I’ve been continuing my testing of WordPress Cloning Software by taking a look at WPTwin. This product is not a plugin, as is EZ WP Cloner. This software consists of two .php scripts that you run independently of one another on two servers. The first script runs on the server where the blog that you wish to clone is located. It creates the clone.

The second script runs on the server where the clone of your blog will be located. This script installs the clone at that location.

I ran four tests on WPTwin to clone a blog from one domain on one webhost (“subject”) to four other domains on four other hosts (“targets”). Two worked perfectly, one required a minor adjustment but worked, and one failed entirely.

After looking over the documentation for the software, and for the target hosting services where the cloning didn’t work perfectly or failed, I’m convinced the fault is not with the software or scripts. I don’t believe the programmers could possibly have tested the software at every hosting service on the planet. I do think, though, that if they are made aware of the failures, they may be able to make adjustments.

The subject blog is hosted on Bluehost. The target hosts were Hostgator, Hostmonster, Lunarpages and Bullfrog. The failure involved Bullfrog, which uses security measures to prevent the running of certain types of scripts. The script’s error page did actually offer two possible solutions, one of which is a risky workaround and the other involving asking the hosting service to configure their servers to allow the script. I did not do either.

The cloning attempt at Lunarpages resulted in an initial error which I corrected, as suggested by the software itself, by creating a simple .htaccess file (the exact code was provided on the error report) and uploading it to the folder. It took all of 2 minutes, and the clone took perfectly.

Hostgator and Hostmonster presented no problems at all. The entire process took an average of about 20 minutes. Most of the time involved the downloading and uploading of the clone file from the subject host to the target host, and the few minutes it took to create a WordPress installation at the target host, which is required for everything to work.

It should be noted that the blog I cloned was not large or complex. The clone file that had to be downloaded and uploaded was about 25MB in size. A very large blog, with hundreds of posts, comments, categories, pages, plugins, video and audio files, etc. would be much larger, and it would therefore take much longer to complete the cloning.

The video below is a quick runthrough of the basic process using Hostgator as the target host for the clone. It was my second attempt at cloning, done on-the-fly after the first attempt failed at Bullfrog.

So far I’ve only tested these two WordPress Cloning Software products, and WPTwin is clearly the one I would recommend at this point. You can review it for yourself by visiting the WPTwin Website.

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