So yeah, I finally ditched WordPress on one of my side projects and moved it over to Joomla 5. Been meaning to do it for months, mostly out of frustration with Gutenberg and plugin bloat. I’d read a few how-to guides (like that ScalaHosting one), but honestly, most of them feel like they were written by people who haven’t touched a live site in years.
Here’s how I actually did it — not theory, just what worked (and didn’t).
Step 1: Prep — WordPress backup + Joomla fresh install
Backed up everything from the WP site — used All-in-One WP Migration just in case. Then spun up a fresh Joomla 5 install on the same server, different folder for now.
Didn’t install any fancy templates yet. Just Cassiopeia and the basics to keep things clean while migrating.
Step 2: Getting the content out of WordPress
Used the built-in WordPress export tool under Tools → Export. Picked “All content.” That gave me an XML file — kinda useless on its own, but necessary.
Also exported the media folder manually via FTP because I knew WordPress wasn’t gonna handle images well.
Step 3: Importing into Joomla — this part sucked
Tried JConverter first… nope. Didn’t work on Joomla 5 (only 3.x). So I spun up a quick Joomla 3 instance locally just to use it, installed JConverter, pointed it at a copy of my WP database, and let it pull in posts, categories, and users.
Then exported that Joomla 3 database and imported it into the Joomla 5 site after upgrading. Had to manually move the images and reassign some article categories.
Step 4: Fixing links, menus, and images
Internal links were a mess. WordPress uses different slug formats, so I had to go into each article in Joomla and update links manually (yeah, painful). Also, images didn’t always map correctly. Some were fine, some pointed to old WP URLs.
Rebuilt all the menus by hand in Joomla. Honestly not hard, just tedious.
Step 5: SEO + final polish
Had to redo all meta titles and descriptions, since Joomla and WP structure them differently. Installed an SEO plugin to help me manage that. Also tweaked article aliases and made sure redirects were in place.
Once everything looked stable, I deleted the old WP folder and made Joomla live.
Final thoughts?
Totally doable — just expect it to be more manual than advertised. If you're hoping for some magical “one-click migration,” nah. But if you’re comfortable editing database stuff and poking around in backend settings, it’s manageable.
Would I do it again? Yeah, but I’d probably start from scratch next time unless the content is really worth saving.
Step-by-step: migrate WordPress content into Joomla 5 (inspired by ScalaHosting)
-
orodriguez
- Posts in topic: 1
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 2 weeks ago
-
sophia-williams
- Posts in topic: 1
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 2 weeks ago
Thanks for writing all that out its honestly helpful. I’ve been sitting on a WP-to-Joomla migration myself for months, mostly cause everything I read feels like it skips over all the actual work. Like yeah cool, "just export and import," sure... but no one talks about all the breakage in between.
One thing I’m stuck on though how did you actually convert the articles from the WordPress XML into Joomla format? Like, did JConverter handle the full article content with images and formatting, or did you still have to clean stuff manually? I’ve seen some people say it messes up paragraph spacing or strips out stuff like blockquotes and code.
Just wondering how messy that part got for you, cause I’ve got like 200+ posts and I really don’t want fix all that by hand..
One thing I’m stuck on though how did you actually convert the articles from the WordPress XML into Joomla format? Like, did JConverter handle the full article content with images and formatting, or did you still have to clean stuff manually? I’ve seen some people say it messes up paragraph spacing or strips out stuff like blockquotes and code.
Just wondering how messy that part got for you, cause I’ve got like 200+ posts and I really don’t want fix all that by hand..
Switching from WordPress to Joomla: How I Actually Did It.
How to Move a WordPress Site Over to Joomla:
This guide walks you through migrating a WordPress site into Joomla. It works with most WordPress versions up to 5 and is built around Joomla 3-4. If you’re going the other way, we’ve also got a separate guide on moving from Joomla to WordPress.
Before you jump in, here’s what you should know:
Categories do get imported, but Joomla won’t link posts or pages to them. That’s because WordPress allows a post to have multiple categories, while Joomla only supports one.
All WordPress categories and sub-categories will just show up as plain categories in Joomla — no nesting or hierarchy is preserved.
Passwords won’t work by default. WordPress encrypts passwords using phpass, while Joomla uses MD5. To avoid issues, you can install the MD5 Password Hashes plugin in WordPress before you run the import:
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/md ... rd-hashes/
This process imports your database only — so images and files won’t come along for the ride. You’ll need to move those manually.
If you want to bring over comments, make sure the JComments extension is installed in Joomla first. It’ll hook into the import process.
Step 1: Set Up Joomla and Install JConverter
Start by installing a clean copy of Joomla — no sample content.
Then download the JConverter extension (you can find it on the Joomla Extensions Directory). Install it like any other extension.
Step 2: Grab Your WordPress Database Info
Head over to your WordPress root folder and open wp-config.php. You’ll need to copy these values:
Database name
Database username
Database password
Database host
Table prefix (usually wp_, but always double check)
Step 3: Configure JConverter in Joomla
In your Joomla admin panel, go to:
nginx
Copy
Edit
Extensions → JConverter → Configuration
Paste in the WordPress DB info from the previous step. Scroll down a bit to the Import Options section and set your preferences for what content to bring over (posts, pages, users, etc).
Step 4: Run the Import
Once everything’s filled in, click Save, then hit Start Conversion.
JConverter will now pull in the data and show a status report of what it imported — articles, categories, users, and so on.
Step 5: Review the Results
Hop over to your Joomla backend and check:
Content → Articles
Content → Categories
Users
Make sure everything looks right. You’ll probably need to do a bit of cleanup, like relinking images, fixing aliases, or adjusting menus — but the core data should be there.
How to Move a WordPress Site Over to Joomla:
This guide walks you through migrating a WordPress site into Joomla. It works with most WordPress versions up to 5 and is built around Joomla 3-4. If you’re going the other way, we’ve also got a separate guide on moving from Joomla to WordPress.
Before you jump in, here’s what you should know:
Categories do get imported, but Joomla won’t link posts or pages to them. That’s because WordPress allows a post to have multiple categories, while Joomla only supports one.
All WordPress categories and sub-categories will just show up as plain categories in Joomla — no nesting or hierarchy is preserved.
Passwords won’t work by default. WordPress encrypts passwords using phpass, while Joomla uses MD5. To avoid issues, you can install the MD5 Password Hashes plugin in WordPress before you run the import:
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/md ... rd-hashes/
This process imports your database only — so images and files won’t come along for the ride. You’ll need to move those manually.
If you want to bring over comments, make sure the JComments extension is installed in Joomla first. It’ll hook into the import process.
Step 1: Set Up Joomla and Install JConverter
Start by installing a clean copy of Joomla — no sample content.
Then download the JConverter extension (you can find it on the Joomla Extensions Directory). Install it like any other extension.
Step 2: Grab Your WordPress Database Info
Head over to your WordPress root folder and open wp-config.php. You’ll need to copy these values:
Database name
Database username
Database password
Database host
Table prefix (usually wp_, but always double check)
Step 3: Configure JConverter in Joomla
In your Joomla admin panel, go to:
nginx
Copy
Edit
Extensions → JConverter → Configuration
Paste in the WordPress DB info from the previous step. Scroll down a bit to the Import Options section and set your preferences for what content to bring over (posts, pages, users, etc).
Step 4: Run the Import
Once everything’s filled in, click Save, then hit Start Conversion.
JConverter will now pull in the data and show a status report of what it imported — articles, categories, users, and so on.
Step 5: Review the Results
Hop over to your Joomla backend and check:
Content → Articles
Content → Categories
Users
Make sure everything looks right. You’ll probably need to do a bit of cleanup, like relinking images, fixing aliases, or adjusting menus — but the core data should be there.
