Move from cPanel or another shared hosting service

This guide is for a website hosted in cPanel or a similar file-and-database hosting account. The control panel matters more than the brand: a provider may sell both ordinary hosting and a proprietary website builder. If your website uses WordPress, start with our WordPress migration guide; if it uses a closed website builder, follow the Wix and Squarespace guide.

Before you start

Keep your old hosting active. Have access to its control panel, your domain's DNS settings, and your Lizard Hill welcome email. Choose enough storage for website files, databases, email, and temporary backups together. Personal supports one website; Business three; Business Plus five; Business Pro ten.

1. Save a recovery copy. In cPanel, use Backup or Backup Wizard to download website/home-directory data and database exports. Keep a full account archive as an extra recovery copy if available. A cPanel full backup is not a customer-restorable DirectAdmin backup: do not upload it to DirectAdmin's restore screen and expect automatic conversion. Server-level cPanel conversion requires administrator involvement and is not an included self-service migration.
2. Record the pieces that do not move with files. Note each domain's document root, database names, PHP version, cron jobs, redirects, mailboxes, forwarders, and DNS records. Include external mail, verification, and payment-service records. Check compatibility before moving applications with unusual runtime requirements.
3. Prepare the destination. Log in to the DirectAdmin server assigned in your welcome email. Add each independent domain under Domain Setup, within your plan's allowance. Use its File Manager to open that domain's public_html directory. Do not assume the old account's addon-domain folder layout matches the new one.
4. Copy each website. Upload its files, including required hidden files such as .htaccess. Create the new database and database user in DirectAdmin, import the matching SQL export through phpMyAdmin, and update the application's database credentials and old server paths. Database names and usernames may change. Keep SQL exports, full backup archives, and credentials outside public website directories.
5. Handle email separately. If email stays with Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or another provider, preserve that provider's DNS records and configure external mail routing. If email moves here, create matching mailboxes and forwarders first, then copy existing messages using an IMAP client or a suitable migration tool. Website file copying does not migrate mailbox history.
6. Test, then switch. Follow the DNS and cutover checklist. Test with a local hosts-file override or protected staging copy. Confirm pages, images, forms, logins, redirects, and database writes. Recreate scheduled jobs only when ready so both hosts do not run the same task.
7. Finish safely. Make a final consistent copy for sites accepting orders or other writes, update the required A/AAAA or nameserver records, and verify HTTPS plus inbound/outbound email from another network. Keep the old service and independent backups until validation and cached DNS expiry are complete. A rollback must account for any new orders or messages, not just DNS.

You can usually keep your domain at its existing registrar; moving hosting does not require transferring domain registration. This is a self-service procedure, not a promise of zero downtime or done-for-you migration.

Official references

cPanel backup options · DirectAdmin's administrator-level cPanel conversion notes