How to Migrate to Cloudways: Step-by-Step WordPress Guide

Why Shared Hosting Is Holding Your Site Back

If your WordPress site runs plugins like LearnDash or WooCommerce, you've probably noticed things slowing down as your business grows. Shared hosting plans are great for getting started, but they quickly become a bottleneck once your site handles real traffic and complex functionality.

The difference is dramatic. On a shared hosting plan, loading a single page can take 5 to 10 seconds. On Cloudways, the exact same page loads almost instantly. For an e-commerce site or online course platform earning six figures a year, that kind of lag directly impacts the customer experience and your bottom line. Nobody wants to wait around after they've just paid for a course.

The good news is that migrating off shared hosting doesn't have to be painful. With the right steps, you can move your entire WordPress site to Cloudways with minimal downtime and zero data loss.

What Is Cloudways (and Why It's Worth Considering)

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform, which means it acts as a user-friendly layer on top of powerful cloud infrastructure providers like DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform. You get the raw performance of enterprise-grade servers without needing to configure anything through a command line.

One of the standout perks is access to Cloudflare Enterprise, which normally costs hundreds of dollars per month per site. On Cloudways, it's available for just a few dollars. The pricing model is also refreshingly transparent — there are no long-term contracts, and you only pay for what you use. You can spin up a server for a few hours and shut it down without penalty.

It's worth noting that DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways, so the integration between the two platforms is tight and well-supported. A 2GB DigitalOcean server on Cloudways runs about $26 per month, which is a reasonable price for the performance boost you'll see.

Step 1: Create Your Destination Server on Cloudways

The first step is to spin up your new server on Cloudways. This takes a few minutes to provision, so it's smart to kick it off first and then work on preparing your source site while you wait.

Log into your Cloudways account and click the green "Launch Now" button. Choose WordPress as your application, give your app and server a name, and then select your cloud provider. DigitalOcean is a solid default choice, but you can explore Vultr, Linode, AWS, or Google Cloud depending on your budget and performance needs.

Pick a server location that's geographically close to your audience — for a US-based audience, something like New York works well. Once you've made your selections, hit launch and let Cloudways do its thing in the background.

Step 2: Put Your Site in Maintenance Mode

Before you touch anything related to the migration, you need to make sure no new transactions or user interactions happen on your source site during the transfer. If someone makes a purchase or submits data while you're mid-migration, that information could be lost.

The simplest solution is to install a coming soon or maintenance mode plugin. Head to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress dashboard and search for "maintenance mode." There are plenty of options — SeedProd is a popular choice, or you can use something lightweight like the Under Construction plugin by WP Brigade.

Activate the plugin and turn on maintenance mode. Make sure you disable it for administrators so you can still navigate the site and perform the migration. Anyone else visiting your site will see a simple "coming soon" or "under construction" message. You can customize this page if you want, but a basic message works fine for a quick migration.

Step 3: Create a Full Backup Before Migrating

This step is technically optional, but skipping it is a bad idea. Taking a clean backup of your site before migrating gives you a safety net in case anything goes wrong. You won't be restoring this backup on the destination server — the migration plugin handles the actual transfer — but having a complete copy of your data provides peace of mind.

Install the free version of WP Vivid (Plugins > Add New, search for "WP Vivid"). Once activated, navigate to WP Vivid > Backup & Restore in your sidebar. Run a manual backup with both database and files selected. You can store it locally on your server or send it to remote storage.

Once the backup completes, download all the parts to your local machine. If something catastrophic happens during migration, you can spin up a fresh WordPress installation anywhere, install WP Vivid, and drag-and-drop those zip files to restore everything — content, settings, plugins, and all. Does this add a few minutes of downtime? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

Step 4: Run the Cloudways WordPress Migrator

Now for the main event. Head to Plugins > Add New on your source site and search for "Cloudways." Install and activate the Cloudways WordPress Migrator plugin. Once activated, you'll land on the migration form.

Before you fill anything out, note that Cloudways offers a free migration service — they'll do the entire process for you. If you only have one site and prefer a hands-off approach, it's a great option. For agencies or anyone who wants full control, the DIY route is straightforward.

Enter a valid email address at the top of the form. This isn't for marketing — it's so you'll receive status notifications as the migration progresses. Then fill in the destination details from your Cloudways dashboard: the application URL (found under Applications), the public IP address (used as the SFTP host), and the database name. You'll also need to create SFTP credentials in Cloudways if you haven't already — just pick a username and password under the application credentials section.

Leave the remaining settings at their defaults (they work for 99% of sites) and hit Migrate. The plugin will validate your details and begin transferring everything. For a typical WordPress site, expect the migration to take around 25 minutes.

Step 5: Verify Everything Works on the New Server

Once the migration completes, don't just glance at the homepage and call it done. Open the temporary Cloudways URL and thoroughly test your site. Click through key pages, check your course content if you're running LearnDash, browse product pages if you have WooCommerce, and even make a test purchase if possible.

The goal here is to catch any issues before you point your live domain to the new server. It's much easier to troubleshoot problems while your old server is still running than after you've already switched DNS. Look for broken images, missing plugins, formatting issues, and make sure forms and interactive elements work as expected.

Only once you're confident everything is functioning properly should you move on to the next step.

Step 6: Connect Your Custom Domain

With the migration verified, it's time to connect your real domain name. In Cloudways, navigate to Domain Management in the left sidebar. Add your domain name and hit Add Domain. By default, it will be set as an alias — click on it and choose "Make Primary" to set it as the main domain for your application.

Cloudways will take a moment to update all internal references to use your custom domain instead of the temporary URL. This ensures WordPress, your database, and all internal links use the correct domain going forward.

Step 7: Update Your DNS Records

This is the step that actually flips the switch. Until you update your DNS, all traffic still goes to your old shared hosting server. You need to point your domain's DNS records to Cloudways.

Grab the public IP address from your Cloudways dashboard (the same one you used during migration). Then head to your DNS provider — whether that's Cloudflare, Namecheap, GoDaddy, Hover, or whoever manages your domain. Create or update an A record: use "@" for a root domain or your subdomain name, and paste in the Cloudways IP address.

Save the record and give it a moment to propagate. DNS changes can be nearly instant with providers like Cloudflare, or take up to a few hours with others.

Step 8: Install Your SSL Certificate

After updating DNS, you'll likely see a "connection not private" warning when visiting your site. Don't panic — this is actually a good sign. It means DNS is pointing to your new server, but you haven't installed an SSL certificate yet.

In Cloudways, go to SSL Certificate in the left sidebar. Enter your email address and domain name, then click Install Certificate. The process takes just a few moments. Once installed, refresh your site and you should see it loading securely over HTTPS with full functionality.

This is also a great time to do one final round of testing. Browse the site, check page load speeds, and enjoy the difference. Pages that used to take 5-10 seconds should now load almost instantly.

Bonus: Cloudflare Enterprise and Server Backups

With your site up and running on Cloudways, there are a couple of additional optimizations worth enabling. First is Cloudflare Enterprise, which Cloudways offers at a fraction of the normal cost. This adds an enterprise-grade CDN and security layer to your site that would normally run hundreds of dollars per month. The per-site cost decreases as you add more sites to your Cloudways account.

Second, set up server-level backups. Navigate to Servers, select your server, and go to Backups. By default, Cloudways backs up daily at 6 AM with one week of retention. If you're running an e-commerce site with frequent transactions, consider increasing the frequency to every hour or every three hours. Even if you already have a WordPress backup plugin, server-level backups provide an extra safety layer.

What About Your Email?

One often-overlooked issue when leaving shared hosting is email. Many people still use the email accounts bundled with their hosting plan, and that dependency keeps them stuck on bad hosting longer than necessary.

Cloudways offers an integration with Rackspace at just $1 per user per month. To set it up, click the grid icon in Cloudways and choose Add-ons, then find Rackspace Email and start adding your users. Rackspace is a reputable provider, so your email will be in good hands.

That said, you're not locked into Rackspace. Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook, or any other email provider will work just as well. The important thing is to have a plan for your email before you cancel your old shared hosting account.

Watch the Full Video

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.