How to Migrate from Cloudways to SiteGround
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If you’re switching from Cloudways to SiteGround—or just considering it—you’re in the right place. We’ll walk you through how simple it is to migrate your site and start benefiting from SiteGround’s superior customer support, security, speed, and performance.
How to Migrate Your Website From Cloudways to SiteGround
Migrating from Cloudways to SiteGround couldn’t be easier. With multiple ways to make the switch depending on your skill level and site setup, let’s dive in.
1. Migrate Your WordPress Site With the SiteGround Migrator Plugin
The easiest and most accessible option is surely the SiteGround Migrator plugin. It’s a free, fast, and incredibly easy way to migrate your WordPress site from Cloudways to SiteGround.
Here’s how it works:
1. Sign up for SiteGround Cloud Hosting: When you go through the registration process, you’ll be asked to give your current website’s domain name. From there, you will create your SiteGround account.
2. Complete website creation and get a token: When you log in to your SiteGround account for the first time, you’ll find that your account homepage has a prominent notification to set up your site—click on the Set up site button. This will lead you to the first step of website creation.
This is where you’ll see the domain name that you entered in your initial order. Now, you just need to verify the domain and move on to the next step. From there, click on Select under Migrate Website.
Now you’ll want to select the Superfast WordPress AutoMigration option, and continue each step as instructed. At this point, you’ll receive the aforementioned token, which will eventually be required for use with the SiteGround Migrator Plugin.
3. Install the plugin: Log into your Cloudways-hosted WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins, and search for SiteGround Migrator. Then, install and activate it.
4. Provide your token: After you’ve activated the plugin, you will need to provide the token that you acquired in step 2
5. Run the migration from Cloudways to SiteGround: Now just select Start Transfer, and the plugin will manage everything, migrating all WordPress files and database from Cloudways to SiteGround.
Keep in mind that this process doesn’t happen instantly, but you can keep track of its progress on your Cloudways WordPress dashboard via the plugin interface.
As part of this process, SiteGround will produce a temporary URL active for 48-hours, which you can use to preview how your website content loads on our servers. This permits you to check out and review the content to make sure that everything looks accurate.
If everything looks perfect, then you just have one more step, which is to repoint your domain. You can do this by switching your DNS settings and pointing them to your SiteGround website. To do this, access your domain registrar’s management panel, and then update your nameservers to ns1.siteground.net and ns2.siteground.net.
With that, you’ve completed the migration from Cloudways to SiteGround!
2. Allow SiteGround to Migrate Your Website for You
Using a plugin isn’t the only easy option: you can also have SiteGround do the whole thing for you. You’ll want to take advantage of this option if you don’t have a WordPress site, or if you’d prefer to leave all the migration management to an expert. Here’s what you will need to do:
- Sign up for SiteGround: Start choosing a hosting plan, signing up, and then setting up your account.
- Submit a request: Go to the Help Menu via the SiteGround dashboard. Select View Help Center > Contact Us > Transfer or set up a new site > Transfer website.
- Provide access details: Give the SiteGround team access to your Cloudways account—this will allow them to do the transfer.
And that’s it! Having SiteGround manage the migration from Cloudways is a great option if you want a hands-off experience managed by those that know how to do migration best.
3. Do the Manual Website Migration Yourself
The final option is to lean into your technical skills and do the migration from Cloudways to SiteGround yourself.
This means you’ll have complete control over the entire process. This also means, of course, more work for you, and also that you’ll need to have a certain level of technical knowledge. That’s why, if you have WordPress, we very much recommend using the SiteGround Migrator, since it takes care of everything for you. Alternatively, having our team do the transfer is a great option if you don’t use WordPress.
At the end of the day, if you’re toying with the idea of doing a manual transfer, then it’s very possible that you’ve got your technical knowledge pretty dialed. If you have any doubts, though, please don’t hesitate to read our article on how to transfer a WordPress site manually.
Finishing Up: Your Migration From Cloudways to SiteGround
And that’s a wrap! If you’ve completed any of these steps then you’ve officially migrated your site to SiteGround from Cloudways. Maximize your new SiteGround-hosted website’s potential by tracking and improving your website’s performance metrics. And, if you have a WordPress site, ensure the best speed and security by using the SiteGround Speed Optimizer and Security Optimizer plugins.
Choosing SiteGround means you’ve taken an important step in improving your website’s speed and security, so we look forward to accompanying you on your journey to success.
