Moving away from Bluehost, including transferring domain to WordPress
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Hi I’m in a bit of a pickle with my blog. When I started, I didn’t really know what I was doing and just followed some advice from a few websites. Basically, it turns out that I am paying for hosting from Bluehost but still using wordpress.com ! I want to cancel the hosting as it’s a waste of money and I want to transfer my domain away from Bluehost to WordPress so simplify things. I don’t want to lose any content from my blog so is there any way to do this safely?
Thank you and I really appreciate any advice given,
MilenkaThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there,
Is this for your site, http://www.millieonhearts.com? That site is not using WordPress.com. The Jetpack plugin you have installed on that site allows you to manage it via WordPress.com and adds some WordPress.com features to that site, but that site is built using a different version of the WordPress software and is run entirely on Bluehost’s servers. So you are actually getting what you’re paying them for.
Of course you are welcome to move your site to us, but be aware that you’ll not be able to use the same theme with us as you are using there, and it’s not possible to use any plugins on WordPress.com. We also have some other restrictions on the types of changes you can make to your site here.
You’ll need to create a new free site here, move all your content and subscribers over, and then map your domain so us as part of a paid plan. It’s not possible at the moment to transfer the domain over to us completely, so you’ll need to leave the domain at Bluehost.
Moving from a Self-Hosted WordPress to WordPress.com
Let me know if any of this is unclear or if you have any further questions.
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Hello!
I am paying for hosting from Bluehost but still using wordpress.com
I don’t see that your above site at millieonhearts.com hosted here. It is using the standalone WP software and hosted at BlueHost.
It’s possible that you connected your standalone WP site to WordPressdotcom through the Jetpack plugin which does require having a WordPressdotcom account.
If you want to move your standalone WP site over to WPcom, you can, but you would not be able to use the theme you are using (activello). Also, you would need to keep your domain name with your current registrar, as WordPressdotcom does not accept incoming domain transfer at this time.
Here’s a support doc that explains a bit more about the differences between WordPressdotcom (where we are) and the standalone WP software: https://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
I don’t know if I’ve answered all your questions, but I hope that helps to clarify things a bit. Let us know if you need more help with anything.
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Thank you both for getting back to me and clarifying things! So jetpack essentially allows you to blog from a web browser rather than downloading the .org software? Also, just one more question: Is there a big difference between the .com Premium version and the .org one? As in, would I be allowed to use a custom theme (not necessarily the same one) and other features if I moved the blog over to wordpressdotcom and paid for the premium service? I’m just not too keen on bluehost and being told that my blog and it’s content will be deleted if is stop paying for my subscription! Apologies for all the questions and again, I really appreciate your support!
Thank you,
Milenka -
So jetpack essentially allows you to blog from a web browser rather than downloading the .org software?
No. The WordPress.org software is what your site is built with. This isn’t software that runs on your computer. It runs on Bluehost’s servers. Without that software you don’t have a site.
What Jetpack does is allow you to access your site by logging into WordPress.com, instead of needing to log in to the WP-Admin dashboard using the admin username and password you set up when you created the site with Bluehost.
Also, just one more question: Is there a big difference between the .com Premium version and the .org one? As in, would I be allowed to use a custom theme (not necessarily the same one) and other features if I moved the blog over to wordpressdotcom and paid for the premium service?
As I said above, we don’t have custom themes on WordPress.com. The ONLY themes you can use here are those listed at https://wordpress.com/themes. You can’t add other themes and you can’t build your own.
The features included in Premium are the ones listed at https://wordpress.com/pricing, and only those. There is no way to add other features if you want or need them.
I’m just not too keen on bluehost and being told that my blog and it’s content will be deleted if is stop paying for my subscription!
That makes perfect sense, but that is also why you should regularly make your own backups of your site. You hosting plan with Bluehost possibly includes backups, but those will also be deleted should your hosting with them expire. You can ask in the WordPress.org forums for suggestions on good backup plugins or methods should you decide to stay with them.
https://wordpress.org/support/
Please let me know if you have any more questions.
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Ahhhh I see! It’s starting to make sense now! Thank you so much for your help I really appreciate it! xxx
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