Moving off WordPress.com means exporting your content, installing self-hosted WordPress, importing the export file, then pointing your domain at the new host. Your WordPress.com site keeps working the whole time, so there's no downtime window to plan around until you actually flip DNS.
The big shift isn't technical. It's structural: WordPress.com controls your hosting, your plugin choices, and often your theme. Self-hosted WordPress hands all of that to you; it also means you're now responsible for updates, backups, and security that WordPress.com used to handle invisibly.
Step 1: export your content
From your WordPress.com dashboard, go to Tools → Export. Choose "All content" to get posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags in one XML file. Download it and keep it somewhere safe. You'll need it in a few minutes.
If you're on a paid WordPress.com plan with media in the WordPress.com CDN, check that image URLs in the export still resolve after you cancel the plan. Downloading your media library separately (via Tools → Export → Media if available on your plan, or manually) avoids broken images down the road.
Step 2: install WordPress on your new host
On a Flashcloud account, open the WordPress tile in the portal and run the installer against your domain. This gives you a clean WordPress install with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin pre-configured and a Redis object cache already wired up, the same caching stack described in My WordPress site is slow. You're not starting from a bare LAMP stack and bolting on performance later; it's there from install.
Set your admin username and password during install and note them. You'll need to log in to wp-admin immediately to import content.
Step 3: import your content
In your new self-hosted install, go to Tools → Import and run the WordPress importer (install it from the prompt if it's not already active). Upload the XML file from Step 1. WordPress will ask you to map authors and whether to download and import file attachments; say yes to attachments so images come across with the posts.
Large media libraries can time out mid-import on some hosts. If that happens, re-run the import. WordPress's importer skips items it already created, so re-running just picks up where it stopped.
Once the import finishes, check a sample of posts for:
- Broken internal links (WordPress.com URLs that pointed to your old domain structure)
- Missing featured images (common if the export didn't include media)
- Shortcodes that only worked with WordPress.com-specific plugins (some jetpack-style embeds won't render on self-hosted without the equivalent plugin)
Step 4: rebuild what WordPress.com did automatically
WordPress.com bundles things you'll need to replace with plugins:
- Stats: install Jetpack (free tier) or use a lighter analytics plugin if you don't need the full Jetpack suite.
- Contact forms: WPForms, Contact Form 7, or similar.
- Spam protection: Akismet works the same way self-hosted as it did on WordPress.com.
- SEO: WordPress.com's built-in SEO tools go away. Yoast SEO or Rank Math cover that gap and give you more control than WordPress.com did.
Resist the urge to install everything at once. Add plugins one at a time and confirm the site still loads fast, since plugin bloat is the most common cause of a slow WordPress site, and you're building your plugin list from scratch here.
Step 5: work on the block editor, add plugins only when you need them
If your WordPress.com site already used the block editor (Gutenberg), your content will translate directly. Headings, paragraphs, images, and most core blocks import cleanly with no rebuilding. Stick with core blocks and a solid theme for as long as they cover what you need. Reach for a page builder plugin (Elementor, Divi) only when you hit something core blocks genuinely can't do; they add real capability but also add plugin surface area to maintain.
Step 6: test on staging before you go live
Before pointing your domain at the new host, use WordPress staging to verify the imported site end to end: check the homepage, a handful of posts, any forms, and navigation menus. This is also the moment to confirm your theme renders correctly. WordPress.com's default themes don't always have a self-hosted equivalent, so you may need to pick a comparable theme and rebuild menu assignments and widget areas.
Step 7: point your domain at the new host
Once you're satisfied the imported site is correct, update your DNS. If you're only moving hosting and keeping your domain registered elsewhere, update your DNS records in Services → your hosting → DNS Zone Editor. If you register or transfer the domain to Flashcloud, nameservers are edited under Domains → DNS (up to 5 nameservers); DNS records still live in the service-side Zone Editor.
SSL is handled automatically once DNS resolves to the new server. A free Let's Encrypt certificate issues within a few minutes and renews on its own after that, so there's no certificate step to do by hand.
Keep your WordPress.com site active for a few days after cutover as a fallback. DNS propagation isn't instant for every visitor, and having the old site reachable gives you a safety net if something needs fixing on the new install.
Set up backups before you forget
WordPress.com handled backups for you. See Backing up your WordPress site for the full picture, including when to add a plugin-level backup like UpdraftPlus on top of what's already running.
When to contact support
If the importer times out repeatedly on a large media library, if internal links need bulk rewriting after the domain change, or if a WordPress.com-specific shortcode won't render and you're not sure what replaces it, open a ticket from the portal. Support is real people, via ticket or live chat, and can help untangle migration-specific issues that don't have a single clean fix.