If one of the points on your wish list includes to finally get rid of your old CMS that keeps you from realizing your website plans, and migrate to a new, more progressive/functional/affordable/etc one, the post we’ve prepared today might come in handy.
You might have already looked up plugins and tools that cover content migration, which is much pain when done manually. Still, it is just one aspect of CMS migration, while other ones, like migrating extensions, template, custom post types, etc. remain “untouched”. In other words, to make your website fully functional and well-looking after the content has been ported over, there is much work left to be done.
So, we’ve researched services that can deal with these aspects and present CMS migration cost, scope, and timing to your attention.
CMS2CMS
Essentially, it is a SaaS solution, presenting an automated migration of website content (posts, pages, categories, tags, users, comments, images, attachments and much more content entities). The exhaustive and detailed list of migrated entities varies depending on the source and target CMSs.
Its key advantage is speed (from a few minutes to a couple of hours per migration depending on the volume of content to be moved) and user-friendliness. Basically, it takes very little time and almost no specific skills to set up and run your migration, which makes CMS2CMS a popular choice among website owners who don’t go deep into coding and want to manage their site on their own.
What makes CMS2CMS a viable option for webmasters is the scope. There are a lot of source-target combinations among N supported CMS and forum platforms, from leaders of the industry to not so popular ones.
Apart from moving content, CMS2CMS also helps preserve the SEO juice by dealing with 301 redirects, migrating SEO aliases, building SEO-friendly URLs on the new site etc. These options are optional and paid additionally (no more than $5). Similarly, it is possible to move content between extensions, but you need to check this opportunity for each particular CMS direction.
For more sophisticated needs (like custom fields or custom post types migration, specific entities migration only etc.), CMS2CMS offers dedicated migration services for an extra fee.
Unlike other services, CMS2CMS offers an opportunity to move not only content to the new CMS platform but to get the design service as well. The design team takes all user requirements into account and can either replicate the old website design or create a brand new one. This feature makes CMS migration more convenient, as far as you can get a brand new site with all your content preserved in one place, with no need to search for a template or separate design service.
How much it costs?
The price of content migration at CMS2CMS is charged only for the content that was migrated. It means that there’s no set price and the final CMS migration cost depends on the scope of data you are moving. If you want to migrate a tiny personal blog, the price can be up to $30 including all the additional options. But in case you are the owner of a huge forum board, be ready to spend a few hundreds of bucks and enjoy the result. For more precise price estimation, use a migration calculator.
Moreover, you are welcomed to perform Free Demo migration in order to see the service at work and preview how your content will look on a new CMS.
You can also purchase Fully Assisted Migration service which covers migration preparation, customization, setup, validation, etc. Since such service requires human interaction, it will take more time than automated migration.
When it comes to Design Customization – the price is rather uncertain, due to the peculiarities of the order. For example, template installation and customization costs $30, while setting security tools and spam filters only $3.
Disclaimer: It is CMS2CMS team who prepared this research, but we did our best to stay unbiased and present objective data.
gConverter
gConverter specializes in CMS and forum migrations and offers “semi-handmade conversions” (as opposed to software or automated tools) by a team of professionals. It supports about 200 of CMS and forum platforms, so there is a lot to choose from.
Essentially, there are a few migration services they offer – WordPress Migration, CMS to CMS migration and Forum to Forum migration. gConverter is ready to handle all kinds of conversions and customizations upon your request.
The process looks like this – you place a service request – your site is reviewed within 24 hours and converted in the period which depends on the requirements you have regarding website migration.
How much it costs?
Migration cost varies depending on the website size and source-target combination. The cost of database migration from Drupal to Joomla, for instance, starts from $225 for up to 500 pages and 5,000 users and may include $25 for 301 redirects (optional). Theme conversion price ranges between $150 – 450. Migrating plugins data comes at extra cost, so you need to request a quote for an exact figure.
MigrateToWP
In case you’ve made up your mind to migrate to WordPress from another platform, MigrateToWP can be your choice (if your target platform is anything other than WP, move on to the next service on the list).
MigrateToWP offers custom migrations to WordPress by WordPress experts. The services include:
- Content migration (posts, pages, categories, tags, comments etc) – the CMS migration cost starts from $949 and done during 3 to 4 days
- Content migration + basic site setup (content and media files import/export to the WordPress server and basic website configuring including theme installation) – starting from $1900 and 7 days.
- Full Content and Theme Migration/Design – if you need a turnkey solution, this is it – MigrateToWP takes care of every aspect of your move. Be ready to pay at least $4500 and wait 14-21 days.
The process looks like this – after you place the service request, your site is analyzed and all your demands are taken into account resulting in a roadmap of your migration. Next, MigrateToWP move your data to a test site with your desired theme on their server as a kind of demo for you to check out. Once validated and paid for, the migration is completed on your WordPress installation and the results are verified.
ProfProjects
This company can be helpful for CMS and forum migration, as well as moving between shopping cart platforms. Offering the migration between 160 content management systems, ProfProjects aims to cover the need of users with different skill levels – from beginners to experienced ones.
Correspondingly, there are three migration service plans:
- Content migration (post, pages, users, comments, tags, etc.) – the price varies between $150-500.
- Content migration with extensions and plugins – apart content, includes plugin/extensions data move to the alternative plugin on the target CMS – $250-750.
- Complete migration – includes the migration of content, extensions and template/theme – $500-1500.
As to the time period needed, after you provide access details for your website, content migration will reportedly take 6-12 hours, and template conversion – 3-5 days, but take into account the time needed for result validation, payment completion, etc to estimate the approximate migration duration.
Frédéric Gilles
It’s a selection of plugins offering website migration to WordPress and WooCommerce. Due to the small number of platforms supported, this service thoroughly does its work and has lots of satisfied users. There are 5 CMS migration plugins offering data transfer from Joomla, Drupal, Magento, and SPIP CMSs.
FG Migration Plugins includes Free and Premium versions:
- The free version is a good solution for personal blogs, cause it migrates categories, media files, keywords, and some other primary content.
- If you want to migrate a professional site or a site with multiple users, the Premium version has to be bought for €39.99. For proper migration of such things as galleries, users groups and attachments, there’s need to but add-ons. Every add-on has its set price ranging from €14.99 for more basic content types to €79.99 for shops and e-commerce.
Having bought the migration plugin, you will get an e-mail with the download link. After that upload and install it on your WordPress site as an ordinary plugin. Basically, this service offer a kind of “semi-automated” migration with a great result.
Conclusion
The CMS migration services presented here offer a solution for moving to a new platform and answer certain (or all) customization needs. Depending on what is currently most important to you – speed and affordability or high level of customization combined with higher financial and time investments, you can choose CMS2CMS as the most automated service for a reasonable CMS migration cost or pick one of the companies providing custom transfer.