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Website migration services

WordPress move
$199 USD flat
With a yearly plan
Free
Covers
One site, same domain, a host you own
Other moves
Quoted at $125 an hour

Website migration services move a site to a new host in a fixed order: a full backup, the copy tested and compared on the new host, then the domain switched and a week of checks. A like-for-like WordPress move is $199 USD flat, free with any yearly maintenance plan; other moves are quoted at $125 an hour.

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Changing hosts should change nothing your visitors can see: the same pages at the same address, and the same forms delivering to the same inbox. Our website migration services work to that standard for WordPress sites in the United States and Canada moving to a host you own, including sites left behind by an agency that hosted them and has moved on.

A WordPress migration in six steps

A like-for-like move follows one order of work, the same every time, whether you pay the $199 or get it free with a yearly maintenance plan. Your visitors stay on the old host until step 5.

  1. A full backup is taken first

    Files and database are copied before anything else happens, so there is a complete version to return to, whatever the move turns up.

  2. The site is copied to your new host

    Everything goes across to a hosting account in your name, while the old copy keeps serving visitors.

  3. The copy is tested on the new host

    Pages, logins, and forms are tried there before your domain points to it, so faults turn up while visitors are still on the old host.

  4. Key pages are compared, old against new

    The same pages are captured on both hosts and checked against each other, and the switch waits until they agree.

  5. Your domain is pointed at the new host

    The DNS records, which tell browsers which server answers for your address, are changed, and visitors move across as the change spreads.

  6. The site is checked for a week

    It is looked over again through the week after the switch, for the faults that only show once real visitors and real messages arrive.

What your visitors see on the day of the switch

The switch is the only moment a visitor could notice the move, and the DNS change reaches people gradually: for a while some land on the old copy and some on the new one, depending on when their connection last looked up your address. Both copies show the same pages, which is what the comparison before the switch is for.

That overlap is why your old hosting account should stay open until the week of checks is over: it keeps serving the visitors who still reach it, and it is a working copy to fall back on. On a store, the overlap also means an order could land on either copy, which is why a store taking orders is one of the moves quoted separately.

Moves the flat price does not cover

Each of these adds work beyond the flat price, so it is quoted after the free website health check, at $125 an hour.

  • Email mailboxes: if they live on the old hosting account, they must move before it closes, or the mail in them can be lost
  • A store taking orders: checkout is paused or the move timed around it, so no order is left behind on the old copy
  • A very large site: more files and a bigger database take longer to copy and compare, so it is priced on the hours
  • A new domain name: every old address needs a permanent redirect, and search visibility can shift for some weeks
  • A change of platform: Wix to WordPress, for example, means rebuilding the pages, because Wix does not export a site whole
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What to have ready before the move

A like-for-like move needs four things from your side before it starts.

  • The old host's logins

    Or, if an agency hosted the site and has moved on, a full copy of its files and database from them.

  • A new hosting account

    In your name and paid by you, the same as the domain.

  • Access to your DNS

    Wherever your domain's records are managed, which may be the company you bought the domain from.

  • Where your email lives

    So that mailboxes on the old hosting account are not closed with it by accident.

When a move is the first job on a plan

Sometimes the reason to move is the maintenance itself. The full WordPress maintenance method needs a level of access to the server that some budget hosts do not give, and moving to a host that does is one of the two ways a plan can start; the other is a lighter method, where your host allows it.

Choosing the move changes neither the six steps nor the price: $199 on a monthly plan, and nothing on a yearly one.

Questions about website migration services

My new host offers a free migration. Do I still need a migration service?

Maybe not. Some hosts move a site free when you sign up, either with their own staff or with a plugin, an add-on you install in WordPress and run yourself, and for a simple site that can be enough. Ask whether their move includes pointing your domain at the new host and checking the site afterwards; ours includes both.

How long does a WordPress migration take?

No fixed turnaround is promised, because copying and testing take as long as the site's size demands. What is fixed is the order: the domain is switched only after the copy on the new host has passed its tests, and the week of checks runs from the switch.

Will moving hosts affect my search rankings?

A like-for-like move keeps every page at the same address, so search engines only have to get used to a new server. Google's own guidance treats a short dip in how often it crawls a site after a host change as normal, followed by a recovery. A new domain name is a different job: it needs a redirect for every old address and is quoted separately.

What if something breaks after the move?

The week of checks after the switch exists to find it: a contact form that stops sending, an image that did not come across, or an SSL certificate, the credential a browser needs to open the site over https, that was not issued on the new host. And the full backup taken before the move means the site can be put back as it was.

Will moving to a new host make my site faster?

Only as much as the new server is faster. A like-for-like move copies the site as it is, so its pages, images, and settings are unchanged; what changes is the server answering for them. If speed is the reason for the move, the free website health check notes how long your main pages take to load now.

  • WordPress maintenance

    Core, plugin, and theme updates done in order: export first, try it on a staging copy where your host has one, compare key pages, then go live.

  • Website maintenance plans

    Three plans at published prices, $99 to $349 a month, each listed with what it holds and what it leaves out.

  • Website support

    Help when something is wrong or needs changing, drawn from your plan's edit hours or billed at $125 an hour.

See where your site stands

Send your site's address and we will look it over from the outside, free, and email you a written report.

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