WordPress and WooCommerce Migration Checklist

Rehearse the destination before lowering DNS TTLs, and treat orders, scheduled jobs and transactional email as part of the migration.

Evidence firstCollect current state before changing it

Rollback awareKeep a verified route back

No credentialsNever paste passwords into a public checker

Before copying data

Inventory domains, aliases, DNS records and certificate names.
Record WordPress, PHP, database, theme and plugin versions.
Map cron jobs, object cache, SMTP, payment gateways, webhooks and external storage.
Measure files, database size, traffic and the acceptable write-freeze window.

Build a staging copy

Transfer files and a consistent database copy, update environment-specific paths and prevent the staging site from sending real customer mail or accepting real payments. Validate the application through a hosts-file or temporary hostname.

Test the business path

Check login, search, product pages, cart, checkout in sandbox mode, scheduled actions, image generation, transactional email and admin tasks. A home page loading is not an acceptance test.

Prepare the cutover

Lower DNS TTL in advance, take a verified backup, schedule a final write freeze if required and record the rollback decision point. Copy the final delta before changing public DNS.

Validate after DNS changes

Check public DNS through independent resolvers, HTTP-to-HTTPS redirects, certificate SANs, canonical URLs, checkout, incoming webhooks and outgoing mail. Keep the source intact for the agreed rollback window.