VPS Migration
Outgrown shared hosting? Moving to a VPS gives you the whole server rather than a slice of one shared with hundreds of strangers. Done properly, your visitors never notice it happened.
Migration is the job people most often try themselves and most often regret. Not because moving files is difficult, but because the parts nobody thinks about – email, DNS, certificates – are the parts that take a business offline.
Why People Move
- The site is slow and the host says it is your fault
- Traffic has grown and shared hosting cannot keep up
- A WooCommerce shop needs resources it is not getting
- Hitting limits on PHP memory, execution time or database size
- Another site on the same server keeps dragging yours down
- You want proper backups, staging and control over the server
How I Do It Without Downtime
Build the new server first
The new VPS gets set up, secured and tested with your site running on it before anything changes for your visitors. PHP version, memory, database, SSL, firewall, backups.
Test it properly before switching
The migrated site gets checked on the new server while the old one is still live – pages, forms, basket, checkout, login, admin. If a shop, I place a genuine test order end to end. Nothing switches until it all works.
Then move the traffic
DNS is lowered ahead of the change so it propagates in minutes rather than hours. The old server stays running throughout, so anyone whose DNS has not caught up still lands on a working site rather than an error.
Email is the part that catches people out
Website hosting and email are often on the same account and moving one can silently break the other. Mail records get checked and moved deliberately, not assumed. Losing a day of enquiries is worse than a day of downtime, because you never find out what you missed.
Certificates and redirects
SSL installed and confirmed on the new server before the switch, not after. Existing redirects carried across so search rankings and old links keep working.
Keep the old server for a while
The old hosting stays live for a period afterwards. It costs a little and it means there is always a way back. Cancelling the old account the same day is how migrations turn into disasters.
Something Worth Checking First
Before cancelling any old hosting, check what else is attached to that account. Domains, mailboxes and DNS often live with the hosting rather than with the site and closing the account can take all of them with it.
I have been through this on my own migration, moving four sites off shared hosting to a VPS. The websites were the easy part. Working out which domains, which mailboxes and which DNS records were tied to which contract took considerably longer than moving the sites did and getting it wrong would have taken email down for four businesses.
What It Costs
- Businesses – £150 per hour, one hour minimum
- Private individuals – £120 per hour, one hour minimum
- After the first hour, charged in half hours
A single straightforward site is usually a few hours. A shop or several sites moving together, takes longer because of the testing. Tell me what you have and I will give you a realistic estimate before starting rather than an optimistic one.
The VPS itself is a separate cost paid to whichever host you choose. I do not mark it up and I have no arrangement with any hosting company – you own the account, not me.
What I Need To Get Started
- Your current hosting login
- Where your domain is registered
- Whether you use email on the same domain and where it is hosted
- Whether you already have a VPS or want advice on choosing one
- Any times of day the site must not be interrupted
Who I Work With
Private customers and small to medium sized businesses. That is the work I am set up for and the work I am good at.
I do not take on corporate contracts. Development teams, sign-off processes and layers of project management are a different job to this one. If that is what you need, I am not the right person and I would rather tell you now than find out halfway through.