WordPress migration service

A migration moves your WordPress site from one host to another. We copy the site to the new host, test the copy there, and only then is the DNS changed so that visitors reach the new one. Until that change, your old site keeps serving visitors.

It is for the point where you have picked new hosting, or have to leave the old one, and want someone else to carry the site across. The service is one site and one move.

Who it is for, and who it is not

It fits when all of these are true:

• the site is WordPress now and will still be WordPress afterward
• it is moving from one hosting company to another, at the same address
• you have chosen the new hosting, or are about to
• you would rather not do the copy, the test and the switch yourself

It is a different job in these cases.

• The site is changing platform. Moving from Wix, Squarespace or Shopify to WordPress or WooCommerce, or from WooCommerce to Shopify, is a platform migration. It is a different service, quoted in writing after a free assessment of what moves by itself and what has to be rebuilt. See platform migrations.
• The site is changing its domain name. A change of domain is a different job from a move between hosts. Say so when you ask for the diagnosis, and you get a quote in writing before anything is moved.
• There are several sites, or several moves. Each is a migration of its own. Several sites together get a written quote.
• The site has to be rebuilt on the way. That is building, not moving. See custom development.

You may not need to buy this at all. Ask the host you are moving to whether it moves sites for new customers. The migration cost guide sets out what a host's free migration covers and what it leaves to you. You can also make the move yourself with how to migrate a WordPress site to a new host.

What you get

• Your site on the new host. One WordPress site moved from where it is now to where you want it.
• A copy that was tested before visitors saw it. The moved copy is tested on the new host before the DNS change.
• No switch until the copy has been tested. Your old site stays live while the copy is made and tested.
• A fixed quote first. The free diagnosis gives you a fixed quote in writing before anything is moved.
• A written quote instead, if the job is larger than one site and one move.

The price is shown on this page.

How it works

What we need from you to start

For the diagnosis, the form asks for your name, an email address for the reply, and your site's address. In the message, say:

• where the site is hosted now
• where it is going
• whether it is a store
• whether anything else is changing, such as the domain name

For the move itself:

• Access to the site where it is now, and to the new host.
• The login for wherever your domain is managed. The DNS change is made there, so have it to hand.
• The new hosting plan, bought by you. We move the site onto it.
• An answer to where your email lives. Mailboxes kept at your old host are not part of the move. Find out before you cancel the old plan.

We reply to the address you give, and we use these details to reply to you about this request and for nothing else.

What it does not cover

• More than one site, or more than one move. Each is a migration of its own. Several sites together get a written quote.
• Hosting. You buy the new hosting plan. We move the site onto it.
• Email. Mailboxes kept at your old host are not part of the move. Find out where your mail lives before you cancel the old plan.
• Rebuilding a site from another platform in WordPress. That is building, not moving. See platform migrations for a move from another platform, and custom development for other building work.

Before you buy: do it yourself, or check first

Each of these is free to use.

• How to migrate a WordPress site to a new host without downtime. The whole move: copy the files and the database, test the copy before any visitor is sent to it, then change the DNS.
• WordPress migration cost. Which of three jobs you are being quoted for, what a host's free migration covers, and what a quote should say.
• Website migration checklist. What to do before, during and after the move, and what people forget.
• How to move WordPress to a new domain. The four jobs of a domain change, if the address is changing too.
• Platform migrations. The moves between platforms we take on, and what every one of them includes.
• Moving a WordPress site or changing platform. Every page we have on the subject, in one place.

If you are not sure what your site runs on, the platform detector reads it from outside.