How to move your website to Hostinger

Moving a website feels riskier than it is. The domain is a pointer. Hosting is a box of files and a database. You fill a new box, check that it looks right, then swing the pointer. This guide from web hosting codes assumes a typical WordPress site. Weird custom apps need a developer. We are not Hostinger support and we cannot log into your old host.

Before you touch DNS

1. Buy the Hostinger plan. Apply 83% off. 83% off: Hostinger 83% off. Plan choice: pricing and the review.
2. Write down the old host’s FTP or file manager login, WordPress admin, and where the domain is registered. Those are often three different companies.
3. Update WordPress, plugins, and themes on the old site. Migrate a healthy site, not a pile of errors.
4. Download a backup anyway. Hostinger’s migrator is fine. Your own backup is the seatbelt.
5. Lower the domain’s TTL if you know how. If you do not, skip it. DNS will still work. It might just take longer.

Option A: Hostinger’s free migration

On many plans Hostinger includes automatic website migration. In hPanel you start the migrator, give it the old URL and logins, and wait. This is the right option if you do not want to touch WordPress files. Watch for emails from Hostinger asking for extra access. If a login is wrong, the job sits there. That is the usual failure, not “migration is impossible.”

When they finish, you get a preview URL. Click every important page, the contact form, and the checkout if you have one. Fix permalinks and missing images before you change nameservers.

Option B: Move WordPress yourself

Install WordPress on Hostinger. Install a migration plugin you trust on the old site, create the package, and import it on the new site. Alternatively export files plus the database and import both. The plugin path is what beginners finish.

• Match PHP versions as close as you can.
• Search-replace the old domain with the new temporary URL for testing, then to the real domain at cutover.
• Reset cache plugins after the move. Old absolute paths linger.
• Re-save permalinks twice. It fixes a surprising number of 404s.

Email is a separate move

Website files and email mailboxes are not the same. If you use hello@yourdomain at the old host, copy or forward that mail before you change DNS. If you use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, your MX records should stay pointed at those services. Changing nameservers blindly can break mail even when the website looks perfect.

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Cutover

When the preview is good, change nameservers to Hostinger’s, or update A records if you were told to keep nameservers at the registrar. Wait. Clear your DNS cache if you still see the old site. Check HTTPS. Then keep the old host running for at least a week. Cancel the old hosting only after you have logged into WordPress at the real domain, sent a test email if you host mail there, and downloaded one more backup from Hostinger.

If something breaks, roll DNS back to the old values. That is why you do not cancel first. Panic-canceling is how migrations become disasters.

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What “free migration” still needs from you

A free migrator is not a concierge that understands your custom cron jobs. It copies a typical website. You still provide working logins, you still test the preview, and you still own DNS. If the old host blocks remote connections, the migrator stalls. In that case export WordPress yourself or give Hostinger whatever extra access they request. Sitting on the ticket without answering is how “free” becomes two weeks.

Tell Hostinger if the site is WordPress, a builder, or something else. Builders do not always copy like WordPress. A custom PHP app may need a human. This guide is honest about that limit because we are not going to pretend a coupon buys white-glove engineering.

WordPress search-replace and serialized data

If you move the database yourself, do not run a blunt find-and-replace in a text editor on the SQL dump. WordPress stores some options as serialized PHP. A naive replace breaks those strings. Use a WP-CLI search-replace, a migration plugin that knows this, or a tool designed for serialized data. If that sentence already feels like too much, use Hostinger’s migrator or a plugin and stay out of the SQL file.

Media files and disk caps

The database can look small while the uploads folder is huge. Check disk on the old host before you pick a Hostinger plan. A site with years of original-size photos can blow a small storage cap. Compress on the old host, or buy the plan with enough disk, or offload media later. Do not discover this at 95% full after cutover.

After the move, install a real backup habit on Hostinger. Migration week is when people feel immortal. Two months later they edit a plugin and want yesterday. Daily backups on the higher shared plan are the boring fix.

SEO during a move

Keep the same domain if you can. Changing hosts is not a reason to change URLs. If you also change the domain, use proper redirects and expect a messy season in search. If you only change hosts, Google usually treats it as the same site once the domain resolves to the new IP. Recreate Search Console verification if it breaks. Submit a sitemap. Watch for mixed-content HTTP images after SSL is reissued; those are leftover old URLs in content, not a Hostinger failure.

Do not noindex the live site during migration. People do that to “hide the preview” and then forget. Hide the preview with a password or Hostinger’s temporary URL. Leave the production domain indexable.

Rollback plan in one paragraph

Keep the old host paid. Keep a copy of the old nameservers or A records. If the new site fails after DNS, put the old records back. That is rollback. Everything else is optional. The reason migrations scare people is they cancel first. Do not cancel first. Use 83% off on the new Hostinger order, copy, preview, cut over, wait, then cancel.

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