For anyone choosing how to import into WordPress
Two different jobs. Which one is yours?
WP All Import is the established tool for importing almost anything into WordPress: XML, CSV, Excel and Google Sheets files, from a web address or FTP, on a schedule, with add-ons for WooCommerce and ACF. Content Uploader does one job inside that world: it publishes the spreadsheet that keeps coming back, after a review of what will change.
- Jobs, not feature lists
- Plain about what Content Uploader does not do
- Use both when the job calls for it
WP All Import
Imports almost anything into WordPress.
- XML, CSV, Excel and Google Sheets files
- A file or feed from a web address or FTP
- On a schedule, if you set one up
Content Uploader
Publishes the spreadsheet that keeps coming back.
- Excel, OpenDocument and CSV files
- WordPress, WooCommerce and Joomla
- Every change reviewed before it is published
What Content Uploader does
A spreadsheet in, a review, then your site. Every time.
Content Uploader is a web service that publishes the rows of a spreadsheet as WordPress posts, pages and products, or as Joomla articles, and shows you every change before anything goes live. You set it up once, and each later file is one drop and one review.
Read it before it happens
After each file, the review lists what is new, what will change, what is unchanged and what is skipped, and for a change it shows the old value and the new one. Nothing is written until you approve it.
How the review worksThe same item, every time
A column you choose gives every row its record ID, so a later file updates the same item. A row that is missing from a file leaves its item exactly as it is.
Choosing the record IDA shop’s own numbers beside the file’s
For WooCommerce, the review reads prices and stock from the shop and shows them next to the file’s. A price that moves too far waits for your confirmation, and a clean file can publish itself.
How the review shows productsSeveral sites, several people, Joomla too
Connect more than one site, give each team member the sites they work on, and publish to Joomla 5 and 6 as well as WordPress.
Team members and their sites
Which one for which job
Pick by the job, not by a feature list.
These are the jobs people bring to tools like these two. For each one, the tool whose job it is.
| The job | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A one-off import of an XML file or feed, or of an export with a complex structure | WP All Import | It maps the file’s elements to fields with drag and drop, and uses XPath for the structure of an XML file. Content Uploader reads spreadsheets, not XML. |
| A file that has to be fetched from a web address or an FTP server, on a schedule | WP All Import | It downloads the file itself and runs imports on a schedule, with its Automatic Scheduling service or with cron jobs. With Content Uploader a person uploads each file. |
| Removing posts that are no longer in the file | WP All Import | It can send them to the trash, change their status or delete them. Content Uploader never deletes anything. |
| Updating posts that already exist on your site and were made by hand or by another tool | WP All Import | Its Match existing import type can update records that were created manually. Content Uploader matches only the items it published itself, except WooCommerce products, which it finds by their SKU. |
| A spreadsheet that comes back again and again, and that you want to read as a list of what is new, what changed and what was skipped before anything is published | Content Uploader | WP All Import can also run a saved import again with a new file. Content Uploader is built around the review: it lists each item and, for a change, the old and the new value, and nothing is written until you approve it. |
| A WooCommerce price list, where you want the shop’s own prices and stock next to the file’s before anything changes | Content Uploader | The review reads the shop and lists every difference, and a price that moves too far waits for your confirmation. |
| Articles on a Joomla site | Content Uploader | It publishes to Joomla 5 and 6 as well as to WordPress. WP All Import is a WordPress plugin. |
| Content that people who do not write code keep in a spreadsheet and publish again and again, shared in a team | Content Uploader | A workspace has a team, and each member can be given some sites and not others. |
Said plainly
What Content Uploader does not do.
So that you can tell, before you start, whether the job is yours.
It never deletes
A row that is missing from a file leaves its item alone, and removing a configuration removes nothing. If a catalogue has to lose what the file no longer lists, that is WP All Import’s job.
It does not fetch files
A person uploads each file. There is no link to Google Sheets, no web address to poll and no schedule. Automatic publishing publishes a file you uploaded; it never starts by itself.
It reads spreadsheets, not XML
Excel, OpenDocument and CSV files, and the first worksheet of a workbook. An XML file or feed is refused with the reason, and there is no XPath.
It does not take over what it did not publish
A post, page or article that already exists is not matched, so a row with the same title makes a second one. WooCommerce products are the exception: they are found by their SKU.
One configuration, one site, one content type
The same file for two sites needs two configurations.
A short list of platforms
WordPress (not multisite), WooCommerce 9.0 or later, and Joomla 5 and 6. Not Joomla 4 and older, and not a site on a private address.
Every known limitation, as the Help Center lists them.
Using both
One for the move, one for the sheet that follows.
The two do not compete for the same job, so a site can use each where it fits.
WP All Import for the move or the feed
Bringing a catalogue into WordPress from an XML export, or keeping a feed that arrives on its own in step with your site, is the job it was made for.
Content Uploader for the sheet that follows
The spreadsheet your team keeps up to date and publishes again and again, read in the review before it goes live.
One thing to plan for: to Content Uploader, a post that another tool created is a post made by hand. It is not matched, so the handover is not “take over the existing posts” but “publish the sheet’s items with Content Uploader from then on”. WooCommerce products are the exception, found by their SKU. Can I update posts I created by hand?
FAQ
Questions people ask before they choose.
Short answers, in plain words.
Is Content Uploader an add-on for WP All Import?
No. Content Uploader is a separate web service with its own account. You connect a site to it with its own plugin (WordPress) or extension (Joomla) and set up configurations in your workspace. It does not need WP All Import and does not change how it works.
Can I replace WP All Import with Content Uploader?
For a spreadsheet that comes back again and again, often yes: a person uploads each file, and you read the review before it is published. For XML files, feeds, files fetched from a web address on a schedule, removing posts that left the file, or updating posts that already exist on your site, no. Those are WP All Import’s jobs.
Does it work on Joomla?
Yes. Content Uploader publishes to Joomla 5 and 6 as articles, with their category, tags, dates, access level, images and custom fields. WP All Import is a WordPress plugin.
Will it update products WP All Import imported?
WooCommerce products, yes: a row whose SKU belongs to a product your shop already has updates that product, whoever made it, after a review that lists only what differs. Posts, pages and articles, no. Content Uploader recognises only what it published itself, so what another tool created is not matched.
If your job is the sheet that keeps coming back, try it on yours.
Create a workspace, connect a site and drop your spreadsheet. Nothing is written to your site until you approve the review.
For the other jobs, WP All Import’s own site is the place: visit WP All Import.
Content Uploader on WordPress, WooCommerce and Joomla.