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Migrate from Craft CMS to VuePress

Complete guide to migrating your Craft CMS website to VuePress. Leave Craft CMS's smaller ecosystem behind and get excellent default theme for documentation sites. Free migration tool included.

20-40 minutes
Medium
100% Free
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TL;DR

You can migrate from Craft CMS to VuePress for free using LeaveWP. Enter your site URL, choose VuePress as the destination, and download your content — posts, pages, and media — in minutes. No API keys, passwords, or CLI tools required. Difficulty: Medium. Estimated time: 20-40 minutes.

Why Teams Leave Craft CMS

Developer-focused PHP CMS with elegant content modeling. Agencies building bespoke sites with complex content requirements, but these limitations push teams toward modern alternatives.

Smaller ecosystem — fewer plugins than WordPress or Drupal

This is the most common reason teams migrate away from Craft CMS. VuePress eliminates this issue entirely.

License costs for multi-user projects

With VuePress, excellent default theme for documentation sites.

Requires PHP/MySQL hosting infrastructure

Modern architectures like VuePress are designed to avoid this from the ground up.

Fewer community resources and tutorials available

After migrating, you'll no longer need to worry about this — VuePress takes a fundamentally different approach.

What VuePress Brings to the Table

Vue-powered SSG optimized for technical documentation. Built with JavaScript (Vue.js), it's technical documentation sites in the vue.js ecosystem.

Excellent default theme for documentation sites

Vue components work in Markdown files

Built-in search, sidebar navigation, and versioning

Optimized for developer documentation out of the box

VuePress is open-source and free to use. You own your code and data with no vendor lock-in. Deploy to any host that supports JavaScript, or use managed platforms like Vercel and Netlify for zero-config deployments.

Craft CMS vs VuePress at a Glance

Side-by-side comparison based on real platform characteristics

MetricCraft CMSVuePress
Ease of Use⭐⭐⭐ 3/5⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5
Performance⭐⭐⭐ 3/5⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5
Flexibility⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Cost⭐⭐ 2/5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Scalability⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Ecosystem⭐⭐ 2/5⭐⭐ 2/5
LanguagePHP (Yii framework)JavaScript (Vue.js)
PricingFree solo / $35+/mo for teamsFree (open-source)
Open SourceNoYes

Ratings are based on publicly available data, documentation, and community consensus as of 2026. Individual experience may vary.

What Gets Migrated

A detailed breakdown of how your Craft CMS content maps to VuePress

Content Types from Craft CMS

  • entries
  • categories
  • tags
  • assets
  • globals
  • matrix blocks

Technical Details

Export Method
Element API or GraphQL endpoint
Source Language
PHP (Yii framework)
Destination Format
Markdown/MDX files with frontmatter, organized by content type
URL Handling
301 redirect map generated automatically to preserve SEO equity

What may need manual attention

Custom server-side logic, third-party integrations, and platform-specific plugins will need equivalent solutions in VuePress. The core content (text, images, metadata) transfers cleanly.

How It Works

Migrate your content in three simple steps

1

Connect

Enter your Craft CMS site URL — LeaveWP connects automatically.

2

Configure

Select VuePress as destination and choose content options.

3

Export

Download your migrated content or preview it in your browser.

Is Craft CMS to VuePress the Right Move for You?

Migrating from Craft CMS to VuePress makes the most sense if you're experiencing smaller ecosystem — fewer plugins than wordpress or drupal or outgrowing Craft CMS's architecture. VuePress is best for technical documentation sites in the vue.js ecosystem.

You should migrate if: your Craft CMS site is slow, your hosting costs are climbing, you need developer flexibility, or you want to adopt a modern JAMstack architecture.

You might want to stay if: your Craft CMS site benefits from excellent content modeling — build any structure without plugins and you don't have JavaScript developers on your team.

The migration itself is straightforward with LeaveWP — enter your Craft CMS URL, select VuePress, and download your content. The more important question is whether VuePress's architecture fits your team's skills and your project's long-term needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to migrate from Craft CMS to VuePress?
Most migrations from Craft CMS complete in 20-40 minutes. We pull content via Craft CMS's Element API, then structured for VuePress. Complex sites with extensive custom fields may take longer.
Will I lose my SEO rankings when migrating from Craft CMS?
No. We help you set up proper 301 redirects from your old Craft CMS URLs to preserve search rankings. VuePress actually tends to improve Core Web Vitals scores, which can boost rankings over time.
What Craft CMS content can be migrated to VuePress?
Craft CMS content types like entries, categories, tags, assets are all migrated to VuePress. Content is converted to Markdown/MDX files or structured for your chosen headless CMS.
Do I need JavaScript experience to migrate?
No coding experience is required for the migration itself — LeaveWP handles the export and conversion automatically. However, customizing your VuePress site afterward will benefit from JavaScript (Vue.js) knowledge. For teams without that expertise, the generated code is well-structured and documented, making it approachable for developers of any level.
How much does it cost to host a VuePress site after migrating from Craft CMS?
VuePress sites can be deployed to Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or any Node.js host — often on generous free tiers. Compared to Craft CMS's Free solo / $35+/mo for teams pricing, static VuePress sites can be hosted for free on Vercel or Netlify (up to generous bandwidth limits), which is significantly cheaper than running a Craft CMS instance.
Can I migrate Craft CMS custom fields and metadata to VuePress?
Yes. Custom fields, metadata, and taxonomies from Craft CMS are preserved during migration. In VuePress, these become frontmatter fields in your Markdown/MDX files, which you can extend or restructure to fit your content model.

Related Migration Guides

Explore more migration paths from Craft CMS or to VuePress

Craft CMS to VuePress Guides

In-depth guides and tutorials to help with your migration

Ready to Migrate?

Start your free migration from Craft CMS to VuePress today.

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