Move from Free Classic Linux Hosting to cPanel

When you upgrade from Classic hosting to cPanel, you will need to move your website. There are several options to do this yourself - either automatically or manually.

Before getting started, there are a few things you want to know:

The entire process will take a few hours. You do not need to do all these steps at once.
Your website will experience some downtime. You will choose how and when you want this downtime to occur.
This is a fairly technical process. If you usually have a web developer help with this sort of thing, that may be the best option - especially if you have a complex Website such as an eCommerce Website.
If your Website is database-driven, you will need to make changes to your database connection strings. For more information, see What are the connection strings for my application's database?

Differences between your old new accounts

There are some important differences between your Classic web hosting account and the newer cPanel Linux hosting. This is because the new hosting platform does not support some outdated software platforms.

The following features are not supported in cPanel hosting:

FrontPage® Server Extensions
Ruby on Rails
GoWebsite Form Mail scripts
If your Website is custom-coded to use the GoWebsite form mailers, you will need to use your favorite search engine to find a different form mail script. Those scripts do not work with cPanel hosting.
Any of the outlined software feature changes

Step 1: Get Your New cPanel Hosting

You will go through the normal purchase process for buying a new hosting account. Your new cPanel account is free for the first year.

Go to the Web Hosting landing page, and click Add to Cart for Economy hosting.
Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Continue
You will be on a page for a free domain offer. Skip this step by clicking I don't want my FREE domain.
The offer for a free domain name will not work in conjunction with the discount for a free hosting account, i.e. you will not receive a free domain name with this hosting account.
Change the term length of your new Economy cPanel hosting from 36 months to 12 months.
Next to Have a promotional code?, click Add.
Enter the code we emailed to you, then click Apply. This will reduce the price in the cart to $0.00.
Click Proceed to Checkout, and then log in to your account if you are not already logged in.
Finish the $0.00 checkout.

Step 2: Set up Your New Account with a temporary domain or subdomain

You need to set up your new hosting account with either a temporary domain or a subdomain. You cannot use the same domain as your Classic hosting account until it is cancelled, which should be done last.

Setting up your new account this way lets you minimize downtime, and also let you preview your Website on the new hosting account. A simple way to do this would be to set up the account with migration.coolexample.com, using your own domain instead of coolexample.com.

To set up your account using a subdomain, see Set up your account.

Step 3: Move your Website from Classic hosting to cPanel

Now for the fun part. You will migrate your website from your Classic hosting account to the new cPanel hosting. Fortunately, there are several different ways to do this. The best way to migrate your Website depends on how your Website is built.

Move your Website automatically with Installatron

cPanel hosting uses Installatron to install and manage applications. If you are using an application that is supported by Installatron, you can use it to automatically move your Website. Installatron will move the Website and automatically update the Website settings and connection strings for you.

Some of the most popular applications supported by Installatron include:

WordPress
Joomla
Drupal
Magento
ZenCart

If you want to use Installatron to automatically move your Website to cPanel, see our Installatron migration guide.

Move your Website manuallly with FTP

If your Website is custom-built, or does not use a common web application such as WordPress, you will need to move the Website manually. Moving a Website manually can be tricky, so it is important to folow all the steps in the right order.

If you need to manually move your Website, follow our manual migration guide for moving your Website from Classic hosting to cPanel hosting using FTP.

Step 4: Cancel your Classic hosting account

Before following these next steps, make sure that you have finished moving your Website files to the new hosting, or backed up the Website files to your computer. Once you cancel your Classic hosting account, you will be unable to recover any Website files or databases on that account.

This is where we will actually cancel the Classic hosting account for good. When this happens, the Website will go down almost immediately. The Website will not go back online until you change the domain on the cPanel account. Once you cancel, it may take up to a few hours for the domain and original account to be removed from our records.

When you are ready, check out Canceling Your Hosting Account.

It can take up to 24 hours for the domain name to be available for use again after you cancel your hosting account.

Step 5: Change your domain on your new hosting account

It can take a few hours for the domain name to be removed from the Classic hosting before you can use it with your cPanel hosting. You should periodically try to change the domain on the new account one hour after canceling the Classic hosting account (e.g. changing migration.coolexample.com back to coolexample.com).

To start trying to change your domain name, see Change your account's domain.

After the change goes through, we'll make the appropriate updates on our side and your Website should be live within a few hours. If you don't see the changes, contact customer support.

You're done! We think you'll find that the new and improved cPanel hosting is worth the effort.