Moving your WordPress website to a new hosting provider can feel risky, especially when your website is already live and receiving visitors. You may worry about losing files, breaking your database, facing downtime, or messing up your domain settings.
The good news is that you can move WordPress to a new hosting provider without rebuilding your entire website from scratch. You simply need to transfer your website files and database, configure the new server correctly, and point your domain to the new hosting account.
Whether you’re changing hosts because of slow loading speeds, frequent downtime, limited resources, poor customer support, or better pricing, this guide will walk you through the process step by step.
Why Move WordPress to a New Hosting Provider?
Before starting the migration, it helps to understand why you are making the move. Your hosting provider plays a major role in your website’s speed, security, uptime, and overall performance.
You might consider switching if your current hosting plan:
- Makes your website load slowly
- Has frequent server downtime
- Provides limited storage or bandwidth
- Offers poor customer support
- Charges too much for the resources you receive
- Doesn’t provide the features your growing website needs
- Has weak backup or security options
- Struggles with traffic spikes
A better hosting environment can give your WordPress website more room to grow. However, migration should be handled carefully because your website contains two important components: its files and its database.
What You Need Before Moving Your WordPress Website
Before you move WordPress to a new hosting provider, prepare everything you need. Don’t cancel your old hosting account immediately.
Keep your existing hosting active until you have confirmed that the website works properly on the new server.
You should have:
- Login details for your current hosting account
- Login details for the new hosting account
- Access to your WordPress dashboard
- Access to your domain registrar
- A complete backup of your website
- FTP/SFTP or hosting file manager access
- Database access, usually through phpMyAdmin
- Your WordPress database name, username, and password
If your new hosting provider offers free website migration, you may also be able to let its technical team handle the transfer. Check this option before doing everything manually.
Step 1: Create a Full Backup
The first and most important step is creating a complete backup.
Your WordPress website isn’t just a collection of pages and images. It also contains themes, plugins, configuration files, uploaded media, and database information.
Create a backup of both:
1. WordPress files
This includes your themes, plugins, media uploads, and core files.
2. WordPress database
The database stores your posts, pages, users, comments, settings, and other important website information.
You can create backups using a WordPress migration or backup plugin, your hosting provider’s backup system, or manually through your hosting control panel.
Once the backup is complete, keep a copy somewhere outside your current hosting account. This gives you a safety net if something goes wrong during migration.
Step 2: Set Up Your New Hosting Account
Next, purchase or activate your new hosting plan.
You don’t necessarily need to point your domain to the new server yet. Most hosting providers allow you to set up your website before changing your domain’s DNS settings.
After activating the account, find the following details:
- New server information
- FTP/SFTP credentials
- Hosting control panel
- Database management tools
- Temporary website URL, if available
- Nameservers or DNS information
If your new provider uses cPanel, you’ll usually find tools such as File Manager and phpMyAdmin that make the migration process easier.
Step 3: Transfer Your WordPress Files
Now it’s time to move your website files from the old server to the new one.
You can use an FTP client such as FileZilla or the file manager provided by your hosting company.
Your WordPress installation generally includes folders such as:
- wp-admin
- wp-content
- wp-includes
You’ll also see important files such as wp-config.php and .htaccess.
Download the files from your old hosting account and upload them to the appropriate directory on your new server.
Pay special attention to the wp-content folder. This folder contains your themes, plugins, and uploaded media, so losing or incorrectly transferring it can cause major problems.
Don’t rush this step. If your website contains a large number of images or files, the transfer may take some time.
Step 4: Create a New WordPress Database
Your WordPress files alone aren’t enough. You also need to transfer your database.
Log in to the control panel of your new hosting account and create a new MySQL or MariaDB database, depending on what your host provides.
Create:
- A database
- A database user
- A strong database password
Then assign the user to the database with the necessary privileges.
Make a note of the database name, username, and password because you’ll need them when configuring WordPress.
Step 5: Import Your Old Database
Now export your existing WordPress database from the old hosting account.
If you’re using phpMyAdmin, select your WordPress database and use the export function. You will generally receive a .sql file.
Next, open phpMyAdmin on your new hosting account, select the newly created database, and use the Import option to upload your SQL file.
Once the import is finished, your new database should contain the posts, pages, settings, users, comments, and other information from your old WordPress website.
If the database is large, your hosting provider may offer an alternative import method or migration tool.
Step 6: Update the wp-config.php File
This is one of the most important steps when you move WordPress to a new hosting provider.
The wp-config.php file tells WordPress how to connect to your database.
Open the file on your new server and check the database configuration.
You may need to update:
- Database name
- Database username
- Database password
- Database host
The database host is often localhost, but don’t automatically assume that. Your new hosting provider may use a different database server address.
Save the changes after entering the correct information.
Step 7: Test Your Website Before Changing DNS
Don’t immediately point your domain to the new server.
First, test the migrated website using the temporary URL or another method provided by your hosting company.
Check important areas of your website, including:
- Homepage
- Blog posts
- Pages
- Images
- Navigation menus
- Contact forms
- Login page
- Plugins
- Theme functionality
- Search function
- Comments
- WooCommerce, if applicable
- SSL/HTTPS
- Mobile responsiveness
Open several old blog posts and make sure images load correctly.
You should also check whether your WordPress dashboard works normally.
This testing stage can save you from discovering problems after the DNS change.
Step 8: Point Your Domain to the New Hosting Provider
Once you’re satisfied with the migrated website, you can connect your domain to the new hosting server.
You typically do this by changing either the domain’s nameservers or its DNS records.
Your new hosting provider will give you the correct information.
If you change nameservers, the process may take some time to propagate across the internet. During this period, some visitors may reach the old server while others reach the new one.
For this reason, keep your old hosting account active until the migration is completely stable.
Step 9: Install or Verify SSL
After your domain starts pointing to the new server, check your HTTPS connection.
Most modern hosting providers offer free SSL certificates, but you may still need to activate or configure the certificate.
Visit your website using:
Check that the browser doesn’t display a security warning.
If WordPress is still showing HTTP links instead of HTTPS, you may need to update your WordPress URL settings or address mixed-content issues.
Step 10: Check Permalinks
Your website may appear to work correctly while individual pages or blog posts return 404 errors.
One simple thing to check is your WordPress permalink configuration.
Log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to:
Settings → Permalinks
You don’t necessarily need to change the structure. Simply saving the existing permalink settings can refresh WordPress’s rewrite rules.
Then test several posts and pages again.
Step 11: Check Your Website’s Functionality
After the domain points to the new hosting provider, perform another complete check.
Test your:
- Contact forms
- Email notifications
- Login and registration
- Search feature
- Images
- Videos
- Social sharing
- Analytics
- Advertising scripts
- E-commerce checkout
- Payment gateway
- Caching system
- Security plugins
If you run an online store, place a test order if your setup allows it.
You should also check Google Search Console and your analytics tools to make sure tracking codes are still working.
Common Problems When Moving WordPress
Even if you follow the process carefully, you may encounter a few issues.
Database Connection Error
If you see an error saying that WordPress cannot connect to the database, recheck the database name, username, password, and host in wp-config.php.
Missing Images
If images don’t appear, check whether the wp-content/uploads folder was transferred correctly.
404 Errors
Refresh your permalink settings and check your .htaccess file.
SSL Warnings
Confirm that your SSL certificate is active and that your website URLs use HTTPS.
Broken Plugins or Themes
A plugin or theme may behave differently on the new server because of PHP versions, server settings, or missing extensions. Update WordPress, themes, and plugins where appropriate, but make sure you have a backup before making major changes.
Should You Use a WordPress Migration Plugin?
If the manual process sounds complicated, you don’t necessarily have to transfer everything yourself.
Several WordPress migration plugins can package your website and database and help you move them to a new server.
This can be particularly useful if you’re not comfortable working with FTP, databases, or hosting control panels.
However, don’t assume that every migration plugin will work perfectly for every website. Large websites, WooCommerce stores, and sites with unusual server configurations may require additional steps.
Your hosting provider may also provide a professional migration service, which can be worth considering if downtime would seriously affect your business.
Don’t Cancel Your Old Hosting Too Quickly
One of the most common mistakes is cancelling the old hosting account immediately after changing DNS.
It’s safer to keep your old hosting active for a few days while you monitor the new website.
Check your website regularly and confirm that:
- The domain works correctly
- All important pages load
- Emails work
- Forms work
- Images are available
- Plugins function correctly
- No important data is missing
Once you’re confident everything has been transferred successfully, you can cancel the old hosting plan.
Final Thoughts
When you move WordPress to a new hosting provider, the process may look complicated at first, but it becomes much easier when you break it into smaller steps.
Start with a complete backup, transfer your WordPress files and database, configure wp-config.php, test the new server, and only then update your domain’s DNS settings.
The key is not to rush. Keep your old hosting account available during the transition, carefully test your website, and make sure your important features continue working.
With a proper backup and a methodical approach, you can move your WordPress website to a new hosting provider while keeping your content, design, and functionality intact.