Migrate a hosting account to Hostsuar

Changing provider means coordinating the hosting content, email and domain, but they are not a single operation. Keeping them separate lets you copy and check everything before sending visitors and messages to the new service.

This guide helps you choose the right route. Before you start, prepare the inventory and access with the pre-migration checklist.

Three different changes

You can migrate the hosting without transferring the domain. You can also transfer the domain and keep the website at the previous provider, as long as its DNS and service stay active.

If the source and destination are two Hostsuar services, see how to move a website and email to another hosting account, because that is not a migration from an external provider.

Some providers delete the DNS zone or the hosting when the domain is no longer managed with them. Check this before starting the transfer and avoid relying on a service that could disappear during the move.

Choose how the hosting will be copied

The current provider uses cPanel

A full cPanel backup can keep files, databases, email accounts and content, redirects, filters, scheduled tasks and much of the account configuration.

Before restoring it, check:

• The space actually used, excluding old backups and temporary files.
• That the destination plan has enough capacity.
• The PHP and MySQL versions and the extensions the applications need.
• Whether the provider lets you generate a full backup and how long it takes to prepare.
• Which domains, subdomains and mailboxes are part of the account.

Even if the restore is complete, you must check the website, email and external services before retiring the previous hosting.

The provider uses Plesk or another panel

A backup from Plesk or another panel cannot be restored like a full cPanel backup from the user tools. Support can assess whether the available transfer tools are compatible. When the move is done component by component, you need to include:

1. Website files via SFTP, FTPS, a downloadable backup or another available method.
2. Databases via export and import.
3. Each application's configuration, including paths and the new database credentials.
4. Mailboxes and messages, if email is also changing provider.
5. Subdomains, redirects, scheduled tasks and any other configuration needed.

If the application is in the Softaculous catalogue, you can also check whether it supports automatic migration from the remote server.

Decide what will happen to email

Email may be on the same hosting, on Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or any other external provider. You need to identify it before changing the DNS.

See the full route in Migrate email without losing messages when changing provider.

Email inside a cPanel account

The full backup usually includes accounts, passwords, folders and messages. Even so, check the settings used by Outlook, Thunderbird, phones and apps, because the previous provider may use a different server name.

You can compare them with the POP, IMAP and SMTP connection settings.

IMAP email on another panel

First create the destination accounts and copy the content with the email migration and synchronisation interface.

Do a first synchronisation before the move, repeat it close to the DNS change and run another afterwards to pick up messages still arriving at the source during propagation. Imapsync compares both servers and copies the messages that are not yet on the destination, so the previous provider must stay active until the check is finished.

Google Workspace or Microsoft 365

If email is going to stay with the external provider, you do not need to migrate the mailboxes to cPanel. Before changing the DNS servers, you must recreate in the new zone the MX, TXT, CNAME and SRV records that the service uses.

In this scenario, the website can run at Hostsuar while email stays elsewhere. See how to point the website to another server while keeping your current email.

Copy and test before the move

Whenever possible, content is copied while the domain is still working at the previous provider. The website is then checked on the destination without changing the DNS yet, using these preview methods.

On a website that receives orders, forms, comments or frequent changes, agree on a pause in writes or a synchronisation procedure before the final copy. Importing the database again is not enough if orders have already been created on the destination: you could lose them. Also coordinate scheduled tasks so the two servers do not run duplicate payments or emails. For email, plan a synchronisation after propagation.

Change the DNS when everything is ready

Follow the guide to changing DNS with minimal downtime to prepare the zone, synchronise the latest changes, check propagation and keep a way back.

Before changing the DNS servers, check that the new zone contains:

• The records for the website and its subdomains.
• The email provider's records.
• Verifications for external services.
• Additional records used by applications, phone systems, calendars or third-party tools.

If you are also moving the zone, switch the domain to Hostsuar's DNS servers, coordinating DNSSEC if it is active. If you keep your current DNS provider, change only the records for the services being moved there. Propagation can mean that for a while some visitors reach the previous provider and others the new one, so both must stay operational during the transition.

Check the migration

Use the post-migration checklist before retiring the previous provider.

Do not cancel the previous service until you have checked:

• The website's home page, admin area and inner pages.
• Forms, orders, payments and email sending from the application.
• The database connection and scheduled tasks.
• The HTTPS certificate and redirects.
• Sending and receiving for every mailbox.
• Subdomains and external services kept in the DNS zone.
• The latest database changes and messages received during the transition.

When everything works from the new service, revoke temporary access, change any regular password you had no choice but to use and keep a final backup before cancelling the previous provider.

The domain transfer is separate

If you also want Hostsuar to manage the domain, first see the general guide to transferring a domain to Hostsuar and then continue according to the extension:

• Transfer .es, .com.es, .nom.es and .org.es domains.
• Transfer .com, .net, .org, .info and other generic domains.

Plan the order before you begin: a transfer in progress can temporarily limit some changes at the current registrar, and the previous provider may withdraw services once it completes.

We handle the migration for free

We can migrate your hosting service to Hostsuar free of charge. We will review the source, copy the content and coordinate with you the checks and the switch to the new service.

There are two ways to request it:

1. When you order. In the order, tick that you have a website to bring over. When the hosting is activated, the welcome email takes you to complete the request.
2. From the client area. On the page of the hosting that will receive the website, open Bring a website from another provider. Tell us which website it is, which panel the current provider uses and whether we should also bring the email.

When you send it, we open a ticket and give you a secure channel link to leave the current provider's access details. Do not paste passwords or access codes into the ticket: the secure channel encrypts them and deletes them when we finish.

Do not change the domain's DNS servers until we tell you to. We will do it when the website is already working at Hostsuar, so there is no downtime.

If the website has been hacked, say so in the request: we clean it while bringing it over, also at no cost. What is included is described in hacked website rescue.