Have you ever had a reason to want to move a website from one hosting company to another? Maybe you’ve had problems with the host’s support department and you’re an unhappy customer. Or perhaps you’ve simply outgrown your current host. If you plan to move your site from one host using the popular cPanel control panel to another host using cPanel, you have a couple of different options for transferring your site or blog.

In order to walk you through the site transfer steps, I’m going to use a WordPress blog as an example. This way you can see not only how to transfer static site files, but also sites involving a database transfer. This site isn’t complex — a few test posts and random plugins on a domain name I’m not ready to use for an official site yet. But the steps should closely mirror those of much larger and more complex sites on a similar back end CMS.

Note that images in this tutorial are taken from the HostGator cPanel installation only to avoid confusion in showing two, and yours may look different or have slightly different features. If you cannot find a feature mentioned here in your own cPanel installation, please contact your host directly for assistance.

Quick Transfers

If you plan to move everything on one cPanel server to another cPanel server, you can probably take advantage of a simplified transfer option. cPanel offers a full backup option which you can “restore” on your new host’s server. The two screenshots below show you where in cPanel to do this.

cPanel Backups Option

Create a full backup in cPanel.

Please note that you will still have to update your domain name server settings with your domain registrar (telling the domain name to point to your new host’s server). Follow the instructions in the manual transfer guide below for DNS setting changes.

Manually Transfer a Site from One cPanel Host to Another

What happens if you have multiple websites on your original server but you only want to move one site to a new cPanel host? Maybe you want to split your sites across multiple accounts. The quick transfer option above won’t work. Instead you can move the site manually. Here are some instructions to help you do that.

Note: If you are using a content management system (like WordPress), it is important to ensure that your original site is running on the latest version of the CMS. This way base files from the existing site will match those from a fresh download if you’ll need to install one on your new host’s server for any reason.

1. Download and backup your site files. You can do this using your favorite FTP service or you can compress your site folder and download it directly from your cPanel File Manager. Note that if you have a large site you may have to download your site files in several smaller groups to avoid violating usage terms (tying up too many server resources with a large download).

Highlight your site's folder. Click compress. Highlight compressed folder. Click download.

2. Export and backup your database. You can use phpMyAdmin for this. See the screenshots below for assistance. If you have a large database, you may need to request assistance from your current host. A 50mb database required support’s assistance in the past for me because my download size was limited and I therefore wasn’t getting the full database backup. This will depend entirely on your host’s policies.

Access phpMyAdmin in cPanel

Choose your database and then click "export."

3. Set up your domain name on your new hosting account. If the domain will be the primary domain name, you’ll include this information when you set up the hosting account. Otherwise you can install it as an addon domain if your host allows you to host multiple sites on the same account.

cPanel Addon Domains

Create your addon domain.

4. Set up a new database with your new host. You’ll also need to set up a database username and associate that name with the database. Ideally keep the database name, database username, and user password the same as they were under the old host. If you choose to change them, be sure to update your configuration file (wp-config.php with WordPress).

Access your mysql databases.

Create a database. Create a username. Then associate the two.

5. Import your database. Again, you can do this in phpMyAdmin. Make sure you import data into the new database you created.

Choose your new database. Click "import." Choose your previously exported database file.

6. Upload your site files to the new hosting account. Again you can use your favorite FTP service, or you can do this through the cPanel file manager. Make sure you’ve already updated your configuration file settings to match your database settings on the new hosting account.

Highlight the location where your site folder should be uploaded. Click "upload."

7. Preview your site. If your site is installed as an addon domain, you should be able to preview it live on a subdomain of your main domain name. For example, let’s say DomainA.com is the primary domain on your new hosting account, and you just moved another site to that hosting account as an addon domain (DomainB.com). You can’t access the new site at its own domain name until you update settings with your domain registrar (the next step). But before doing that, you can preview the site to make sure everything is working properly at a subdomain like http://DomainB.DomainA.com.

8. Get your new host’s domain name server (DNS) settings. You may have received this in your welcome email when you signed up with the hosting company, or you may need to look in their website’s support section. The DNS settings will be in the following format, and your host should provide at least two:

ns1.yourhost.com        ns2.yourhost.com

9. Update your DNS settings with your domain registrar. Below is a screenshot from GoDaddy’s domain manager as an example of where you might change your DNS settings. Please check with your specific domain registrar for instructions if you aren’t sure how to update the name servers.

Highlight your domain name. Click "nameservers" to change your settings. (Example applies to Godaddy domains.)

10. Check your new site settings in the CMS and make edits where needed. For example, make sure your permalink structure is set to match the old site’s so old links still work. And make sure plugins you installed are activated and working properly. In WordPress specifically, you will also need to make sure the theme you uploaded (your old site design) is activated. Otherwise your site will feature the design included with the default installation.

11. Remove your files, database, and add-on domain from your previous hosting account. If your moved site was the primary site and there are no other websites on the account, you can now close the original hosting account if you wish.

If you’ve never moved a website from one host to another before, the quick transfer option doesn’t apply to you, and you still aren’t comfortable attempting the move yourself, there’s another option. Many cPanel hosts will move your sites for you if you transfer to them. Some will do it for free, and some will charge a fee (usually not very much, although it may depend on the number of sites being transferred or the complexity of the transfer). If you’re not ready to go it alone just yet, give them a call or send them an email to find out if they can help you get set up on their servers.

Have you ever transferred a website or blog from one cPanel host to another? Did you run into any problems? What kind of transfer did you do, and what was your experience like? Leave a comment below to share your story.

For many people, if there is anything that makes them feel like they are searching for a needle in a haystack; it is their search for a good web hosting company.

For every website launched, there is need for a web hosting company. A web host rents out space on a web server. The web pages are stored on their server and the host allows other people using the internet, to view these web pages.

With hundreds of web hosting companies to choose from, how does one go about finding the right one?

Word of Mouth

As with any other service, it is not possible to know how good a hosting company is until it is tried. Getting recommendations from others who are already using web hosting companies can be done by asking around.

Reliability

It is also important to know how long a web hosting company has been in business as well as the reliability factor.

Disk Space

Determining the amount of disk space one needs is important and that is always based on the number of pages on the website. Only a small amount of space is required if one is looking to host a website with less than ten pages. If the website is huge and is going to have thousands of pages, a lot of disc space is required. Most web hosting plans apply limits on the space that is provided, so it is important to make sure that these plans meet the needs.

E-mail Accounts

How many e-mail accounts are needed? Many big websites may need one for every employee as well as one for every department (customer services, accounts, sales etc.) Getting a hosting plan that provides many e-mail accounts is necessary, keeping the future in mind. Also consider if a full POPS access, Web-based e-mail or both are needed. Another think to look for is the e-mail limits the hosts impose. Some hosts limit number of e-mails per hour and this may not work for people looking at building big lists online using auto responders.

Data Transfer

What is the data that will be transferred? Hosting plans also limit the data that can be transferred and each month a specific data-transfer is allotted. If a lot of visitors are expected to the site, then the plan should allow for huge data transfers.

E-commerce

The purpose of a website plays an important role in selecting a web host. What is being sold through the website, are they goods? If so, then an e-commerce web hosting services, such as SSL support, shopping cart software and a merchant account are needed.

Database, extension and script support

Many web hosts try to supply a whole lot of unnecessary things to the users and charge for them. The extra features include MS Access, FrontPage, MySQL, MS SQL, PHP support. SSI support, ASP support and Peri support are provided but if these are not required, then it must be ensured that they are not charging for these.

Operating Systems

There are two types of hosting plans available; UNIX and Windows. Unix is more commonly used as most web services use this operating system. It is reliable, flexible and stable to use. Windows hosting plans on the other hand, give the ability to use many forms of specialized databases and different forms of dynamic content. Windows hosting plans are useful for sites that use ASP, MS Access databases, Frontpage, MySQL Servers as well as other Microsoft applications.

C-Panel or DirectAdmin

It is a good idea to confirm whether the web host offers c-panel web hosting, as it is extremely easy to work with. They should have a choice between C-panel and DirectAdmin.

Policies

A good web host has all sorts of policies and contingency plans in place. How would they react if they receive a spam complaint occasionally? An occasional spam complaint is only natural for an online business and it is important to find a host that does not shut down at the blink of an eye. Also check if they have a policy of letting their customers upgrade from shared web hosting in the initial stages of their business to dedicated web hosting as the business grows.

Support

Last but certainly not the least is the customer and technical support that is provided by the web host. Are they available 24/7? Is it easy to get through to their customer support for any urgent queries? Nobody wants to wait for the customer support to wake up in case of a problem. Having an earning website down for a day means loss of huge amounts of money. It is a good idea to check them out by sending a ticket to their customer service at an odd time and see how fast they respond.

These are by no means the only things one has to look for, but are some of the crucial things. Other things such as how fast their servers are, whether they provide unrestricted CGI access, SSH and FTP access, access to their raw server log, power and daily server backups, no minimum contracts, what is their downtime and a whole lot more can be looked into based on specific requirements. While at it, also check on the number of domains and sub-domains they provide.

It is really not as bad as it sounds, because once the search begins, there are a few good web hosts names that are bound to come up, those who provide everything and top marketers vouch for. The key to finding a web host is to keep future growth in mind.