Website migration planning: checklists, DNS timing and platform moves
Plan a course or membership site migration: test before changing DNS, time the TTL and SSL, estimate the timeline, and move off hosted course platforms safely.
Begin by naming what kind of move this is: a host change for the same WordPress site, a domain change, or a move off a hosted course platform onto WordPress. Each carries different risks, and platform moves add a separate question about what student, enrollment and payment data can be exported at all.
For a host change, read the migration checklist first, then the guides on lowering DNS TTL, testing the new server before DNS changes and getting a valid certificate in place before cutover. Those steps let you prove the new host works while students are still using the old one.
Read the timeline and DIY versus migration service guides when budgeting time and help. After cutover, use the post-migration guide to confirm scheduled tasks, renewals and email still run, and keep the old host active until those checks pass.
Check the destination IP, TLS, page content, and redirects before a hosting cutover. Includes six recorded curl runs, including a wrong IP that still returned 200.
Research guide with a recorded demonstration on our own domainRead guide
Moving a course or membership site to a new domain: 301 redirect mapping, Google's Change of Address requirements, member logins, payments and email links.
An ordered checklist using Bluehost's backup tools and SiteGround's documented migration paths, with LMS progress, payment and email checks before you change DNS.
How GoDaddy separates domain, DNS, hosting and email, how to carry email records across, and an acceptance checklist before you cancel GoDaddy hosting.
Published migration and DNS timings from Kinsta, SiteGround, WP Engine and KnownHost, how site size and method change them, and a day-by-day planning template.
What Kinsta, SiteGround, WP Engine, Liquid Web and KnownHost say their free or paid migration offers cover, what none of them cover, and when paying is worth it.
Cloudflare's documented causes of redirect loops (Flexible mode, Always Use HTTPS, HSTS and conflicting rules), the fix order for a WordPress course site, and a pre-cutover check that the new origin has its certificate.
What happened to Media Temple, with dates as WP Tavern reported them, where former accounts now live, how to export a site from GoDaddy cPanel hosting, and the migration terms SiteGround, Kinsta and WP Engine publish.
What LearnDash's own documentation says about moving away from LearnDash Cloud: backups, the non-transferable license, plugins to replace, DNS, and the 24-hour cancellation window, plus a first-year cost comparison on SiteGround and Kinsta.
Plain definitions of the terms in WordPress migration docs and quotes, each paired with the specific risk it signals for a membership or LMS site and the question to ask.
A cross-platform table of what each hosted course platform's help docs say you can export (students, progress, quiz data, videos, payments), what has no export at all, and the gaps you will rebuild by hand when you move.
A step-by-step move from WP Engine to Kinsta built from both vendors' documentation: what to export before you start, the free migration timeline, and the redirects, cache rules, cron and email settings that do not transfer on their own.
A step-by-step SiteGround to Kinsta move: which SiteGround plugins to remove, why your mailboxes need a new home, and the DNS order that avoids losing email.
Export a WP Engine backup, move the site with SiteGround Migrator or by hand, swap WP Engine caching and cron for SiteGround equivalents, and verify a membership site before DNS.
Take Kinsta's weekly downloadable backup, import to SiteGround, recreate the redirects, cron and caching Kinsta handled for you, and check SiteGround plan limits on arrival.
Build the Droplet, move files and database, split email off because SMTP ports are blocked, and take on the server jobs a shared host used to do for you.
Strip server-specific config from a DigitalOcean WordPress build, decide what replaces your cron, object cache and mail, then follow the import route Kinsta or WP Engine documents.
Back up from HostGator cPanel, import to SiteGround, sequence email and DNS so nothing bounces, and run a member-login verification pass before switching.
For the common case where the domain stays registered at Namecheap: the nameserver switch that wipes records if done in the wrong order, the exact host-record edits, and the email choice.
What Wix's help centre says you can and cannot take with you, where an RSS import fits, how to rebuild members and payments, and a redirect map to protect search traffic.
What Squarespace's WordPress export file includes and omits, why images can break after you cancel, how to rebuild member areas and products, and how to map URLs.
Podia's documented contact and sales exports, how subscriptions behave in your connected Stripe account, and the order to rebuild products, access and student emails.
Stripe's documented options for keeping one account versus copying data to a new one, what a copy leaves behind, and how WordPress membership plugins attach to subscriptions that already exist.
Why a hosted course platform export rarely includes usable passwords, how to import student accounts and enroll them in courses, and a password-reset email plan that avoids a flood of support tickets.
The order to import users and content when combining two WordPress sites, which IDs change and what breaks when they do, and how to build a redirect map for the domain you retire.
Rollback triggers, what to keep running on the old host, a decision timeline for the cutover window, and how to reconcile orders and enrollments taken on the new host before you switch back.
A fill-in inventory for a course or membership site move covering DNS, email, scheduled tasks, webhooks, integrations, licenses, certificates and account access, with commands and places to look for each item.
When and what to tell students and members before, during and after a course site move, with plain-text email templates, an on-site banner, a support plan and the rules that keep the notice a service message.