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Moving to a new website hosting provider

changing website hosting provides


You need to manually cancel your web hosting when switching providers

When switching web hosting providers, sometimes it's mistakenly assumed that the process is similar to changing power companies or internet service providers. With utilities like electricity or internet, moving to a new provider automatically cancels your service with the previous one. You'll never receive two bills from two different companies providing internet to your house. 

This is not the case with website hosting.

Unlike utility companies, your current hosting provider has no way of knowing that you’ve moved your website to a new host. While your website may now be live on another server, your old hosting provider will continue to charge you because they’ve still provisioned hosting space for you on their servers. And all your website files, data and content are taking up space on their servers. 

Why It’s Different from Utilities

For services like electricity or internet, switching providers involves your physical connection to the utility’s network. As soon as you activate service with a new provider, they control your connection, and the old provider is disconnected automatically. So you can’t be billed by both for the same service at the same time.

Website hosting uses works differently. Your site is hosted on a server rack, and if you decide to move it to a new provider, your current hosting company won’t know unless you notify them. You can have your website active on multiple hosts simultaneously if you're paying for more than one hosting service. This leads to an important step that’s easy to forget: you must manually cancel your old hosting plan. This basically just means you have to tell your hosting provider that you are wanting to cancel the service, agree on a termination date for the service, complete any cancellation procedures and finalise your payments.

 

Website-hosting is like a car-park space. If you've found somewhere else to park for the last two months, that does not mean that you should be refunded for the carpark you have not been using. That space has still been provisioned for you regardless of if you've been using it or not.

 


How to Ensure a Smooth Transition

  1. Complete the migration: Move your website, databases, and any other important files to the new hosting provider.
  2. Test your site: Before canceling your old hosting, ensure that your website is fully functional on the new server and that everything is working as expected. It is actually quite common that some unexpected functionality stops working on a website in a new hosting environment.
  3. Update DNS settings: Point your domain’s DNS records to the new host, ensuring your website traffic goes to the right place. If your old web-host also manages your domain name — you should consider transferring it to your new web-host. It is very important to understand where your domain is held. Often people will move their website to a new web-host but leave their domain with their old-one. Then they forget about who has what and they don't pay for their domain and everything breaks! Take the time to understand this. If you leave your domain with your old host, expect to continue to receive bills from them. Learn more about domain names.
  4. Manually cancel your old hosting service. Once everything is confirmed, log in to your old hosting account and follow their cancellation process. There is usually a formal cancellation process where you need to tell them you wish to cancel the service, decide on a termination date, settle your final payments. You may wish to request a backup of your website just in case something goes wrong with your new host (it happens!).



Final Thoughts

Website hosting requires a thoughtful approach when switching providers. Don’t just assume your old hosting service will be canceled automatically when you move your site elsewhere. If you forget to tell your old web-host that you've moved you will continue to be billed. If you've continued to pay for these bills then it's unlikely that any refunds will be warranted. If you've left your domain with your old web-host you will continue to be billed. If you don't pay for those bills your domain might expire and your website and emails will stop working. Understanding how domain names work is vital to every business who is on the internet.

By following a few simple steps and remembering to manually cancel your previous hosting plan, you can avoid double charges and ensure a smooth transition.

Switching hosting providers doesn’t have to be complicated, but missing the cancellation step could lead to unnecessary fees. Take control of the process, and you’ll save both money and frustration.

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