Tutorials Getting started
Move a Wix or Squarespace site to Domma CMS
Copy a Wix site from its address, or upload a Squarespace export, with the free importer built into every Domma CMS site. Check what it made, rebuild what it could not bring, then move your domain.
About an hour for a small site BeginnerFree
You will do
Bring your pages, blog posts, images, documents and main menu into Domma CMS with redirects for the old addresses, then switch over when it all checks out.
You need
- Your Wix site published and public, or admin access to your Squarespace site
- A Domma CMS site, signed in as an administrator. On a site we host, ask us to switch the importer on first
- Your Wix or Squarespace plan kept running until the new site is live
Step 1: Keep a safe copy
Leave the old site exactly as it is until the new one is live and checked. Then save what the importer cannot reach:
- Wix: download your images and files from the Media Manager, and export your shop products, contacts and form submissions as CSV files.
- Squarespace: export your shop products and form submissions, and download any audio, video and files you uploaded.
Note who can change the domain's DNS and email settings.
Step 2: Switch on what the content needs
The importer puts content where it belongs, so switch on the Blog first if you have blog posts. Without it, posts become pages under /blog. You can import again later if you change your mind.
Step 3: Bring the site in
In Domma CMS, go to Tools › Maintenance › Import a site.
From Wix: in the Copy a live site card, type your site's address (for example www.example.com, or you.wixsite.com/yoursite on a free Wix address) and choose Read the site. It reads every page your sitemap lists, or every page linked from the home page if there is no sitemap, up to 500 pages, and only from that site. A small site takes a minute or two. You can stop it at any time, and nothing on your Wix site changes.
From Squarespace: in Squarespace, open your settings, find Import & Export, choose Export and pick the WordPress option. Download the file and upload it in the Upload card. The file links to your images rather than holding them: the importer downloads them from Squarespace at full size, so keep your account open until the import is done.
Any other site without an export can be copied the same way as Wix.
Step 4: Read the preview
Nothing is made yet. The preview shows every part of the site and what will happen to it:
- Pages keep their addresses where they can, and your old home page can become your home page. The page already there is kept as a draft at
/previous-home. - Blog posts with their dates, authors and descriptions.
- Media, named after its alt text, with every image in your pages pointing at the copy here.
- The menu from your home page.
- Notes on anything to look at: pages that came across with little text, addresses it could not read, and what a Squarespace export leaves out (shop products, events, audio and video, and any blog after the first).
Work through each card and change anything you want done differently.
Step 5: Run the import
Choose Run import. You can leave the page and come back. When it finishes, the report lists what was made, what was skipped and what needs rebuilding. Each run's report is kept.
Running it again is safe. It updates what it made, never duplicates it, and leaves anything you have edited since alone unless you choose Overwrite.
Step 6: Rebuild what was not copied
The importer copies content, not the design or what apps do. Work through the report and your list from step 1:
- Design: pick a theme in Content › Theme and lay out the important pages again. Wix and Squarespace layouts do not come across.
- Forms: rebuild contact forms with Forms.
- Shop: add products to the Shop from your CSV export, then set up payment, tax and shipping.
- Bookings, members and newsletters: set these up with the matching Domma CMS Tools, or keep the service you already use.
Step 7: Check every page and address
Review the important pages at desktop and phone widths, and submit every form.
Then visit the old addresses that bring you the most visitors, such as Wix's /post/my-first-post blog addresses. Each should land on the right new page. The importer adds redirects for every address that changed; add your own in SEO for any it missed.
Step 8: Switch over and keep watching
Point the domain at the new site. If Wix or Squarespace registered your domain, you can transfer it away, but domains are usually locked for 60 days after they are registered or transferred, so check before you pick a launch date.
Keep your old plan for a few weeks while the new site settles. Check for missing pages (404s) in the first weeks, and add redirects for any old addresses that still turn up.
Prefer us to do it?
We offer paid help moving Wix and Squarespace sites. We run the import, rebuild what it cannot bring across and check the redirects. We review the site and send a scoped price before any work starts.