Wp Import & Export Plugin vs Alternatives: Premium vs Free Lite, Manual Copying, and Other Import Tools
Moving content between WordPress sites is one of those jobs that sounds easy and turns out to be fiddly. Posts, pages, users, comments, products, orders, customers, images, and custom fields all live in different places, and moving them by hand means hours of copying, pasting, and fixing what broke. A good import-export tool turns that job into a repeatable process. The question is which tool, and whether the premium version is worth paying for.
This article compares the Wp Import & Export Plugin — by VJInfotech — with its main alternatives: the free WP Import Export Lite version, manual copy-paste, and other import tools. The comparison is fair and neutral. Each option has a place, and the right choice depends on how often you move content, how much content you move, and how much your time is worth. The premium listing here costs ৳2,500, on sale from a regular price of ৳5,000 — price may change — see the product page for the current price.
Buy Wp Import & Export Plugin: message us on WhatsApp https://wa.me/8801919052411 with the product name — bKash/Nagad accepted, activation within minutes.
What Wp Import & Export Plugin Does
First, the basics. Wp Import & Export Plugin imports and exports WordPress posts, pages, users, comments, taxonomies, custom post types, and WooCommerce data — products, orders, customers, and meta — between sites. It works with CSV, XLS, XLSX, XML, TXT, ODS, and JSON files, so you are not locked into a single spreadsheet format.
Its feature list, per the official product page, includes multiple file formats, background processing, pause, resume, and stop controls, scheduled import and export, powerful filters, drag-and-drop field mapping, an import log, and add-on-based integrations. The official documentation covers WooCommerce product import, product galleries, categories and meta, plus ACF and Polylang workflows — useful if your site uses custom fields or runs in more than one language.
The listing validity is Lifetime, with seller-assisted activation on the buyer's own site, and the private license key is never shared. That matters for buyers in Bangladesh who want the original license activated directly on their site by the WP Theme Bazar team rather than handling a key themselves. For context, the official premium plans start at $69 per year — roughly ৳8,300 per year — with yearly renewals. The ৳2,500 listing price — price may change — see the product page for the current price — is a one-time listing price, not the official yearly renewal, so compare the two on that basis and confirm the listing terms with the team before ordering.
Alternative 1: WP Import Export Lite (Free)
The most direct alternative is the free WP Import Export Lite plugin on wordpress.org, from the same maker. It covers basic import and export, and for a one-off small migration it is often enough. If you need to move a handful of posts from one site to another, once, the free version does the job without spending anything.
The difference is what the premium version adds. Premium adds scheduled imports, full WooCommerce support, and the Content Updater add-on. Those three additions change the kind of work the plugin is suited for. Scheduled imports mean the plugin can pull in new data regularly without you starting it by hand — useful for a shop that updates prices or stock from a supplier file, or a site that syncs content on a timetable. Full WooCommerce support means products, orders, customers, and their meta move properly, not just posts and pages. The Content Updater add-on covers updating existing content from a file rather than only creating new entries.
So the fair way to think about Lite versus premium is frequency and data type. One small move, posts only, once: Lite wins, because free is hard to beat. Regular moves, WooCommerce data, or scheduled updates: premium earns its price quickly. A shop owner who imports a supplier price list every week will feel the difference within the first month. A blogger who moves ten posts once will not.
There is also a middle path worth mentioning: start with Lite, and move to premium when you hit its limits. That is a sensible way to learn the workflow — field mapping, file formats, small test batches — before paying. The risk is only that you build a process around Lite and then discover mid-project that you need scheduled imports or full WooCommerce support. If you already know you will need those, starting with premium saves the rebuild.
Alternative 2: Manual Copy-Paste
Manual copying is the oldest alternative, and it is still what many small site owners do: open a post on the old site, copy the text, paste it into the new site, re-upload the images, reset the categories, and repeat. For one post, it works. For ten posts, it is tedious. For a hundred posts, or a shop with products and orders, it is not a realistic plan.
The problems with manual copying are not just time. Copying loses metadata — publish dates, authors, custom fields, product prices, stock levels, order history — unless you re-enter all of it by hand. Images pasted from one editor to another may link back to the old site rather than living on the new one. Formatting can break in the move. And every manual step is a chance for a typo or an omission that you only discover weeks later.
Manual copying also has no log, no pause and resume, and no mapping. If you stop halfway through a hundred posts, there is no record of where you stopped. If a product price changes in the source file, there is no clean way to update only that field. The plugin's import log, background processing, and drag-and-drop field mapping exist precisely to solve these problems.
That said, manual copying has one honest advantage: it forces you to look at every piece of content as you move it, which can be a useful cleanup. If you are moving a tiny site and you want to rewrite or discard half the posts anyway, copying by hand doubles as an edit. For anything larger, or anything where accuracy matters — prices, orders, customer data — the plugin is the safer choice.
Alternative 3: Other Import Tools
The WordPress ecosystem has other import and export tools, including the built-in WordPress importer, migration plugins that move whole sites, and specialised WooCommerce import tools. Each has a different strength, and the honest comparison is about fit rather than ranking.
The built-in WordPress importer handles basic post and page moves, but it is limited for WooCommerce data, custom fields, and scheduled work. Whole-site migration plugins move an entire site — files, database, everything — which is the right tool when you are changing hosts, but the wrong tool when you only want to move products or update prices from a spreadsheet. A migration plugin cannot do a weekly price update from a supplier CSV. The import-export plugin can.
Specialised WooCommerce import tools may match the plugin on product imports, but they often cover a narrower range — products only, without users, comments, taxonomies, and custom post types in the same tool. The strength of Wp Import & Export Plugin is breadth: one tool for posts, pages, users, comments, taxonomies, custom post types, and WooCommerce data, with the same mapping interface across all of them.
When comparing any alternative, ask four questions. Does it handle your data type — especially WooCommerce products, orders, and customers if you run a shop? Does it support your file format? Can it schedule or repeat the job, or is every run manual? And does it log what happened so you can check the result? A tool that fails any of those for your use case is the wrong tool, however popular it is.
The Cautions That Apply to Every Option
No import tool removes the need for care, and the product page is honest about this: results vary by source file, target schema, active extensions, server limits, and cron configuration. That applies to the premium plugin, to Lite, and to every alternative. A messy source file produces a messy import in any tool. A target site with different custom fields or a different WooCommerce setup will need its mapping checked, whatever you use.
The safety rules are the same for all options. Take a backup before a production import. Test a small batch first. Check UTF-8 encoding for Bangla content. Verify field mapping with sample rows before importing thousands of them. These steps take minutes and prevent hours of cleanup. They are not optional extras for beginners — they are how experienced users work too.
Which Option Should You Choose?
Choose Lite if your job is small, one-off, and limited to posts and pages. Choose manual copying only if the site is tiny and you want to review every post as you move it. Choose a whole-site migration tool or service if you are changing hosts rather than moving content. Choose the premium Wp Import & Export Plugin if you move WooCommerce data, if you import regularly, if you need scheduled imports, or if you need to update existing content from a file rather than only creating new entries.
For a Bangladeshi shop owner who updates products from a supplier sheet, the premium version is the natural fit. For a blogger moving a few posts to a new site once, it is overkill. The plugin is a good tool, but a good tool in the wrong job is still the wrong choice. Match the tool to the job, test a small batch first, keep a backup, and the move will go far more smoothly than a manual copy ever could.
Buy Wp Import & Export Plugin: message us on WhatsApp https://wa.me/8801919052411 with the product name — bKash/Nagad accepted, activation within minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the free Lite version enough for a small migration?
Yes, for a one-off small move of posts and pages. Premium adds scheduled imports, full WooCommerce support, and the Content Updater add-on, which matter for regular or shop data moves.
Can I use this plugin to move my whole site to a new host?
Not as a hosting migration. This plugin moves content — posts, pages, users, products, orders, and more — between sites. A full host move needs a migration service or a whole-site migration tool.
What file formats does the premium plugin support?
CSV, XLS, XLSX, XML, TXT, ODS, and JSON, covering posts, pages, users, comments, taxonomies, custom post types, and WooCommerce data.
How does the ৳2,500 listing compare with the official $69 per year price?
The official premium plans start at $69 per year, roughly ৳8,300 per year, with yearly renewals. The listing offers Lifetime validity with seller-assisted activation, so confirm the listing terms with the team before ordering.
What should I do before my first production import?
Take a backup, test a small batch, check UTF-8 encoding for Bangla content, and verify field mapping with sample rows. Results vary by source file, target schema, extensions, server limits, and cron setup.
