Transferring your websites to Web Hosting Canada is simple with our fully managed migration service. Here is how it works:

1. Start by ordering the hosting service that best suits your needs. For most projects, this will be a web hosting or WordPress Hosting plan. For multi-site accounts or more complex websites, you may prefer reseller hosting, a Cloud server or a dedicated server.
2. Gather the login information from your website's current web provider and send them to us through your Client Area or complete our website migration questionnaire.
3. Our migration team now gets to work! We start by analyzing your website and prepare a migration plan. If we foresee any issues, we'll share them with you.
4. During the scheduled migration window, we perform the transfer. We'll attempt to move everything over: files, databases, and (optionally) emails.
5. Once done, we test your website and if it appears to work well, we point your domain over to its new hosting account.
6. You can now test your website on its new account with us. In case of issues, our team is available 24/7 and ready to help.
7. With the website migration completed, we can optionally transfer over your domain registrations as well, to bring all your services under one roof.

And you're done! You can cancel your account with your previous provider and enjoy the improved performance and reliability of your Web Hosting Canada account.

A standard website transfer will include everything you need to keep your site running smoothly. This will generally include:

• website files
• databases
• SSL certificates

Once we've moved everything over, we'll update your website configurations so they function correctly on our servers, as needed. If requested, we can also transfer your emails and domains over too.

Within the context of our fair-use migration service, we define a website as a set of files not exceeding 10GB, accessible through a domain or subdomain, and including one database and up to 5 email addresses. More complex migrations should be discussed with our support team prior to being requested. We're flexible, so long as you're reasonable!

Most websites get transferred to WHC in under 24 hours once you've sent us working login information to your current web hosting provider. Most website migrations are scheduled overnight (EST) to minimize potential disruptions.

While migration times may vary depending on the complexity of your website, we've completed some site transfers in as little as 30 minutes. Larger or more complex sites can sometimes take longer to fully migrate over, but there's no project too big or too small for our trained migration specialists. Our migration team will inform you of expected delays and estimated completion dates if there are special circumstances.

Domain registration transfers are normally initiated after the website's contents have already been transferred, and can take anywhere from a few hours to up to 5 days to complete. Your website remains online and available throughout this process.

Each Web Hosting plan includes 1 free website transfer. Other plans can include multiple website transfers, as per the table below:

Transfers included by product

Product	Included Site Transfers
Any web hosting	1
Reseller Starter	10
Reseller Pro	20
Reseller Enterprise	40
Cloud Starter	10
Cloud Pro	20
Cloud Enterprise	40
Cloud Beast	60
Dedicated Pro	60
Dedicated Enterprise	80
Dedicated Beast	100

 

Within the context of our fair-use migration service, we define a website as a set of files not exceeding 10GB, accessible through a domain or subdomain, and including one database and up to 5 email addresses. More complex migrations should be discussed with our support team prior to being requested. We're flexible, so long as you're reasonable!

Additional site transfers outside the scope of our free migration service can be performed at a cost of $90/hour. Simply reach out to our support team to request a no-obligation quote.

Our team works efficiently to ensure your migrations are completed accurately while keeping costs low.

A domain is the address of your website such as whc.ca. Your website is its contents, including texts, images, scripts and apps. Though they are intimately related (like an address and a physical store) they are not the same thing and can be transferred independently of each other.

With Web Hosting Canada, we'll help you transfer both your domain and website over. If you prefer to only transfer one of the two, we can make that happen too!

No. Transferring your domain over at the same time as your website is generally recommended as it will make it easier to manage moving forward. However, the decision is yours to make and you may keep your domain registration elsewhere and just host your site with us. In that case, you'll be responsible to update your domain's nameservers to point your domain to our hosting (we can help with that too).

Yes. Our system works best when migrating reseller accounts from a cPanel/WHM host but we can provide the allotted free website transfers from almost all control panels.

To ensure a smooth process we ask that you contact our support team to discuss the specifics of your transfer and hosting needs.

Certainly! Our Web Hosting and Managed WordPress plans are optimized for WordPress websites and our technicians are specialized in transferring them quickly and efficiently.

Yes! You have full access to your account from the moment it gets activated, allowing power users to transfer their own sites by FTP, SSH, or using the File Manager. Databases can be managed through phpMyAdmin. Emails can be copied over with our ImapSync helper app. And if you ever get stuck or need help, you can always reach out and ask us for assistance.

Unfortunately, no. Since every website is different and there are thousands of different service providers from which to migrate from there are many issues that can arise. Some issues that we've encountered that can create problems during migrations include

• websites running on very old platforms (PHP 5.3 or earlier)
• websites using incompatible technologies such as ASP.NET or Java
• websites using proprietary Site Builders (such as Wix or SquareSpace)
• migration requests that are incomplete or inaccurate
• websites that are custom-built and that rely on hardcoded configurations buried deep in the website's code
• websites that are already infected or buggy before being migrated
• migrations where the other service provider is actively attempting to block our migration attempts
• migration requests based on unrealistic time constraints (example: transfer 100 websites in under 24 hours)

If you worked with a website developer to build or update your website, it's generally a good idea to inform them about any upcoming migrations so that they can be available to assist in troubleshooting any issues that may arise.

While we do our best to successfully complete every migration request that we receive, this is a courtesy service and there can be no guarantees as to its outcome. Having said that, we pride ourselves on a 95%+ success rate for incoming migrations and our team completes on average over a dozen managed migrations every day. Our experts have successfully completed thousands of migrations each and will provide their professional, honest and transparent service during each migration request to maximize the chances of success.