Migrating a WordPress Site from HostGator to Getwebup

HostGator's shared plans are cheap to start on, but they get slow fast once a site picks up real traffic, and their support queue can eat a whole afternoon when something breaks. If you're moving a WordPress site from HostGator to Getwebup, here's the actual step-by-step — including the parts HostGator's own docs gloss over, like getting real cPanel access and keeping email alive through the cutover.

Why this migration trips people up

Most WordPress migration guides assume you already have full cPanel access with a known IP. HostGator doesn't always hand that over cleanly. On Hatchling and Baby shared plans, you often log in through the HostGator customer portal (billing.hostgator.com or portal.hostgator.com) rather than hitting cpanel.yourdomain.com:2083 directly, and the server hostname can be buried three menus deep. If you skip finding it, you'll waste time trying to FTP into a server you can't actually reach.

The other trap is email. HostGator bundles webmail (Roundcube or Horde) on the same account as the website. If you cut DNS over before mailboxes exist on the new server, every inbound email bounces until you notice — and by then you've usually missed something important.

Before you start: a 10-minute audit

• Confirm the domain's real registrar. Check via whois yourdomain.com — some HostGator customers bought the domain from HostGator directly, others from GoDaddy or BigRock and just pointed nameservers. You need to know where DNS is actually managed.
• List every mailbox. Log into cPanel > Email Accounts and write down each address, or at minimum note how many exist. You'll need to recreate these exactly on Getwebup.
• Note active plugins, especially caching and security ones. LiteSpeed Cache, Wordfence, and any HostGator-specific optimization plugin can cause false errors on the new server if left active during the move.
• Lower your DNS TTL now. Set it to 300 seconds (5 minutes) at least 24 hours before you plan to cut over. HostGator's default TTL is often 14400 (4 hours) — if you don't lower it early, DNS propagation drags out and so does your downtime window.

Step 1: Get real cPanel access on HostGator

Log into the HostGator customer portal, go to Hosting > My Hosting Package, and open cPanel. If you can't find your server's shared IP or hostname, check the "Server Information" widget inside cPanel itself, or the welcome email HostGator sent when the account was first created (search your inbox for "cpanel" and "nameserver"). You need this IP for a hosts-file preview later.

Step 2: Back up everything — don't trust the built-in tool alone

cPanel > Backup Wizard works for most HostGator shared plans, but on some older accounts the full-backup option is disabled by the host to save disk space. If that's the case, do it manually:

# Compress the website files via File Manager, or over SSH if it's enabled:
cd public_html
tar -czf site-backup.tar.gz .

# Export the database via phpMyAdmin (Export tab, "Custom" method, gzip format)
# or from SSH if you have it:
mysqldump -u dbuser -p dbname | gzip > db-backup.sql.gz

Download both files to your machine before touching anything else. If SSH isn't enabled on your HostGator plan, request it from support or just use the File Manager compress + phpMyAdmin export route above — it works the same, just slower.

Step 3: Set up the new site on Getwebup

Create the account or addon domain in your Getwebup cPanel, create a matching database and database user, and upload your backup. Restore the database through phpMyAdmin's Import tab, then extract the files:

cd public_html
tar -xzf site-backup.tar.gz

Edit wp-config.php with the new database name, username, password, and host (usually localhost on Getwebup unless told otherwise):

define('DB_NAME', 'newuser_wpdb');
define('DB_USER', 'newuser_wpuser');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'your-new-password');
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

Step 4: Preview the site before DNS points anywhere

Edit your local hosts file to point the domain at the new Getwebup server IP without changing public DNS yet:

203.0.113.10   yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com

Clear your browser cache and load the site. If URLs still point to the old HostGator paths or you see mixed content warnings, run a search-replace on the database (WP-CLI is fastest if you have shell access):

wp search-replace 'https://olddomain-on-hostgator.com' 'https://yourdomain.com' --all-tables

Test the homepage, a blog post, the WooCommerce checkout if you run one, and wp-admin login. Remove the hosts file entry once you're satisfied — don't leave it in, or you'll be the only person on earth still seeing the old server after cutover.

Step 5: Migrate email before you touch DNS

This is the step people skip and then regret. On Getwebup cPanel, go to Email Accounts and recreate every mailbox from your Step 0 audit list, using the same addresses (passwords can differ). For accounts with real mail history worth keeping, sync it over IMAP rather than starting fresh:

imapsync --host1 mail.yourdomain-on-hostgator.com --user1 you@yourdomain.com --password1 'oldpass' \
         --host2 mail.yourdomain.com --user2 you@yourdomain.com --password2 'newpass'

Do this for each mailbox before the MX record changes, so nothing is lost mid-transfer.

Step 6: Cut over DNS

Now change nameservers or A/MX records at wherever your DNS is actually managed (from your Step 0 audit) to point at Getwebup. If you're moving away from HostGator's nameservers entirely, switch to Getwebup's; if you're keeping DNS elsewhere, just update the A record for the domain and the MX records for mail. Because TTL is already down to 300 seconds, most resolvers pick up the change within 15–30 minutes.

Step 7: After the cutover

• Re-issue SSL. Getwebup's AutoSSL will usually pick up the domain automatically once DNS resolves to the new server — check cPanel > SSL/TLS Status and force a run if it hasn't fired within an hour.
• Send a test email to and from each recreated mailbox.
• Check Google Search Console for crawl errors over the next few days — a clean migration shouldn't generate any, but it's worth watching.
• Leave the HostGator account active for at least a week before cancelling, in case a cached DNS record somewhere still points there.

Prevention: what to set up differently this time

Once you're settled on Getwebup, turn on automated off-site backups (Getwebup's backup manager or a plugin like UpdraftPlus with remote storage) so a future migration — or a bad update — doesn't put you back in manual-backup mode. Document your DNS provider, registrar, and mailbox list somewhere outside the hosting account itself; that single audit step is what makes the next migration take an hour instead of a day.