CASE STUDY

Migrating a Membership Website from MemberPress to Paid Memberships Pro

How WaveInk migrated Lucy Howman's membership platform to a new domain, moved from MemberPress to Paid Memberships Pro, and preserved every active member, subscription, and payment gateway along the way.

Client

Lucy Howman — Coaching & Online Membership Platform

Old website:manifestingcoachblondie.com

New website:staging.lucyhowman.com(staging environment)

Project Overview

Lucy Howman wanted to move her online membership platform from MemberPress to Paid Memberships Pro (PMPro), rebrand from her original domain, manifestingcoachblondie.com, to her new domain, lucyhowman.com. The project required preserving active members, subscription data, payment gateways, and protected content without disrupting existing users.

The migration had to be completed before the MemberPress license expired, making reliability and careful planning essential. Work was carried out on a dedicated staging.lucyhowman.com environment first, so every part of the new membership setup could be tested before going live on the new brand.

The Challenge

The project involved much more than simply moving a website. Some of the key challenges included:

  • Migrating the website from manifestingcoachblondie.com to the new lucyhowman.com domain
  • Moving from MemberPress to Paid Memberships Pro
  • Preserving active membership accounts
  • Maintaining existing recurring subscriptions
  • Reconfiguring Stripe and PayPal payment gateways
  • Recreating membership protection rules
  • Ensuring members experienced no interruption in access
  • Performing all work on a private staging site without affecting the live website
  • Planning a 301 redirect strategy so existing search rankings and bookmarked member links carried over to the new domain

Our Approach

1. Website Migration

We first migrated the complete WordPress website from manifestingcoachblondie.com to the new domain while preserving:

  • Website content
  • Media library
  • Users
  • MemberPress configuration
  • Database
  • SEO-friendly URLs

A complete backup was created before any work began to ensure a safe rollback if required.

2. Staging Environment

To avoid downtime, we built the new brand out on a dedicated staging.lucyhowman.com environment, where the PMPro migration could be completed safely before deployment. This allowed all functionality to be tested before making any changes to the live, publicly indexed website.

3. MemberPress to PMPro Migration

Using the official PMPro MemberPress import add-on alongside manual configuration where required, we migrated:

  • Membership levels
  • Active members
  • Membership orders
  • Reports
  • Core membership settings

We also manually recreated configurations that could not be transferred automatically.

4. Payment Gateway Migration

Payment gateways were reconfigured to work with PMPro. This included:

  • Stripe integration
  • PayPal integration
  • Existing subscription verification
  • Payment testing

The goal was to ensure members could continue paying without needing to create new accounts.

5. Membership Protection

We recreated the membership protection system by configuring:

  • Site-wide member protection
  • Public page exclusions
  • Login pages
  • Member account pages
  • Welcome page redirects
  • Membership access permissions

6. Custom Development

During the migration we also developed custom functionality to improve the membership experience, including our own custom PMPro login redirect plugin, which added:

  • Custom login redirect rules
  • Membership-based redirects
  • Improved post-login user flow
  • Additional PMPro configuration beyond the default plugin features

Technical Work Completed

  • WordPress Website Migration
  • Domain Migration
  • MemberPress Migration
  • Paid Memberships Pro Setup
  • Active Member Migration
  • Membership Level Migration
  • Membership Order Migration
  • Stripe Configuration
  • PayPal Configuration
  • Staging Environment Setup
  • User Testing
  • Membership Protection Rules
  • Login Redirect Configuration
  • Website Testing
  • DNS Configuration
  • 301 Redirect Mapping
  • Performance Optimisation

Results

The migration successfully delivered:

  • ✅ Website moved from manifestingcoachblondie.com to the new lucyhowman.com brand
  • ✅ Active members migrated successfully
  • ✅ Membership levels transferred
  • ✅ Payment gateways configured
  • ✅ Membership protection recreated
  • ✅ Secure staging workflow on staging.lucyhowman.com
  • ✅ Improved login experience
  • ✅ Stable membership platform ready for future growth

Business Impact

By carefully planning and testing every stage of the migration on a private staging environment, the client was able to transition to a new membership platform — and a new personal brand domain — with minimal disruption, while maintaining member access and preserving the website's core functionality.

The project also provided a more flexible foundation for future membership growth through Paid Memberships Pro and custom WordPress development, and put in place a redirect strategy designed to carry over existing search visibility from the old domain to the new one.

Technologies Used

Related Case Studies

Need a Membership Website Migration?

Whether you're moving from MemberPress, WooCommerce Memberships, Restrict Content Pro, or another platform, WaveInk can help migrate your website — and your domain — while preserving your members, subscriptions, and payment gateways.

Services include:

📞 +44 7342 363191

📧 support@waveink.co.uk

🌐 http://waveink.co.uk/
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