The first thing to understand is that a domain name and a website are separate entities – they don’t have to be moved together or stay together at all. With this in mind we’ll start with the website migration first.

Website Migration – Let us do it for you

The first thing you need to find out (if you don’t know already) is if your current web host uses the cPanel brand control panel. If they do and they allow us to generate the appropriate backup file for your account then we can move your entire website and email accounts for free. If you haven’t already, you may want to find out about our web hosting and choose a package suitable for your needs.

Finding out if your host uses cPanel

If you’re unsure if your host uses cPanel the best way to find out is to go to your-domain.com/cpanel (obviously replacing your-domain.com with your own domain name) – if you get taken to a login screen it’s highly likely your host uses cPanel.

If your host does use cPanel we can migrate your entire cPanel account for free, this includes all files, databases, email accounts (including all email) and settings – a complete carbon copy.

Ordering the Free cPanel Migration

You can go ahead and order your chosen hosting package, during checkout you’ll see an option for the ‘Free cPanel Migration’ – simply check this box during checkout and we’ll contact you after you checkout to complete your migration.

Note: If you want to migrate multiple cPanel accounts we can only perform a cPanel to cPanel migration on a one to one basis – so you must purchase the same amount of hosting accounts from us in order for us to be able to perform this migration. If you’re wishing to consolidate multiple cPanel accounts to a single account then these are classed as manual migrations and will fall into our standard migration fee.

If Your Current Host Doesn’t Use cPanel

For a one off £12.00 (inc VAT) fee we’ll migrate your website for you. This Simple Site Migration service includes all of your site files and one associated database – for example, a WordPress or Joomla installation, or a small business website. This fee covers the vast majority of website migrations. If you have multiple software installations or websites then it’s simply £12.00 each.

Ordering the Simple Site Migration

You can go ahead and order your chosen hosting package, during checkout you’ll see an option for the Simple Site Migration for £12.00, simply check this box and checkout as normal – we’ll be in touch after your checkout is complete. If you have multiple sites you wish to migrate, order one during checkout, and then contact our support team who can create a bespoke order for the rest of your migrations.

It’s important to note that the Simple Site Migration service does not include migration of email accounts, these can be migrated separately.

Do it Yourself

If you want to save the migration cost and you’re confident in your ability you can easily migrate your website yourself. We provide full FTP access to upload files, and phpMyAdmin to import MySQL Databases. It’s not possible to give exact instructions as every website migration is different, however the general steps to migrate are as follows.

1. Download a copy of your sites files from your current host.
2. Export any MySQL databases from your current host’s control panel.
3. Upload the files to your new account with us.
4. Create MySQL databases in your control panel with appropriate credentials.
5. Import MySQL databases into phpMyAdmin
6. Update your site’s database connection credentials.
7. Update DNS and/or transfer your Domain Name to us.

Migrating Email Accounts

The first thing you need to find out is if your current email solution uses IMAP email. IMAP email is the most common choice of modern email – this is where email is stored on the server and multiple devices, computers and webmail can send and receive, keeping all email in sync. So if your email works as such, then it’s highly likely you’re using IMAP email.

If you’re still unsure if your host uses IMAP email, the next best way to find out is to check your email account settings in your email client, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mac Mail. In your email account settings you’ll see an Incoming server address, and a Protocol – this will be either POP or IMAP.

If your email does use IMAP then we can perform an IMAP Sync service for £6.00 inc VAT per mailbox (email address), where we will copy all of your email over to your new hosting account with us.

If your email does not use IMAP and uses POP instead then there is no need to migrate the email as it is not stored on your host’s server. You simply need to setup the email accounts on your new hosting with us after checkout.

Ordering the IMAP Sync Service

During checkout you’ll see an option for an IMAP Sync service for £6.00. Simply check this box to order migration one IMAP Mailbox. If you have more than one mailbox you need migrating contact our support team after checkout to arrange a bespoke order for more mailboxes.

Domain Name Transfer

It’s not required to transfer your domain name, a domain name does not have to be with the same provider as the web hosting, however many people like everything under one roof to keep things simple. A small minority of (awful) providers charge you to transfer your domain name away in an attempt to lock you in so we advise checking with them first.

Before you transfer your domain we suggest pointing the domain’s nameservers (see below) to our servers if your website has just been migrated, this will get it working from our servers within a few hours as domain transfers can take several days.

There are two types of domain transfer, one for .uk domains, and one for all of the others.

Transferring a .uk domain name

Domains such as .co.uk, .org.uk and .uk use what’s known as an IPS Tag. Whatever the domain’s tag is set to is who manages the domain. To transfer a .uk domain to us you need to change the tag to ENIXLTD – which is HostPresto’s tag. You can normally do this in your current domain registrar’s control panel (look for the IPS Tag option) or get in contact with them to do this for you.

The transfers are instant, so as soon as your current provider changes the tag it will come over to us.

Transferring other domain names (.com, .net and all other non .uk domains)

To transfer a domain you must log into your current registrar’s control panel and do the following three things:

• Unlock the domain
• Request the EPP Authorisation Key
• Check the domain’s registrant contact details and ensure it’s set to anemail address you can receive email to.

When you checkout with us you’ll be asked to input the EPP Authorisation key which will initiate the domain transfer. During transfer an email will be sent to the domain’s registrant email address (hopefully you) to approve the transfer. Transfers can take a few hours to a few days to complete.

When your domain transfers to us we add one year onto it’s renewal, therefore 1 years renewal fee is charged at the time of transfer (see our domain pricing here). If the transfer fails or you decide you don’t want to transfer the domain we’ll fully refund this fee.

Updating your Domain’s Nameservers

Log into your current domain provider’s control panel and find the management page for your domain. Look for an option called either ‘Change Nameservers’ or ‘Change DNS servers’ or similar. On the page there will be 2 or 4 boxes on a form. In these boxes enter the nameservers that were sent to you in your HostPresto account information email. These are:

• ns1.enixns.com
• ns2.enixns.com
• ns3.enixns.com
• ns4.enixns.com

After saving your changes the updates will take a few hours, then your domain name will be pointing to your account with us.