How to move your WordPress site to a new host without losing email

Moving a WordPress site does not have to take your website or your email offline. The real risk is not the site, it is the email: if you change DNS before the mailboxes exist at the new host, messages bounce or get lost. This guide follows an order that protects both: the site stays live at the old host while you prepare and test the new one, and email has a mailbox waiting on switch day.

Step 1: take inventory

Before touching anything, write down what exists today:

1. Sites and subdomains: is it only one WordPress, or are there also subdomains like shop.yourdomain.com or blog.yourdomain.com?
2. Mail accounts: each mailbox (info@, sales@), its rough size, forwarders and auto-replies.
3. Where your email lives: on your hosting, or in an outside service such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. If it is outside, there are no mailboxes to move.
4. DNS records: export or screenshot the whole zone: A, CNAME, MX and TXT (SPF, DKIM, DMARC and verifications).
5. Versions: WordPress, PHP, theme and plugins.

Point 4 is the one people forget: when you change nameservers, the new DNS zone replaces the old one, and whatever you did not copy disappears.

Compare your inventory with QuimeraCloud plans (all the data is on the facts sheet):

Plan	Sites	Email	SSH	First year (annual billing)
Premium	3	6 email accounts per domain, on up to 3 domains	No	US$3.99/month
Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	No	US$4.99/month
Cloud Startup	Unlimited	Unlimited	Yes (jailed shell)	US$9.99/month

After the first year the plan renews (Premium, for example, at US$131.88 a year). If your current host has more than 6 mail accounts per domain, or more than 3 mail domains, Premium falls short. To change plan later, message us on WhatsApp and we change your plan without moving your site: files, databases and email stay where they are.

Step 2: make your own backup

Download the files and the database from your current host to your computer, and export any important email. It is your safety net. At QuimeraCloud the automatic daily backup is stored on the same server (only the most recent one), so keep a copy of your own outside it too.

Step 3: create the domain and the mail accounts at the new host

Sign up for a WordPress hosting plan, add your domain in the control panel (HestiaCP, available in English) and create every mail account with exactly the same addresses as in your inventory. Mail goes through SpamAssassin antispam and ClamAV antivirus.

Do not touch DNS yet. If you pay with a Bolivian card (billing is through Stripe, in US$), check with your bank that it is enabled for purchases abroad. Doing this first means that on switch day the mailboxes already exist and new messages do not bounce.

Step 4: copy the site

You have two paths. The official WordPress documentation (source) describes the manual method: copy the files and the database, adjust the configuration and do not reinstall anything.

Option A: migration plugin

The simplest route: install a migration plugin on the current site, generate the package and restore it at the new host, without touching the database by hand. If the plugin needs a clean WordPress at the destination, install one first with the panel’s one-click installer. If the site is large, check the upload size limits.

Option B: files and database

1. Download the whole WordPress folder (wp-content holds themes, plugins and uploads).
2. Export the database to a .sql file.
3. At the new host, create a MySQL/MariaDB database and its user.
4. Upload the files and import the .sql.
5. Edit wp-config.php with the new database details:

define( 'DB_NAME', 'new_database_name' );
define( 'DB_USER', 'new_user' );
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'new_password' );
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' ); // confirm this value with your provider

Because the domain stays the same, URLs do not change and there is no need to search and replace addresses. Without SSH (Premium and Unlimited) option A is the practical choice; Cloud Startup also allows the command line.

Step 5: test the new site before changing DNS

Edit the hosts file on your computer so only you see the new site while everyone else stays on the old one. Add a line with the new server’s IP (ask support if you do not have it at hand); the one below is only an example:

203.0.113.10  yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com

The file is at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (open it as administrator) or /etc/hosts on Mac and Linux. Check the home page, inner pages, the WordPress login, forms and, if you run a store, a test order. Then delete the line. It is normal for the HTTPS padlock to be missing for now (or for the browser to warn you): the free Let’s Encrypt SSL is usually validated with the domain already pointing at the server, so you check the padlock after the switch, in step 9.

Step 6: lower the TTL 24 to 48 hours ahead

TTL is the time, in seconds, that servers remember a DNS record before asking again. If it is several hours, the change looks slow. At your current DNS, lower it to 300 (five minutes) on the A, www and MX records and wait for the previous TTL to pass. Nameservers are published at the domain registry with their own cache time, which you do not control, and can take longer.

Step 7: change the nameservers

Before you do, confirm the new DNS zone has the records from your inventory. Copy the ones for outside services exactly as they are (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, domain verifications). The mail records of the old host (its MX, its SPF and its DKIM) point to the old server: do not copy them, your domain must use the ones for the new server (if in doubt, ask us before the switch). Then, where you manage your domain, replace the nameservers with these two:

• ns1.quimeracloud.com
• ns2.quimeracloud.com

You do not need to transfer the domain: it stays registered where it is. To register a new one or connect the one you already own, see the domains page. We register .com, .net and .org, but we do not sell .bo: a .bo domain stays where you manage it, and you can connect it only if that place allows custom nameservers. Steps by registrar, the .bo case and how to check the change with nslookup are in the guide how to point a .com or .bo domain to your hosting.

If you prefer to move site and email separately, leave DNS where it is and first change only the site’s A record. Careful: if your MX points to the same name as the site (for example, yourdomain.com), changing that A record also moves your email, so check where your MX points before touching anything. The MX and the mail server record come later, once the mailboxes are ready.

Step 8: copy the old email over IMAP

From the switch onward, new mail lands in the new mailbox and the old messages stay at the old host. IMAP keeps messages on the server, so they can be copied from one to the other.

• A few mailboxes: add the old and the new account in Thunderbird (or your mail client) over IMAP and drag the folders across.
• Many mailboxes: use an IMAP copy tool such as imapsync:

imapsync \
  --host1 old-hosting-server --user1 info@yourdomain.com --password1 'OLD_PASSWORD' --ssl1 \
  --host2 new-hosting-server --user2 info@yourdomain.com --password2 'NEW_PASSWORD' --ssl2

For the old server use the hostname that provider gives you, not mail.yourdomain.com: after the switch that name already points to the new server. At the end, run the copy a second time to bring over messages that reached the old host while DNS was updating.

Step 9: what to check afterwards

Check	How
Receiving mail	Send a message from Gmail or Outlook to every address
Sending mail	Write to an outside account and confirm it does not land in spam; check SPF, DKIM and DMARC
HTTPS	Padlock on every page (Let’s Encrypt, automatic renewal). If it is missing a few hours after the switch, check the domain’s SSL in the panel or message us
Forms and store	One test form and one test order
Links	In Settings, Permalinks, save without changing anything
Forwarders and auto-replies	Recreate them on the new mailbox
Backups	Confirm the daily backup and download one of your own

Keep the old hosting active for a few days and cancel it only after you have checked everything, including the second mail copy.

A note of honesty about the server

QuimeraCloud has a single server, in Seattle (United States). If your audience is in Bolivia, the distance adds some latency, and the test in step 5 lets you see it before you commit. If you need root access, a VPS fits better; we compare them in shared, cloud or VPS hosting.

Once your inventory is ready, see which plan covers your mailboxes on the WordPress hosting page. If you get stuck, message us on WhatsApp at +591 773 14890: a person from the Quimera team answers.