Done properly a host move is dull and nobody notices. Done in a hurry it is the afternoon your email stops working, which is the part people forget to plan for.
Copying files and a database to a new server is the straightforward part. What causes the bad days is everything attached to the domain — email in particular. If your mail runs through the same provider and the DNS is changed without planning that, mail stops, and it stops for everybody at once.
The second thing people underestimate is what the old host was quietly doing. Scheduled tasks, SSL renewal, a caching layer, IP addresses on somebody’s allowlist, or a payment provider expecting requests from a known address. None of those announce themselves until they stop.
So the order matters: inventory first, build and test on the new host second, deal with email and certificates third, and change DNS last — when there is nothing left to discover.
What we do
Working UK-wide and internationally — directly with businesses, and white label behind design and marketing agencies.
Discuss a projectCron jobs, mail routing, certificates, integrations and anything relying on the current IP. This is the step that gets skipped and the reason migrations go wrong.
A full working copy, reachable on a temporary address, with the same versions. Nothing on the live site changes yet.
Not just that the home page loads. Forms submitted, checkout tested if there is one, admin logged into, scheduled tasks confirmed running.
Mail routing confirmed and certificates in place before DNS moves, so the switch does not take your email with it.
Reducing DNS time-to-live in advance means the change propagates in minutes rather than a day — and that it can be reversed just as quickly.
Monitored afterwards, with the previous host left running for a short period. It costs very little and it is the difference between a problem and an incident.
Better hosting raises the floor. If the site is slow because of how it was built, you will arrive with the same problem and a smaller budget.
More migrations cause pain through mail than through the website. If your email is with the current host, that is the first conversation, not the last.
While DNS propagates, some visitors see the old server and some the new. Anything written to the old one in that window needs handling — which matters for shops and forms.
A lot of our work is delivered white label or under agreement, so these describe the problem and the approach rather than naming the client.
Ten brand websites across one instruments group. Several we built, the rest we inherited — and all ten are hosted, maintained and supported by the same team.
Migration · DevelopmentFive separate legacy CMS sites, five databases and five themes, consolidated into a single multilingual multisite CMS platform.
Portal · Ecommerce · MigrationAn industrial-scale ordering portal migrated off a legacy platform, with client authentication, advanced search and form-to-CRM integration.
Preventive WordPress security: filtering before the CMS loads, site isolation, patching and scanning — and an honest account of what it cannot promise.
Managed website backups held off-site, with the job verified as having run and the restore actually tested. What most backup services never check.
Monitoring that checks real pages rather than just the home page, and alerts the people who can fix it rather than only telling you.
We will tell you what the move involves, what needs handling before DNS changes, and whether moving will actually solve the problem you are trying to solve.