Move in for free.
Nothing goes down.
We move your files, databases and email from cPanel, Plesk, WordPress, Fasthosts or Heart Internet. No downtime, no charge — most sites are live on our platform in about half an hour, and your old site stays up until you approve the switch.
Migration is free on every InstaHost plan, and we do the work. We copy your website files, databases and email across from your current host, rebuild them on our platform, and let you check everything on a temporary address before a single visitor is affected. When you're happy, we switch DNS at a time you choose — your old site stays online the whole way through.
It runs on the same automated Migration Centre that moves hundreds of sites a day, so most transfers finish in about thirty minutes. Nothing is downloaded to a laptop, nothing is retyped, and your original files are never touched. We've hosted on 100% renewable energy since 1996, and moving to us costs nothing and changes nothing your visitors can see.
No downtime
We build the copy on a temporary URL and only switch DNS when you say so. Visitors stay on the old site until the new one is checked and ready.
The four steps →Free and unlimited
One site or fifty, it costs nothing. Resellers can bulk-move a whole book of client sites in a single pass, not one ticket at a time.
How it compares →About 30 minutes
Most sites are live in half an hour. A large, complex site with a big database might take up to three hours. Either way you don't sit and watch it.
How long for mine →From almost any host
cPanel, Plesk and DirectAdmin, plus UK names like Fasthosts and Heart Internet. WordPress from anywhere. Not sure what yours runs? We'll check.
Where we move from →The whole site, not just the files.
A migration that only copies the public files leaves you rebuilding the database and re-adding every mailbox by hand. The Migration Centre moves the parts that make the site actually work, together.
Everything, structure intact
Every file and directory copied exactly as it sits now, so paths and includes still resolve and nothing loads from the wrong place.
Tables, rows and users
The database is copied and reconnected on our platform — no export, no hand-editing an SQL dump, no guessing which table didn't make it.
Mailboxes over IMAP
Accounts and their messages synced across, then SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up on the new server so mail keeps delivering after the switch.
Recreated before the move
Your zone is rebuilt on our nameservers ahead of time, so when DNS flips, everything points at the right place from the first second.
Issued in advance
A fresh wildcard certificate is ready before the switch, so visitors never meet a certificate warning during the change.
Left completely untouched
Nothing is deleted or changed at your old host. If you ever want to walk it back, the site you came from is exactly as you left it.
How a migration used to eat an afternoon.
For years, moving a website meant doing all of this yourself, in order, and hoping nothing corrupted on the way. It's worth seeing what the Migration Centre now does in your place.
- Download everything Pull every file and the whole database down to your own computer over FTP, and hope the connection held for the big ones.
- Upload it all again Push the files up to the new host, import the database by hand, and fix the paths and config that no longer matched.
- Coax the site to load Edit config until the CMS found its database, then find the pieces that quietly didn't come across the first time.
- Rebuild email from memory Recreate every mailbox, reconfigure each device, and lose anything that wasn't backed up before you started.
It was slow, and it was easy to corrupt a file or miss a table halfway through. The Migration Centre does all four steps for you, in order, with nothing ever touching a laptop — which is why most transfers are done in the time the old way took just to download.
Automatic, not stuck in a ticket queue.
Plenty of hosts still treat a migration as a support job you file a request for, wait for a slot, and pay per site. Here it's built into the platform and it's free.
We move the site. You approve the switch.
Free, on every plan, however many sites. Your current site stays online the whole time — nothing changes for your visitors until the last step, and that step is yours.
- Tell us where it lives Your current host, the domain, and a login. cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, Fasthosts, Heart Internet or another WordPress host — all fine.
- We build the copy here Files, databases, email and DNS recreated on our platform on a temporary address, while your live site carries on untouched.
- You check it Open the copy and walk the pages that matter — the shop, the forms, the members area. Anything wrong, we fix it before the switch.
- We switch DNS At a time you pick. SSL is issued in advance so there's no certificate warning, and email keeps flowing through the change.
Rather do it yourself? The Migration Centre is in your control panel, and SFTP, SSH and phpMyAdmin are all there if you want them. Sign in to start a migration, or call us on +44 330-043-2836 and we'll arrange it. Most people would rather we did it.
Leaving one of these? We've done it before.
The Migration Centre reads the common control panels directly, and our team has moved sites off the big UK hosts more times than we can count. If yours isn't listed, tell us the domain and a login and we'll tell you straight away whether we can move it.
Renewable since 1996.
Not a pivot, not a rebrand, and not a badge bought last year. We were doing this when there was no market for it and nobody asking. Every figure below can be checked.
Straight answers.
How much does a migration cost?
Nothing. Migration is free on every plan, whether you run it yourself from the Migration Centre or ask our UK support team to do it. There's no per-site fee, so one website or fifty costs the same: zero.
How long does it take?
Most sites are live in about thirty minutes. A large or complex site with a big database can take up to roughly three hours, depending on how much data has to move. It's the same automated Migration Centre that transfers hundreds of sites a day.
Will my site go down?
No. We build a copy on a temporary address while your current site keeps serving visitors untouched. Nothing they can see changes until you approve the switch, and your original files at the old host are never altered.
Which hosts and control panels can you move from?
cPanel/WHM, Plesk and DirectAdmin, plus UK hosts like Fasthosts and Heart Internet, and WordPress from almost any host. Both Linux hosting and WordPress transfers are handled. Not sure what yours runs? Tell us the domain and a login and we'll check.
Does my email get moved as well?
Yes — mailboxes are synced over IMAP with their messages, so nothing is retyped or lost. After the switch, SPF, DKIM and DMARC are set up on the new server so your mail keeps delivering. Email runs on separate infrastructure from the web servers.
Do you move my domain name too?
A migration doesn't need the domain itself to move — we point DNS at the new site when you're ready. If you also want the registration transferred, that's handled separately through Domain Transfers, and .uk transfers are free.
What if something doesn't come across?
You catch it on the copy before your visitors could, because nothing is switched until you've checked. Your original is left untouched, so the migration can simply be re-run, and support can step in at any point. With zero downtime there's never a rush to fix it.
Can I do it myself?
Yes. The Migration Centre in your control panel is self-service — start a transfer whenever you like, no appointment, and move sites in bulk if you're a reseller. SFTP, SSH and phpMyAdmin are all there if you'd rather move things by hand, and support will talk you through it.
Bring it all over. We'll do the moving.
Free migration from almost any host, no downtime, and you approve the switch. If it doesn't suit you later, leave — we won't hold your domain hostage.