At Cloud86, you can make use of a free migration service. With this service, we fully migrate your website(s), email, and domain for you. This service is included with all hosting plans except Webhosting Start and applies to a maximum of five websites. You can find all information in Migration service: Guide.
Are you not using this free migration service, or do you prefer to perform the migration yourself? Then you can use this article as a guideline. Below, we explain step by step what is required to migrate your website, email, and domain to Cloud86 yourself. This allows you to retain full control and perform the migration at the time and pace that suits you best.
Note: The exact steps may differ per provider. This article describes only the general and required steps. We advise performing the migration during our opening hours so that our support is available if you have any questions.
Inventory
Start by creating an overview of where your website, email, and domain are currently hosted. Check where each component runs and who manages it.
At a minimum, check the following components:
- Website: A website usually consists of website files (such as images, themes, and scripts) and a database (which contains the content). Both components are required for the website to function correctly. We cannot host websites created with website builders such as WIX, Shopify, Squarespace, Lovable or websites on wordpress.com.
- PHP version: Make sure your website is up to date and works with at least PHP 8.1. If you use an outdated CMS or outdated plugins, the website may produce errors during the migration or be insecure.
- Email: Note which mailboxes exist and whether old email needs to be retained. Cloud86 only supports email import via IMAP (a method to synchronize email on the server). For example, this does not work for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
- DNS zone and DNS records: DNS is the system that links your domain to the website and email. Note all current DNS records, such as A records, MX records, and any SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and TXT records. You will need these later.
Migration
Website
First, create a backup of the website and database at your current provider. Download this to your computer and then upload the website to your hosting at Cloud86. You can do this in two ways:
- Via the file manager in Plesk: Plesk: Login (less than 2 GB of files)
- Via FTP: FTP: guide (more than 2 GB of data)
After uploading, create a database and link it to the website. For WordPress, use Manually restoring a website backup . If you use another CMS, look in the configuration file to find the database details. For example, search online for “CMS name + configuration file”. Then use the guides below to create a database and import the old database.
Test the website before going live. To do this, temporarily modify the hosts file on your computer. This way, only you will see the new website.
You can migrate email using our Mail Import Tool. This automatically transfers email from your old provider to Cloud86. This only works with IMAP mailboxes. Not sure whether your provider uses IMAP? Search for “IMAP + provider name” or check the account type in your email program.
After the import, you can reconfigure any email aliases, forwarding addresses, and signatures:
Note: the import tool only migrates email from the old provider. Calendars and contacts are not included. Cloud86 does not support calendar or contact synchronization. Use a service such as Google or Microsoft for this instead.
DNS records
Check with your current domain provider which nameservers are active. Only the DNS records associated with the active nameservers are relevant to copy. For example, if you use Cloudflare, you manage the DNS records there and not with your hosting provider.
Note all DNS records you want to keep, such as:
- SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records (if these differ from the standard, Email security and spoofing (SPF/DKIM/DMARC))
- TXT records (for example, for google-site-verification)
- A or CNAME records for custom services or subdomains
Then create a DNS zone for the domain in your Cloud86 environment:
Next, add the DNS records. If you use Cloud86 for your website and email, you do not need to adjust the A and MX records. These are already set correctly. If you use the Cloud86 mail server, enable DKIM using Enable DKIM to ensure email is delivered properly and reliably.
Note: if your website remains hosted with another party (such as WIX or Shopify), you will need different DNS settings to use our mail server. For these settings, see the guide How to use the Cloud86 mailserver with an external website, or we can configure this for you by contacting our support before migrating the domain.
Domain transfer
First, check whether your website, email, and DNS are correctly configured at Cloud86. After that, you have two options: you can first change the nameservers, or you can transfer the domain directly.
Option 1: change the nameservers first (recommended)
You first point the nameservers of your domain to Cloud86. This allows you to test whether everything works correctly while the domain is still with your current provider. If everything works as expected, you can then safely start the domain transfer. If something goes wrong, you can revert to the old settings within approximately 2 hours by changing the nameservers back to the previous provider (Managing the nameservers of your domain).
Option 2: transfer the domain directly
You can also choose to transfer the domain directly to Cloud86. In that case, we migrate the domain in one go, together with the active settings. The time required for the transfer varies per domain extension. Below is all relevant information about transferring.
- The rules per extension can be found via support.openprovider.eu , search for the extension and click Transfer. The following points are useful to check in advance:
- Method of confirmation: usually this is an auth code (EPP/transfer code/token), but in some cases confirmation is done via email, meaning you will receive an email during the transfer that you must approve.
- Registration period after transfer: if this is set to unchanged or extend, we take over the current registration period of the domain, and with extend you pay to extend the domain by one year during the transfer. If the status is Restarts, you pay again during the transfer and the domain registration starts over. Any multi-year registration with another party will be lost.
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Average transfer time: with real time, the transfer is usually completed within 2 hours. If several days are listed, only the current provider can speed up the process by giving approval. In that case, contact the current provider after starting the domain transfer or wait the indicated number of days.
- For .nl, .de, and .be domains, a transfer takes an average of 2 hours.
- For .com domains, a transfer takes an average of 6 days, unless the current provider gives accelerated approval.
When everything is ready, you can start the transfer using:
Note: if the transfer code (EPP code) is incorrect during the transfer or ICANN verification is required, you will receive an email about this. If you do not respond, the transfer will not be completed. The transfer is only finished once the domain has the status Active in My Cloud86. Until then, the domain must be renewed with the previous provider.
If the transfer code is incorrect, request a new code from the previous provider and forward it to our support.
SSL certificate
After the domain transfer or after adjusting DNS, Cloud86 automatically requests a free SSL certificate. This usually happens within one hour and only if the domain points to Cloud86.
You can also request the certificate yourself, provided the domain points to our server:
If you need some help, you can always reach our support desk by email support@cloud86.io and on weekdays from 9:00 to 16:00 (CET) you can also reach us by phone and via the chat in My Cloud86.