How to Move Your Website to a New Host (Without Breaking It)

Moving a website to a new host takes three stages, in this order: take a full backup, stage and verify the site on the new host, then move the DNS and cancel the old host last. Done in that sequence, the site stays online throughout and most visitors never see anything change. Done out of sequence, usually by cancelling the old host too early or moving the DNS before the site is ready, it becomes an outage.

This is the whole method. The rest of this page is the detail that decides whether it goes smoothly.

Stage one: prepare, before you touch anything

You need four things saved before the move starts, and three of them are the ones people skip.

1. A full backup, files and database together. A files only copy will not bring back posts, pages, users

or settings, because that content lives in the database. Export the database as well as downloading the files, and check that both open before you rely on them.

1. A copy of your DNS records. Screenshot the zone or export it. If anything breaks after the switch,

those records are the reference that tells you what the old setup looked like.

1. A written list of every mailbox, forwarder, alias and autoresponder on the domain. This is the step

that most commonly goes wrong, and it has nothing to do with the website.

1. Login access to the current host and to the registrar. Two different logins, often forgotten, both

needed: the host for the backup and the registrar for the DNS change.

Lower the domain's TTL at the same time. TTL is how long a DNS answer is cached, and it is set in advance, not at the moment you switch. Lowering it to a short value a day before the move means the change takes effect in minutes instead of a day.

Stage two: stage the site and verify it

Set the site up on the new host while your current host is still serving visitors. Upload the files, create the database, import the database, and connect the site's configuration to it.

Then check the site on the temporary address the new host gives you. Not the homepage only. Work through the things you only find when you use the site:

• forms, and where the submissions land
• checkout or booking, if there is one
• the login area, if there is one
• images, stylesheets and scripts, which is where hard coded URLs show up
• any plugin or integration with an API key or a hard coded domain

This is also when you should look for the thing that trips up most WordPress moves: absolute URLs. Some themes and plugins store your full address in the database, so the staged copy renders with links pointing at the live site. Fix it on the staging copy before the switch, not after.

Stage three: cut over the DNS, then cancel

There are two ways to point a domain at a new host, and the right choice depends on what else the domain does.

Change the nameservers. The simplest option, and the right one if the domain has no other services you want to leave in place. All DNS moves to the new host, so the website records and the email records sit in one place from then on.

Change the individual records. Keep DNS where it is and point only the website records at the new host. This is what you want if your email is staying with the current provider: leave the MX records alone, add an A record for the root domain and a CNAME for www, and the website moves without mail being touched. Both methods are walked through in our guide to pointing a domain at your hosting.

After the DNS change, verify on the live domain: the site loads, the certificate is valid, a test email arrives, and a form submission reaches you. Only then cancel the old host.

Cancelling early is the one mistake that turns a routine migration into an outage. Once the old account is gone, the backup you were relying on is gone with it, and any problem you find becomes a rebuild rather than a rollback.

The five things that break migrations

1. TTL was not lowered in advance. The switch takes a day instead of minutes, and different visitors see

different versions of the site while it settles.

1. Email was forgotten entirely. The website moved and the mailboxes did not. Addresses that do not exist

on the new host start bouncing as soon as the MX records move.

1. SSL and mixed content warnings after cutover. The certificate has to be issued for the domain on the

new host, and any resource still loaded over plain HTTP produces a browser warning that visitors see first.

1. Absolute URLs still pointing at the old domain. Broken images, broken links and a marketplace plugin

that no longer talks to its API.

1. The old host was cancelled before the new site was verified. See above. It is the expensive one.

The email section, because this is where migrations actually fail

Website files are the visible half of a migration. Mail is the half that produces angry phone calls.

Set up the mailboxes on the new host before you touch the MX records. That single ordering rule is what prevents lost mail: mail sent during the cutover is delivered to whichever server the records point at, and if the mailboxes already exist on the new server, nothing bounces. Our guide to creating a mailbox covers quotas, forwarders and autoresponders.

Then handle the parts that are not mail at all. Calendars and contacts are separate from email and are routinely forgotten. Shared mailboxes, distribution lists, signatures, and any mailbox that was set to forward elsewhere all have to be recreated, and none of them migrate with the messages. Our article on migrating email to a new host covers the sequence and the pre-cutover checklist in full.

If your email is staying with your current provider, do not change MX at all. The website moves on the A record and mail carries on being delivered exactly as it is now.

What to check before you call it done

• The site loads on the live domain, on both the root and www.
• The certificate is valid and the padlock shows.
• A test email is sent to and from at least one mailbox.
• A form submission arrives where it should.
• The database is connected and the site can save a change.
• The nameservers or records have propagated from a network other than your own, such as a phone on mobile data.
• The old host has been paid up to the end of the month, just in case.

Frequently asked questions

Will my site go offline during the move? Not if the site is staged and verified before the DNS change. The old host keeps serving visitors until then. Any downtime after that comes from a problem found after the switch rather than the switch itself.

How long does a migration take? Staging is as long as the upload and database import take, which depends on the size of the site. The DNS change itself takes a few hours in most cases, and up to 48 hours at worst. Lowering the TTL in advance makes it closer to a few minutes.

Can I migrate a WordPress site without a plugin? Yes. Files plus a database export is enough, and it is the most reliable method. A migration plugin can speed up the copy, but it does not remove the need for the backup or the need to check the staged site.

Will my Google rankings drop? A well executed move, keeping the same URLs and taking a backup, is not normally visible in search. Cancelling the old host early, letting the domain lapse, or changing the site's URLs during the move will be.

Do I need to move my domain registrar at the same time? No. Hosting and registration are separate, and doing both at once makes it harder to work out which change caused a problem. Move the hosting first, settle it, then consider the registrar.

What if I get it wrong? Restore from the backup you took in stage one. That is the reason stage one exists, and it is why cancelling the old host is the last step rather than the first.

Doing it with us

The three stages above are the sequence we work to, and our migration page sets out what we can do with you, from advice on whether your current setup will move cleanly through to helping with the DNS and mail settings. If you would rather start from the plan your site needs, our Australian cPanel hosting plans start at $55.00 per month and every one of them includes unlimited mailboxes, hourly backups and a free SSL certificate, which is most of what a migration needs.

All prices shown exclude GST. Prices are in AUD.

Migration to us is included at no cost when you commit to at least twelve months of hosting. If you would rather not run the cutover yourself and you are hosting with us for a minimum of twelve months, our team will move the site for you at no cost. Tell us what you are running and we will confirm what the move involves before it starts.