Question & answer

How do you move your website to another host?

The short answer

Easier than you think: many providers migrate your site for free when you become a customer. DIY also works: copy files and database, test everything on the new server, and only then point your domain over. Your site never needs to go offline.

The fear of migration hassle is exactly what providers with steep renewal prices count on. In reality, a move is a routine job. Many hosts offer free migration: you hand over the credentials of your old environment and their team moves everything. Hostinger and the managed WordPress hosts treat it as standard service, and migration plugins make WordPress moves nearly automatic.

Doing it yourself follows one recipe: copy your files and export the database, load both onto the new hosting, test the site there via a temporary address, and only then switch your domain's DNS to the new server. Because the old site keeps running until the DNS change lands, visitors notice nothing.

Plan the move a month before your renewal date; that gives you calm and avoids paying another year at renewal rates. Email does not move automatically with the site; arrange your mailboxes separately or pick a provider that migrates those too.

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