Migrating entire site from V2 to Open Source - how?

Question

We have an EE site built on v2.10.1 and it’s creaking at the seams. The site was designed and developed by an external agency about 4 years ago before my time began here. I am a Wordpress veteran, but before we make the decision to move over to Wordpress, we have been considering re-building the site on the new EE open source platform.

I guess my question to you all is, what is the process of migrating the content from an old version to the new open source. Are there any drawbacks? - or is it just an EE install on a new server and copy the content over?

Your comments, advice would be greatly appreciated.

regards Naomi -

Answer 1

In summary it is a bit more complex than just copying over the data - there have been some changes in how EE operates internally that require your data to be updated to operate on the latest EE versions. Also the way in which add-ons to EE work changed significantly with EE3, and so it is possible that you will need to change / update some of these too if your site uses any.

The process is certainly doable, and many EE2 sites are making the shift to EE5 now that it is open source. The change is almost certainly going to take less effort than rebuilding the site in Wordpress, plus EE5 is a really nice product (faster, more features, easier to use) so your site on EE5 will be alot better than it is on EE2.

There are some suggestions about what you need to do here.

If you have specific questions that go beyond what is covered there, just add them in here as replies and I am sure you will get helpful guidance from the community. But as the linked answer points out, the updating process is one that it might make sense to subcontract to someone who has done it before... :)

HTH