How to migrate your site to Maxinodes

Moving an existing website to Maxinodes is straightforward: we copy your site across, you test it on our servers, and then you switch your domain over when you are happy. This article explains who does the work, what we need from you, and how to keep downtime to a minimum.

Applies to: All plans.

The short version: Migration is free on every plan — Self-Managed and Managed alike — and we can do it for you. Your old site stays live until you change your nameservers, so the switch-over is on your terms.

Free on every plan

Migration is free on both product lines. What differs is only how much of the surrounding setup we handle:

Managed (Starter, Growth, Business, Enterprise): Migration is free and handled by us. We move your website, databases and mailboxes. This is part of the "Hosting, handled" promise. If you order Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace through us instead, we move your mail into those and configure their email DNS (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), on either line.
Self-Managed (Lite, Plus, Pro): Migration is free here too — just ask and we will do it for you. Self-Managed is self-serve, so you can also migrate yourself using the steps below if you prefer.

Not sure which line you are on? See Self-Managed vs Managed hosting: which is right for you.

What we need from you

To migrate a site for you, open a request in our Help Center at support.maxinodes.com, or email support@maxinodes.com, and include as much of the following as applies:

The domain name you are moving.
Where the site lives now — your current host, and the control panel they give you (cPanel, Plesk, something custom).
cPanel-to-cPanel: a full cPanel backup file. Generate it on your old host (cPanel Backup, or JetBackup), then upload it to your Maxinodes account or send us a download link.
WordPress (or other CMS): the same full backup if your old host can produce one — otherwise a copy of your site files plus a database dump (.sql).
Email: where your mail is today (your old host, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or another provider) and how many mailboxes you have.
Your domain: where it is registered, and whether you will update the nameservers yourself or would like us to walk you through it.

We will never ask you for a password by email or chat. Do not put your old host's password, your registrar login, your CMS admin login or any FTP or database password into a support request. Our Help Center, chat and support inboxes run on a third-party helpdesk, so anything you type there is stored on someone else's systems — and a password pasted into a support request long outlives the migration.

A backup file is all we need in almost every case. If your old host genuinely cannot produce one, we will ask you to create a temporary account there with only the access the move requires, agree a secure one-off way to hand the password over — never in the support request — and you delete that account the moment the migration is signed off.

The more of the list above you have ready, the faster and cleaner the move.

cPanel-to-cPanel migrations

If your current host also uses cPanel, this is the easiest case. We restore a full cPanel backup (or pull directly from your old host) onto your new account here. Files, databases, FTP accounts, subdomains, cron jobs and mailboxes (with their passwords, forwarders and filters) come across together.

Note: Your plan's mailbox limits apply, and mail shares the plan's storage. Read "Email migration" below before you switch the nameservers.

WordPress and other CMS sites

For WordPress (and similar platforms) we copy your files and your database, then update the configuration to run on our servers. Your site is tested on our infrastructure before you change anything live. Because we run LiteSpeed with LiteSpeed Cache, most WordPress sites are faster after the move with no extra work from you.

Email migration

Every plan includes mailboxes on your own domain, and moving your mail into them is free. "Email migration" means one of three things:

Your mail is at your old host: we move it into the mailboxes included with your plan, free of charge. From another cPanel host the transfer brings the mailboxes with their passwords, forwarders and filters; from anywhere else we create the mailboxes here and copy your mail and folders over IMAP (contacts, calendars and inbox rules don't travel that way, so export them yourself). The order is: mailboxes created and tested, a first copy, the MX or nameservers switched, a final copy, and the old mailboxes kept for a week. Tell us before you switch the nameservers or cancel the old hosting.
You already use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace: nothing moves with the website. Your existing MX record keeps pointing at your current provider: when we create your DNS zone, we copy those records for you.
You want Professional Email from us: order seats in the client area store (the Microsoft 365 group or the Google Workspace group), then add Managed email (€19/month including 3 users, then €5 per additional user). You can then move your existing mail into the new mailboxes. Because the seats came from us, we provide guided email setup and configure your SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for you, whatever your hosting plan.

For Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, the exact email DNS values (MX, DKIM selectors, and so on) come from the Microsoft 365 admin centre or the Google Workspace setup wizard — add them in the client area DNS manager, not in cPanel. See The DNS records your email needs (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and How to add Professional Email to your hosting.

Downtime and cutover

Nothing about a migration takes your live site down on its own. Your old site keeps serving visitors until you repoint your domain. The cutover works like this:

We migrate and test your site on our servers (reachable by a temporary preview before you switch).
When you are happy, point your domain at our nameservers at your registrar: ns1.maxinodes.com and ns2.maxinodes.com. If your mail is moving too, the mailboxes must exist here first (see "Email migration" above). See How to point your domain to Maxinodes (set your nameservers).
DNS changes propagate worldwide over a few hours (occasionally up to 24–48 hours). During this window some visitors see the old host and some see the new one, so keep both running until propagation finishes.
Free AutoSSL is issued automatically once your domain points to us, so HTTPS keeps working.

Result: Visitors reach your site on Maxinodes, your SSL certificate is in place, and you can decommission the old host.

Tip: To minimise the "split" window, lower your domain's DNS TTLs a day or two before cutover if your current host allows it, and switch over during a quiet period.

A few details to keep in mind:

Customer websites are served over both IPv4 and IPv6 (dual-stack). When your domain uses our nameservers, the zone we create contains both the A and the AAAA records for your domain, www, cpanel and ftp — you do not have to add anything, and AutoSSL (Let's Encrypt) covers both addresses.
If you are managing records manually instead of using our nameservers, add an A record to 185.185.49.198 and, if you want IPv6, an AAAA record to 2a00:7c80:0:286:c::10. See How to manage DNS records in your client area.