How to Clone a WordPress Site in One Click

Last updated September 6, 2026

Cloning copies an entire WordPress site onto a different domain: the theme, the plugins, every setting, every page and every image. It rewrites the addresses inside as it goes. What you get is a second, independent site that looks and behaves exactly like the first one, on a domain of its own.

On HostCrafter, our managed WordPress hosting, it is a button on the website’s row. No export plugin, no 400 MB zip through your browser, no search-and-replace in a database dump.

How long

A minute or two

What it costs

Nothing, on a domain already on the account

Effect on the original

None. It is only read

Where

Client area → your hosting → Websites

When Cloning Is the Right Tool

• You build the same kind of site repeatedly. Set one up the way you like it (theme, plugins, settings, starter pages) and stamp out a copy for each new project instead of configuring WordPress from scratch every time.
• You are moving a site to a new domain. Clone onto the new domain, check it, then point visitors at it.
• You want a permanent second copy: a demo, a client’s review site, a version you can break without consequences.
• You are splitting one site into two. Clone it, then delete what does not belong on each side.

Clone, Staging or Migration?

Three tools in the panel copy a site, and picking the wrong one wastes an afternoon.

The short version: if you want the change to end up on the original site, use staging. If you want a second site, clone.

Before You Start

• The source has to be a WordPress install we made. A hand-made install over SFTP is deliberately left alone by the panel.
• Decide the destination domain. If it is already parked on your account with nothing on it, the clone lands there and no extra website slot is used. If it is new to the account, the copy takes a slot.
• The destination must be empty. The panel refuses to clone over a domain that already has WordPress on it, rather than overwriting somebody’s site.
• The domain can only be on one account. If it is already in use elsewhere on our platform you will be told so by name. That check is node-wide and it is there because two accounts holding one hostname produces a site that shows the previous owner’s posts and refuses the new login. That is close to impossible to diagnose from the outside.

Clone the Site

1. Open the row of the site you want to copy

   In the panel, open Websites and click the row (not a button) to expand it. Every action gets its label. Clone is the two-rectangles one.

   

2. Choose where the copy goes

   If your account has domains on it with nothing installed, they are offered first — those are the ones that cost no extra slot.

   

3. Or type a domain that is not on the account yet

   Choose A different domain… and type it. The dialog tells you how many website slots are in use, because this route spends one.

   

4. Press Copy website

   The panel copies the files, creates a database for the copy, copies the database into it, and rewrites every address inside the content from the old domain to the new one. Then it publishes the new site’s configuration and, if the source was on HTTPS, gets a certificate for the copy.

What the Clone Copies

Everything that makes the site what it is:

• WordPress core, your theme and all its customisations
• Every plugin, with its settings. This is the part that saves the afternoon
• The full database: pages, posts, products, menus, widgets, users, options
• wp-content/uploads in full — every image, at every size

The only things left behind are the caches: wp-content/cache, wp-content/uploads/cache and Divi’s et-cache. A cache is derived from the site and rebuilds itself within a request or two.

The copy also inherits the source’s PHP version, and gets a database and a Redis database of its own. The original is only read; nothing about it changes.

What Happens to HTTPS and the Links Inside the Site

WordPress stores absolute URLs (https://olddomain.com/wp-content/uploads/…) in dozens of places, so a copy that does not rewrite them serves the new domain while pulling images from the old one.

The clone rewrites them. It happens in two passes, and the second one is the one people get wrong when they do this by hand:

1. Every address is rewritten from the old domain to the new one as the copy is made.
2. If the source was on HTTPS, a certificate is requested for the copy, and once it is issued the addresses are rewritten again from http:// to https://. Skip that second pass and you get a site served over HTTPS that emits http:// links. Browsers report that as mixed content; customers report it as “the copy is broken”.

If the certificate cannot be issued yet, usually because the new domain’s DNS does not point here, the panel says so, and the copy runs on HTTP until it can. The panel’s DNS section shows the record to add.

Five Things to Check on the Copy

The clone is a faithful copy, and that is exactly why some things need your attention: they were correct for the original and are now duplicated.

1. Search engines. Two identical sites on two domains compete with each other. Decide which one is canonical. If the copy is a demo or a client preview, turn on Settings → Reading → Discourage search engines on it.
2. Plugin licences. Most commercial plugins are licensed per site and will need activating again on the new domain. The licence key came across; the activation did not.
3. Anything that sends email. Contact forms, order emails and SMTP settings all point at the original site’s address, and will keep doing so until you change them.
4. Analytics and Search Console. The copy is reporting into the original’s property. Change the measurement ID, or you will spend a month debugging traffic that is not real.
5. Payment gateways and webhooks. Stripe, PayPal and anything with a callback URL are still pointing at the original domain. On a shop, do this before the copy is public.

What a Clone Cannot Change for You

Cloning copies the site. It does not know what any of it means, so anything whose correctness depends on the domain is now inherited rather than right:

• API keys and webhooks registered against the old domain
• A sitemap already submitted to Google under the old domain
• Redirects written for the old domain’s URL structure
• Hard-coded links somebody typed into a page rather than inserting
• Anything in a plugin that stores a URL somewhere the rewrite does not reach — rare, and worth a ticket if you find one

If Something Goes Wrong

“already has WordPress on it”

The destination is not empty. The panel refuses rather than overwriting it. Delete the site that is there, from its own Danger Zone, or clone onto a different domain.

“a website cannot be cloned onto itself”

The destination you picked is the source. Choose another domain.

The domain is refused as being in use

That hostname exists elsewhere on our platform. If it is genuinely yours, open a ticket with the domain name and we can see which account holds it.

The copy is on HTTP and the original was on HTTPS

The certificate could not be issued yet, and nearly always that is DNS: the new domain does not point at us. Point it, and the certificate is issued and the links rewritten. The panel’s message names the reason.

The clone failed partway

If the destination was a new domain, the half-built site is removed and the slot is given back, so a failure does not leave you paying for wreckage. If it was a domain already on your account, the record stays and can be cloned into again.

Questions