How To Migrate WordPress Website to HostGator [Tutorial]

Migrate WordPress Website to HostGator
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I recently published a post on how to transfer WordPress site to the new host, but for many users migrating WordPress hosting is a technically challenging process.

Most bloggers who initially used cheap WordPress hosting may now have reached a level of success that calls for more advanced hosting.  However, due to a lack of technical knowledge, they continue to rely on free or cheap hosting which may present issues regarding a lack of advanced resources or frequent downtime.

In today’s post, we will have a look at HostGator which allows you to migrate your WordPress blog for free to their hosting service.

Hostgator, one of the best shared hosting services for WordPress, is not free, but it does offer quality hosting for a very reasonable price. One of the best features offered by Hostgator is its customer service, a very important feature of any service.  In addition to their commitment to excellent customer service, Hostgator offers free WordPress hosting transfer, making the transfer to their service even more compelling. They offer this service so that new customers can move from their old hosting service to Hostgator with minimum stress and hassle.

Before you sign up for Hostgator, however, here are some of the facts you should consider where Hostgator’s free web-hosting migration is concerned:

Facts about Hostgator’s free web-hosting migration:

Main domain:

Hostgator allows free migration for your main domain. It does not matter if it is a WordPress blog or a static website, they will migrate your blog for free.

Upgrade your package:

If you are an existing customer, you can upgrade your hosting package to a higher level. For example, if you have the Hatchling plan, you can upgrade to the Baby plan or the Business Hostgator plan, and ask them to migrate it for free.

Migrating multiple WordPress blogs/websites:

If you have more than one blog to migrate, you can get in touch with Hostgator customer care before you sign up with them, and negotiate a deal to buy their hosting service if they are willing to handle the migration of more than one website.

Having said that, you should be aware that when Hostgator’s customer care handles your WordPress hosting migration, some common issues you may encounter are:

  • Images not uploading
  • Cache not working
  • WP-DB Manager plugin not working
  • Odd character WordPress issues

These are issues that they are supposed to handle, but because they follow traditional migration methods, (such as migrating databases and moving WordPress content folders), they can easily miss some of these features.

(Use Coupon: ShoutMeLoud30 to get 30% off)

How To Request Free Website Hosting Migration From HostGator

The process of migration itself is simple, but issues can arise after the migration of your hosting service has occurred. This is because most of the time your directory structure changes, and your cache and many other plugins stop working because of those changes in the directory structure.

While I cannot guarantee a trouble-free hosting migration based on this tutorial, I can tell you that if you accept the help of the free hosting migration service, you would surely face fewer issues.

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If you have not yet signed up for Hostgator, you can sign up for Hostgator here.

Once you have signed up, you will receive an email with all the information you need related to your Hostgator hosting.

Details required for free Website migration:

In order to initiate the migration request, you will need the following information:

  • Old Hosting FTP username
  • FTP username and password
  • WordPress admin info
  • cPanel login URL along with username & password
  • Latest WordPress database backup

While they generally make a backup as part of the migration, I would suggest that you make a complete backup of your own since your last update, and tell them to use the backed-up database file as they move forward with the migration of your site.

Here is the page that you need to fill out to request your free blog migration.

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All fields are self-explanatory and simple to complete, allowing you to very easily request the migration of your website.

(Use Coupon: ShoutMeLoud30 to get 30% off)

Let us know which shared hosting you are using, and how it is working out for you.

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Do let us know if you prefer Hostgator over other shared hosting services, or if you prefer some other hosting service that you believe is comparable to Hostgator.

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Authored By
A Blogger, Author and a speaker! Harsh Agrawal is recognized as a leader in digital marketing and FinTech space. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud, and a Speaker at ASW, Hero Mindmine, Inorbit, IBM, India blockchain summit. Also, an award-winning blogger.

11 thoughts on “How To Migrate WordPress Website to HostGator [Tutorial]”

  1. prakash

    Hi Harsh,

    I have been currently using my site at Hostgator US. My site doesnt have any heavy snippets and widgets. however, per Google page speed test and Pingdom test, found that the server response time took more than 0.72 seconds which is quite headache for me. Could you please suggest should I do some migration from hostgator to bluehost will do well or not. I have already spoken with the Hostgator but nothing was helped from them.

  2. Saket Jajodia

    I will prefer self migration even if I broke something I will get knowledge if I ask other people to do everything for me then I won’t be able to know what they have done and even if they have done everything or not.

  3. rajinder singh

    sir i having a blog on blogger so if i buy a webhost and then how will i shift my whole website to host. one more problem i want to change my blog from blogger to wp so first i have to change my blog and then i should migrate..?

  4. rahul

    sir i have some doubts and questions about this topic so please answer this questions

    1> i am willing to start my blog so which plan is the best for any beginner and which plan you user on hostgator

    2> do i pay yearly , per 6 monthly or monthly ,how can i save a lot of money by choosing the right paying period “What Do you say”

    3> suppose i payed for a year for baby plan what if i later plan to upgrade to hatching plan what will happen to my money “answer if you can ”

    i have asked you so many questions sorry if i am bugging you ,

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Rahul if you are planning to host only one site, you should go for hatchling plan and if more than one you should go for baby plan.
      I suggest go for one year hosting plan and use coupon code shoutmeloud25 to get 25% off.
      Yes you can upgrade your plan anytime by asking the customer support. You need to pay the difference in the amount.
      Do let me know if you have any more questions.

  5. Sathish @ TechieMania

    Great news. I have used Hostgator services before for migrations works, I have always hired professionals. Its good to see that now they are doing it for free for their customers. Thanks for sharing the news man.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Sathish this service exist for long, but very few people knows about it. Thanks for dropping by and for your comment.

  6. Amrish Singh

    Harsh I have a wordpress blog and i want to change its hosting company .I have registered its domain name from an Indian domain registrar and host this from U.S . I want to know that can I upload my .sql file hostgator .I don’t want to lops my blog data .Is this possible

  7. Jasmine

    HostGator is a great web hosting company, there servers are fast and very stable.

    Anyway, I would also recommend GreenGeeks. I think GreenGeeks is equally good as HostGator if not better, furthermore they are a Green web hosting company – these days it’s just better to pay more attention to our mother earth! 🙂

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      Jasmine I never heard of GreenGeeks. Thanks for brining another webhosting. I will check our Greengeeks and see how good it is.

  8. Vivek Parmar

    That’s great offer. Hostgator recommended webhosting to start with blogging later on you will learn many more things.

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