Create Empty Environment

An empty environment gives you the full hosting stack - PHP, database, server, and a domain - but no WordPress: no themes, plugins, or content. It's a clean slate, ideal for developers doing a custom install, as a target for restoring a backup into, or as the destination when you migrate a site from another host.

Create it

It's the same flow as a normal site, with one different choice:

1. Go to Sites → Create New Site.
2. Under Choose a starting point, select Empty Site (instead of Full Site).
3. Fill in the rest exactly like a new site: Site Name, Domain, PHP Version, Storage Limit, and Region.
4. Click Create Site.

MagicWP provisions the empty stack in the background; watch the Sites list for it to go Live.

What you get

A running environment with no WordPress installed - ready for you to:

• Restore a backup into it - see Backups.
• Migrate a site from another host into it - see Migrations.
• Install WordPress yourself over SFTP or with WP-CLI.

Using it as a migration target

An empty environment is the right destination for the migration methods that build the site themselves, because they expect a clean web root and would otherwise need you to delete a WordPress install first:

The other two methods want a working WordPress install to overwrite, so create a new site for those instead - MagicWP Migration and Migrate Guru.

Two things to get right when you create the environment for a migration:

• Storage limit: set it above the old site's total size. For Duplicator, allow room for the archive and the unpacked site at the same time. A limit smaller than the incoming data stops the copy part-way.
• PHP version: match the old site to begin with, and upgrade afterwards once you know everything works.

Whichever method you use, finish with Tools → Fix Site, then follow After the move before pointing your domain at it.