Migrate your website to VirtualCloud

Pick a website migration method

Option 1: Let our engineers move it, free

Free migration covers unlimited cPanel-to-cPanel sites on web, WordPress and reseller hosting, and one site or server with a VPS. Fill in the migration request form with your domains, the old host and roughly what's moving. We open a ticket and confirm the scope there.

• Access is arranged on the ticket, never by email or chat. A fresh cPanel backup you upload, or a temporary login you remove afterwards, keeps your main password private.
• Timing: one cPanel site within 24 hours, up to ten within 48 hours, larger or non-cPanel moves in a window agreed with you. The clock starts once access works.
• Tested before DNS moves: we check the copy on a temporary URL, you check it too, and the domain switches only when you say go.

Option 2: Move a cPanel account with a backup

A full cPanel backup contains everything: files, databases, mail, DNS zones and settings. Restoring a full backup needs WHM access, so on shared hosting you restore a cPanel backup in parts, or upload it and let us restore it in one go.

1. Download the backups from the old host

   In the old cPanel, open FilesBackup. Under Partial Backups, download the Home Directory, each MySQL database, and the Email Forwarders and Email Filters. Want us to do the restore? Choose Download a Full Account Backup instead and wait for the email saying it's ready.

2. Restore them in your new cPanel

   Open cPanelFilesBackup on VirtualCloud and use the matching Restore buttons: home directory first, then each database, then forwarders and filters. The home directory includes your mail folders. Afterwards, check EmailEmail Accounts and recreate any mailbox that's missing, using the same address.

3. Recreate database users

   The database backup holds the data but not the user and password your site logs in with. In cPanelDatabasesMySQL Databases, create a user, add it to the database with All Privileges, and update your site's config file. Names now start with your new cPanel username, for example yourus3r_shop.

On a VPS or reseller plan with WHM, WHMTransfersTransfer Tool can pull whole accounts straight from another cPanel server, and Restore a Full Backup/cpmove File restores a backup file in one go, if your WHM access includes it.

Option 3: WordPress: use a migration plugin

Plugins such as Duplicator, All-in-One WP Migration or Migrate Guru package the whole site, files and database, and rewrite its URLs on arrival. Each works slightly differently, but the pattern is the same:

1. Prepare the new account

   Add the domain in cPanel and, if the plugin needs an existing WordPress to import into, install a blank one with Softaculous. Large sites may need a higher upload limit; see raising PHP limits.

2. Export from the old site

   Turn off caching and security plugins that might block the export, then create the package. Check the plugin's free-tier size limit before you start on a large site.

3. Import, then tidy up

   Import the package on the new site and log in with your old admin details. Then open SettingsPermalinks and click Save to rebuild the rewrite rules, and purge the LiteSpeed cache.

Option 4: Copy files and database by hand

This works for any PHP and MySQL site from any host. If the old host offers SSH, export the database and pack the files there. Otherwise use phpMyAdmin's Export and download the files over SFTP with a client such as FileZilla.

# On the old server: export the database and pack the site's files
mysqldump --single-transaction --no-tablespaces -u olduser -p olddb | gzip > site.sql.gz
tar -czf site-files.tar.gz -C ~/public_html .

On VirtualCloud, create the database and user with cPanelDatabasesMySQL Database Wizard, upload both files to your home directory, then unpack and import them from the cPanel Terminal:

tar -xzf ~/site-files.tar.gz -C ~/public_html
gunzip < ~/site.sql.gz | mysql -u yourus3r_wpuser -p yourus3r_wp

# Standard permissions: folders 755, files 644
find ~/public_html -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find ~/public_html -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Finally, point the site at its new database. For WordPress, edit these lines in wp-config.php; other apps keep the same four values in their own config file, often .env or config.php:

define( 'DB_NAME', 'yourus3r_wp' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'yourus3r_wpuser' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'the-password-you-set' );
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

Test the copy, then switch DNS

1. Preview the new site from your own computer

   Your hosts file lets one computer see the new server while everyone else still sees the old one. Open it as administrator (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts in Notepad on Windows, sudo nano /etc/hosts on macOS and Linux) and add a line with your new server's IP from cPanel:

   203.0.113.24   yourdomain.in   www.yourdomain.in

   Click through the home page, inner pages, forms, admin login and checkout. The browser will warn about the certificate, because AutoSSL can't issue one until DNS points to us; that's expected at this stage. Prefer not to edit system files? Ask us on a ticket for a temporary URL.

2. Prepare the switch

   A day ahead, lower the TTL on your domain's records to 300 so the change spreads quickly (see DNS records explained). Right before the switch, pause anything that writes to the old site, such as orders, comments or form entries, or plan a final database export once DNS has moved.

3. Point the domain at VirtualCloud

   Change the nameservers or the A record, as described in Point your domain to VirtualCloud, and remove the hosts-file line so you see what everyone else sees.

Troubleshooting

wp search-replace 'old-address' 'https://yourdomain.in' --skip-columns=guid --dry-run