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Hosting & domain

Moving your site to another host

Your site runs on our hosting inside its own WordPress install. On your dashboard's site page, the WordPress Access card gives you the real admin username and password for that install, plus a link to WP Admin and a link to view the live site. That login is full WordPress admin access — you can install and use any standard WordPress plugin with it, including a migration plugin.

Before you start

• Back up first. Log in to WP Admin and export a backup, or use your migration plugin's built-in backup step, before you touch anything.
• Know your preview status. If your site is still in its preview window, check the countdown card on your site page. Moving the site does not stop that clock.
• Plan your DNS switch. If you're pointing a live domain at the new host, don't repoint DNS until the moved site is checked and working. Keep the domain on our hosting until you're sure the new one is ready.

How to move your site

1. Log in to WP Admin using the username and password from the WordPress Access card on your site page.
2. Go to Plugins, then Add New Plugin.
3. Search for a WordPress migration plugin (for example, Migrate Guru or a similar tool). Install and activate it.
4. Set up your destination — the new WordPress install on the host you're moving to.
5. Follow the plugin's steps to connect your current site as the source and the new install as the destination.
6. Start the migration and wait for it to finish.
7. Open the moved site on the new host and check: key pages, images, the contact form, menus, and links.
8. Only after everything checks out, update your DNS to point your domain at the new host.

Test it: open the moved site's URL directly (not through our dashboard). Click through your main pages. Fill in the contact form and confirm you get the "Message sent!" note. Check images and menus.

What happens to your preview window

The preview banner and the "preview expired" cover only show while your site runs on our hosting. Once you move it to your own host, both disappear on their own. Moving the same site back onto our hosting brings them back too, if the countdown hadn't run out yet.

Email after you move

If you host your site on your own server later, your new host needs to be able to send email. Most hosts already can. If yours can't, add a mail plugin to WordPress — any common one works, like FluentSMTP or WP Mail SMTP:

1. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins, then Add New.
2. Search for the mail plugin's name.
3. Click Install, then Activate.
4. Follow the plugin's setup — you'll need your email provider's server address, port number, username, and password.
5. Send the plugin's test email and check your inbox.

Updating your domain in the dashboard

Moving your site does not cancel or change anything in your dashboard — it only copies the WordPress site itself to a new host. Your dashboard still points at the copy on our hosting until you tell it about the move.

1. On your site page, find Migrated to a different domain? and click Update it here.
2. Type your new domain (like yourdomain.com — leave off the https://, we add that for you).
3. Click Update.

This only updates our record of where your site lives now — it does not move or copy anything itself. Once you've updated it, your site page's View Site and Open WP Admin links point at the new domain, and your login (from the WordPress Access card) still works, since a migration plugin copies your whole WordPress install.

Good to know

• The exact screens you'll see depend on which migration plugin and which new host you pick — they're not ours, so we can't walk you through every version.
• If the migration fails, or the moved site looks broken, that's a question for the migration plugin's support or your new host's support — it's happening on their system, not ours.

Still stuck? Reply to any email from us.