images, and any eCommerce data included in your scope, checking for missing records, broken links, or formatting issues. We also verify SEO metadata and, if you’ve enabled the option, confirm 301 redirects are mapping your old Joomla URLs correctly. You’ll receive a summary report once everything checks out.

Step 6. Post-migration tasks

Since your Joomla site keeps running during the migration, it may pick up new orders, customers, or content in the meantime. LitExtension’s post-migration services, including Recent Data Migration, Smart Update, and Re-migration, bring anything new over so your WordPress site stays current once it goes live.

Step 7. Post-migration customer support

Our support doesn’t end when the migration does. For up to 60 days after your Joomla to WordPress migration completes, our team is available to help with any questions, fix issues you spot, or guide you through your new WordPress setup.

In short: a free import plugin is a reasonable choice if you’re just moving a small content site with no store data attached. For anything bigger, or if you need eCommerce data, SEO metadata, redirects, QA testing, and post-migration support handled properly, LitExtension’s All-in-One service covers the parts a DIY plugin simply can’t reach.

What to Do After Joomla to WordPress Migration

Getting your content into WordPress is the starting line, not the finish. Work through this checklist before you consider the migration fully done:

• Verify imported content end-to-end: walk through every article, page, and category to confirm everything imported cleanly, with no broken internal links or empty sections.
• Confirm your media library: check that featured images and other media are actually hosted in the WordPress media library, not still pulling from your old Joomla URLs.
• Test your new WordPress theme: click through your content to confirm the new theme renders cleanly across all pages, including older archived posts and any unusual layouts.
• Configure WordPress permalinks: set your permalink structure to match your intended URL pattern, and confirm it lines up with your redirect map.
• Set up and check your 301 redirects: if redirects weren’t created during migration, create 301 redirects from your old Joomla URLs to the matching WordPress pages, for example with the Redirection plugin. Then test a sample of your old Joomla URLs to confirm every one lands cleanly on the matching new WordPress page.
• Choose and install a WordPress theme, if you haven’t already, and use the migration as a chance to refresh the design rather than just replicate the old Joomla look.
• Install essential plugins: an SEO plugin, a security plugin, a forms plugin, and caching, so your site is properly covered from day one.
• Set up WooCommerce, if your migration includes store data, and confirm your products, orders, and customers display correctly.
• Enable HTTPS and harden your login: turn on SSL if it isn’t already active, and limit login attempts on your WordPress admin to cut down on automated attacks.
• Give your team time to learn the WordPress dashboard, since day-to-day editing works quite differently from Joomla’s admin panel.
• Submit a new sitemap to Google Search Console so search engines can re-crawl your site under its new URL structure.
• Test mobile responsiveness across a few common screen sizes before you announce the switch publicly.
• Let your audience know about the move, through a blog post, email, or social update, so returning visitors aren’t caught off guard by the new look and URLs.
• Monitor your SEO rankings and organic traffic closely over the first 30, 60, and 90 days, since most sites stabilize within that window if the redirect map was built correctly.

Work through this list carefully and you’ll have a much smoother experience whenever you decide to convert Joomla to WordPress for good.