How to move a site from shared hosting
Kofi Agyem, Founder and CEO, CloudzyroPublished
Move a static or Node.js site off old shared hosting without downtime, and keep your email where it is.
1. Is your site static, Node.js or PHP?
Where your site should go depends on what it's made of.
A static site (HTML, CSS and JavaScript, or a site generator's output) or a Node.js app goes on Sites & Apps. It's free on the Launch plan and every deploy is kept as a version.
A PHP site, including WordPress, goes on Web Hosting, our cPanel hosting with email included. Sites & Apps doesn't run PHP.
2. Copy your files
Download your site's files from your old host's file manager or by FTP. For a PHP site, also export its database from phpMyAdmin as a .sql file.
On Sites & Apps, upload the folder (or a zip of it) in the console. On Web Hosting, upload the files with cPanel's File Manager, create a database and user in cPanel, import your .sql file in phpMyAdmin, and put the new database details in your site's settings file (for WordPress, wp-config.php).
3. Deploy and check the new address
On Sites & Apps, your site goes live at a free cloudzyro.app address first, so you can check every page before your domain points at it.
On Web Hosting, your site answers on your domain once the domain points at it, so keep your old hosting running until you've checked it there.
4. Switch the domain over
For Sites & Apps, add your domain on the site's Domains tab, then at your DNS provider add a CNAME for www to domains.cloudzyro.app and, for the bare domain, an A record to 173.234.137.167.
For Web Hosting, change your domain's nameservers to ns1.cloudzyroserver.com and ns2.cloudzyroserver.com, or keep your DNS where it is and add the A records shown on your hosting's page in the console.
If your domain is with Cloudzyro, choose what it's for on its page in Domains and we set the records for you.
5. Keep your email working
Changing nameservers replaces every DNS record held at your old provider, including the ones that deliver your email. Before you switch, copy any records you still need (MX, SPF and other TXT records) into cPanel's Zone Editor, or create your mailboxes on Web Hosting first if your email is moving too.
If you only change the www and bare-domain records, leave your MX and other email records alone and your email carries on as before.
6. Cancel the old hosting
Wait a few days after the switch. Check your site, send and receive a few emails, and download a last copy of your files and database from the old host. Then cancel it.