When to move hosting
- The site is slow and speed testing shows the server, not the pages: high time to first byte, slow admin, timeouts under normal traffic.
- Support takes days, or answers only during Kathmandu office hours when your customers are in Sydney or London.
- You are on a shared plan alongside sites that get you blacklisted or take the server down.
- Renewal arrived at three times the introductory price, which is the standard trick.
- Nobody has the credentials because the last developer registered everything in their own name. This is the most common reason clients call, and it is fixable.
- You need staging, backups or SSL that the current host does not provide.
Moving hosts fixes server speed. It does not fix a slow theme, oversized images or forty plugins; that is website speed and Core Web Vitals optimization. I will tell you which of the two your problem actually is before quoting a move.
What the service covers
- Hosting recommendation based on where your visitors are, what the site does and who maintains it, with the account in your name and your card, never mine.
- Full migration of files, database, media and email accounts where email is hosted with the site.
- DNS management. Record inventory first, TTL lowered ahead of the move, then a switch with every record accounted for, including mail records, verification records and anything pointing at a third-party tool.
- SSL issued and verified on the new host before the switch, so no visitor sees a security warning.
- Email protection. SPF, DKIM and DMARC records carried across. Broken email after a migration is the failure clients feel fastest and the one careless moves cause most often.
- Staging protection. The temporary copy blocked from search engines, and checked again after launch, because an indexed staging site duplicates your entire website.
- Post-move verification. Crawl for broken links and redirects, form test from an outside address, tracking check, speed comparison, and search engine notification.
- Rollback plan. The old host stays live and paid for at least two weeks, so if anything is wrong we go back within minutes.
How a migration runs
- Audit (day one). Current host, PHP version, database size, email arrangement, DNS records, SSL, cron jobs and anything unusual. I also confirm who owns the domain, which is not always who thinks they do.
- Choose the destination. A host that suits your traffic and audience location, bought in your name.
- Copy and test. The site restored on the new host and tested privately through a hosts-file entry, before any DNS changes. Every page, form and payment path checked there first.
- Lower TTL 24 to 48 hours before the switch, so propagation is minutes rather than a day.
- Switch at a low-traffic hour for your audience, with a final database sync so no orders or enquiries are lost between the copy and the cutover.
- Verify. Site, admin, forms, email in and out, SSL, tracking, and a crawl. Then a second check the next morning.
- Decommission. The old host kept for two weeks, then cancelled once you confirm everything is stable.
A standard WordPress site is a one-day job plus the preparation. Large stores and sites with custom applications take longer, mostly because of testing.
What you receive
- The site running on the new host, with the account, domain and credentials in your name.
- A record of every DNS entry before and after the move.
- SSL verified and auto-renewing.
- Backups configured on the new host, off-site.
- A post-migration checklist showing what was tested, with speed before and after.
- A written rollback plan, kept until you decommission the old host.
Domain and platform moves are different
Changing your hosting provider should not change a single URL, so there is no SEO risk when it is done properly. Changing the domain name, moving from HTTP to HTTPS, merging two sites or moving to a new platform does change URLs, and that needs a redirect map, a crawl of every existing URL and Search Console work. That is website migration SEO, and if you are doing both at once, do the hosting move first and the URL change second, so that if rankings move you know which change caused it. A rebuild that changes both is scoped as a website redesign.
Pricing pointer
Migrations are fixed-price, quoted after the audit and scoped by site size, email complexity and whether the move includes a platform change. The price is on request. The new hosting plan is bought by you at cost, in your own account, which also means you can leave me at any time without losing your website.
Next step
Tell me your current host, whether your email is on the same server, and what is going wrong. I reply within 4 business hours with whether a move will actually help and a fixed quote if it will. Ongoing care after the move is WordPress maintenance and care plans.