Moving a website to new hosting sounds risky — but done in the right order there is zero downtime, because your old site keeps running until the new one is proven. Here’s the order.

1. Don’t cancel anything yet

The golden rule. Your old hosting stays live through the whole move. It’s your safety net.

2. Copy everything

Two things make up a WordPress site: the files and the database. Both get copied to the new host — via a migration plugin, or by hand with cPanel backups. (Hosted with us? We do this part for you, free.)

3. Test the copy before anyone sees it

The new copy is checked on the new server — pages, forms, store checkout — while the world still sees your old site. Nothing is public yet.

4. Switch the domain

Once the copy is verified, your domain’s DNS is pointed at the new server. Visitors drift across over a few hours; both servers show the same site during the handover, so nobody hits a gap.

5. Move the email carefully

The step people forget. If your email lives with your old host, its mailboxes need moving too — before the switch, not after. Map this out first and no mail is lost.

6. Then cancel the old hosting

After a week of the new site running clean — not before.

Or: we just do it

Migrations to our hosting are free — files, database, email, DNS, the lot, with your old site untouched until you’ve seen the new one working. Domain transfers are free too, and hosting is $65 a year with no renewal jump.