Hosting Migration Checklist

Use this checklist to move a website to new hosting while keeping the same domain and public URLs. Add platform-specific steps where necessary. Do not close the old account until the new environment has been verified and the agreed fallback period has passed.

Scope and ownership

• ☐ Confirm whether the move includes web hosting, DNS, email, domain registration, CDN and backups.
• ☐ Confirm business-controlled access to the registrar, DNS and both hosting accounts.
• ☐ Identify the person authorised to approve launch and rollback.
• ☐ Record supplier contacts and support arrangements for the migration window.

Current environment inventory

• ☐ Export the complete DNS zone.
• ☐ Record nameservers, A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT and verification records.
• ☐ Record runtime, database and web server versions.
• ☐ List databases, users, storage paths and permissions.
• ☐ Copy rewrite rules and environment configuration.
• ☐ List cron jobs, queues, workers and scheduled backups.
• ☐ Record forms, mail delivery, APIs, payment webhooks and integrations.
• ☐ Identify private files and data outside the normal web root.

Backups and recovery

• ☐ Create a full file backup.
• ☐ Export all required databases.
• ☐ Store copies independently of both hosting providers.
• ☐ Check archive integrity and database size.
• ☐ Test restoration where practical.
• ☐ Record the time of the backup and any later data that must be synchronised.

New environment preparation

• ☐ Confirm supported software versions and required extensions.
• ☐ Configure storage, permissions and runtime limits.
• ☐ Create least-privilege database and application users.
• ☐ Configure HTTPS and certificate renewal.
• ☐ Configure new backups and monitoring before launch.
• ☐ Protect temporary access from unauthorised visitors and indexing.
• ☐ Document environment-specific settings that must not be copied directly.

Transfer and private testing

• ☐ Copy files, hidden files and required permissions.
• ☐ Import databases and check character encoding.
• ☐ Configure the application for the new environment.
• ☐ Test through a temporary hostname or hosts-file override.
• ☐ Test the home page and representative deep pages.
• ☐ Test login, administration, search, uploads and downloads.
• ☐ Test forms and all notification recipients.
• ☐ Test bookings, payments and webhooks in an appropriate safe mode.
• ☐ Test scheduled jobs and background processing.
• ☐ Review application and server error logs.

Changing data

• ☐ Decide whether a content or transaction freeze is required.
• ☐ Define how late orders, users, comments or submissions will be synchronised.
• ☐ Prevent duplicate processing during the overlap period.
• ☐ Communicate any maintenance window clearly.

DNS and email protection

• ☐ Change only the DNS records required by the migration plan.
• ☐ Preserve MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC unless email is intentionally moving.
• ☐ Preserve third-party verification records.
• ☐ Check both apex and www hostnames.
• ☐ Account for IPv6 records where present.
• ☐ Understand that DNS caches update at different times.

Immediately after the switch

• ☐ Check DNS resolution from more than one network.
• ☐ Verify HTTPS and certificate hostnames.
• ☐ Test core pages, forms and transactions externally.
• ☐ Confirm email sending and receipt.
• ☐ Check robots, canonical and sitemap behaviour.
• ☐ Confirm Search Console ownership remains valid.
• ☐ Monitor errors, CPU, memory, storage and response time.
• ☐ Confirm scheduled jobs execute as expected.

Rollback readiness

• ☐ Keep the old environment available for the agreed period.
• ☐ Prevent conflicting content changes on the old version.
• ☐ Record the rollback DNS or deployment steps.
• ☐ Decide how post-launch data would be preserved during rollback.
• ☐ Do not delete the old service until the business signs off the migration.

Official search reference

Google Search Central: changing hosting without URL changes

A migration is complete when the website, email, integrations, scheduled work, monitoring and recovery route have all been verified.