The days of manual website imports are long gone for most people. Today, various plugins and extensions are available to import your site to another server.
This article outlines importing a website from a remote server with Softaculous.
What is Softaculous?
While plugins and extensions are a great way to customize and add features to websites, users of common hosting control panels no longer need to install anything extra on their websites to move them from one place to another.
As described on softaculous.com,
Softaculous is an auto installer for 380+ apps like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, etc. which integrates with several control panels like Webuzo, cPanel, Directadmin, Plesk, Interworx, ISPmanager and more.
https://softaculous.com/
If you use any of the above-noted control panels, check with your hosting provider to ensure Softaculous is installed.
Softaculous Remote Import Process
To import a website from a remote server is typically to migrate or move a website between hosts. Or between different servers on the same host. The remote server is where the data is pulled and is called the source server. The server that the data is moved to is called the destination server.
Important Note: This demonstration import was done using Softaculous in cPanel. If you are using another control panel or a different version of cPanel, some of the screens may look different.
In cPanel, Softaculous is in the Software section. Click the Softaculous Apps Installer button:
Starting the Remote Import
For this example, we will import a WordPress script from another server. Let’s begin!
Step one
Click on the Import Tab on the Software page in the Softaculous panel, as shown below.
Step two
Choose the From Remote Server tab on the Import page.
Step three
Fill in the domain and FTP details of the Source Installation, including the protocol, domain name, directory, and database name for the Destination Installation and click the Import button.
Source Details Explained
Domain Name: The domain name of the installation you are importing. Do not include HTTP:// or HTTPS:// or www., etc. The domain should be, e.g., yourdomain.com
Server Host: You can specify the server host if your domain name is different from your server host. An example is ftp.mydomain.com. You can usually leave this field blank because the server host will be the same as the domain name. If you aren’t sure, please open a ticket to ask.
Protocol: Choose your preferred protocol. We will use FTP for this example but recommend exploring more secure options such as SSH.
Port: The port used during the connection to the domain on the other server. The default port for FTP is port 21, and for SSH it’s 22.
Username: The username you use to connect to your server.
Password: This is the password for the user you provided above to connect to your server.
Path: The relative path to your domain on the other server. Here are some examples:
When you log in with your FTP details, if you see public_html, htdocs, or www directory, your FTP Path will be /public_html or /htdocs or /www.
When you log in with your FTP details, if you directly land in the webroot of your domain, then your FTP Path will be /
If you use an addon domain or subdomain, then provide the path.
Installation Directory: The name indicates where the imported installation will be on its current server. Keep this blank if the installation is in /public_html.
Destination Details Explained
Choose Protocol: Select the protocol (supported by your server) where the installation will be imported.
Choose Domain: The domain name of the installation that will be imported. Example: destinationdomain.com
In Directory (optional): The directory’s name where the installation will be imported. Example: dev. Keep this field blank if you want your installation imported to your root /public_html directory.
Advanced Options
Database Name: The name of the database to which you want the source installation imported. By default, Softaculous will choose a random name. You can update the randomized name before proceeding.
Step three
Now that you have filled out all the fields and selected your preferred options, you can begin your import. Click on the blue Import button.
Step four
If errors exist in the field details or selected options, the remote import with Softaculous will fail. Then you will see an error on your screen describing the issue: 
Correct any errors, and then try again.
The Import Process will continue in the background if there are no errors. Automated emails will be sent to notify you of the progress.
The status of your import will be visible when you click on the Task List icon in the Softaculous top menu bar:
You can begin using and managing the imported site once the progress bar has reached 100% complete and you see the message, Import Completed.