How to move your website to a new host without downtime

Moving hosts sounds scary — people picture their site vanishing mid-move. It needn't. The trick is simple: set everything up on the new host first, test it thoroughly, and only switch the address over once it's working. Done in that order, visitors never see a gap. Here's the plan.

1. Take a full backup

Before touching anything, back up your whole site from the old host — all the files and, if you have one, the database. Keep a copy on your own computer. This is your safety net; you won't need it if the move goes smoothly, and you'll be very glad of it if it doesn't.

2. Set the site up on the new host

Upload your files and import the database to the new host while your live site carries on untouched on the old one. Recreate your email accounts too. Nothing is pointing at the new host yet, so you're working in private.

3. Test before you switch

Preview the site on the new host (most hosts give you a temporary URL or you can use a local hosts file entry) and click through it properly: pages, forms, images, checkout if you have one. Fix anything broken now, while the old site is still serving real visitors.

4. Lower your DNS TTL (a day ahead)

DNS records have a “TTL” — how long they're cached around the internet. A day before the switch, drop it to something short (say 300 seconds). That way, when you change the records, the world picks up the change in minutes instead of hours. (Curious what TTL and the other records are? See our email/DNS guide.)

5. Point the domain at the new host

Update your domain's DNS (usually the A record, or the nameservers) to the new host. Because both hosts now hold a working copy, even as the change propagates every visitor lands on a functioning site — some on the old, some on the new — with no downtime in between.

6. Keep the old host running for a week

Don't cancel the old account the moment you switch. Leave it live for a week or so until you're certain all traffic and email have moved across and everything's stable. Then, and only then, close it down.

Don't fancy doing it yourself?

Migrations are fiddly, and the riskiest bit — getting DNS and email exactly right — is exactly where a good host earns its keep. Centaur will move your site and domain in for you, set up SSL and email on the new server, and handle the switchover so you don't have to. And because we don't lock you in, you could move away again later just as easily — which is rather the point. Want to sanity-check your current setup first? Try the SSL & uptime checker.