# How to Migrate Your Website to a New Host (Without Downtime)
There are many reasons to move your website to a new web host. You might be seeking better performance, more responsive support, or a more affordable price. Whatever the reason, the migration process itself can seem terrifying. The fear of breaking your site or suffering hours of downtime stops many people from upgrading to a better host.
But it doesn’t have to be scary. With a clear plan and a bit of preparation, you can move your entire website to a new host with zero downtime. This guide will walk you through the professional, step-by-step process to ensure a smooth and successful migration.
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## Step 1: Choose Your New Host (But Don’t Cancel the Old One!)
First, select and purchase a hosting plan from your new provider. This is the most important rule of a zero-downtime migration: **keep your old hosting account active until the entire process is complete.** Your existing site must remain live while you work on creating a copy of it on the new server. Canceling your old account prematurely is the quickest way to guarantee downtime.
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## Step 2: The Migration – Choose Your Method
This is the core step where you copy your website’s files and database from your old host to the new one. There are three common ways to do this.
### Method A: Use Your New Host’s Free Migration Service (The Easiest Way)
Many customer-focused hosts, like **SiteGround** and **Cloudways**, offer a free or low-cost professional migration service. They understand that this is a major pain point for new customers. Usually, you just need to provide them with the login details for your old hosting account, and their expert team will handle the entire process for you. If your new host offers this, it is almost always the best, safest, and easiest option.
### Method B: Use a WordPress Plugin (The DIY WordPress Way)
If you’re using WordPress, several excellent plugins can automate the migration process. You install the plugin on your old site to create a complete package of your files and database. Then, you install a fresh copy of WordPress on your new host and use the same plugin to import the package.
* **Popular Migration Plugins:**
* **All-in-One WP Migration:** An extremely popular and straightforward plugin with a simple export/import interface.
* **Duplicator:** A powerful tool favored by developers that bundles your entire site into a couple of files for easy redeployment.
### Method C: Manual Migration (For Advanced Users)
This method provides the most control but is also the most technical and carries the highest risk if you make a mistake. It involves two parts:
1. **File Transfer:** Using an FTP client (like FileZilla), you connect to your old host and download all of your website’s files (the entire `public_html` folder) to your computer. You then connect to your new host via FTP and upload all those files.
2. **Database Transfer:** Using the `phpMyAdmin` tool in your old host’s control panel, you export your website’s database as a `.sql` file. You then go to `phpMyAdmin` on your new host, create a new database, and import that `.sql` file.
This method requires you to manually edit configuration files (like `wp-config.php` for WordPress) to connect the files to the new database. It should only be attempted if you are comfortable with FTP and database management.
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## Step 3: Preview Your Site on the New Server (Crucial Step!)
Once the migration is complete, how can you be sure the new site works before you point your domain to it? You need to preview it. Your new host will provide you with a temporary URL, but this often doesn’t work well with modern websites. The professional way is to edit your local `hosts` file.
The `hosts` file on your computer lets you manually map a domain name to a specific IP address. By adding a line like `123.45.67.89 yourdomain.com` (where `123.45.67.89` is the IP address of your *new* server), your computer will load the site from the new host, while the rest of the world still sees the site on the old host. This allows you to click through your entire site and confirm that everything (images, links, plugins) is working perfectly.
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## Step 4: Update Your DNS (The “Go Live” Moment)
Once you’ve confirmed the new site is working perfectly, it’s time for the final step. Log in to your domain registrar (the company where you bought your domain name, like GoDaddy or Namecheap) and find the DNS settings. You need to change the **Nameservers** to the ones provided by your *new* web host.
This change tells the entire internet to start getting your website’s information from the new server instead of the old one. This process is not instant and can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to fully update across the globe, a period known as DNS propagation.
Because your site is identical on both the old and new servers, visitors will seamlessly connect to whichever server their ISP sees first during this propagation window, resulting in zero downtime.
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## Step 5: Wait, Then Cancel Your Old Account
Do not rush to cancel your old hosting account. Wait at least 2-3 days after changing your nameservers to ensure DNS propagation is fully complete. Once you’re confident that all traffic is hitting the new server, you can safely log in to your old hosting account and cancel your service.
## Conclusion
Migrating a website can feel like a monumental task, but it’s a logical process. By following these steps—especially using a host’s migration service and previewing the site before changing DNS—you can move your website to a better, faster home with the confidence that your visitors will never even notice the move.