Thread:Project:Support desk/MW moving, what version?/reply

In the end you should use MediaWiki 1.18.6. The way you get there basically is the one you like most. If you do not know the host, maybe you first want to check that your old 1.18.0 system is working correctly on the new host before you do any further changes. If you know it will work correctly, you could also directly use the 1.18.6 source code on the new host. Do it as you like. :-)

And yes, do an update to 1.20 afterwards; 1.18 is no longer updated.