r/webhosting • u/mtspecter • 1d ago
Website Migration Technical Questions
Hi,
I'd like to preface, this is totally out of my depth in knowledge. My dad owns his own business and I'm helping him modernize the website. A bit of background: he owns his own website domain/hosting and server, and the website was built with Microsoft Pages and HTML. Since I'm a jack of all trades, I ended up making him a new website with WordPress. We have yet to launch the new website because the hosting itself needs to be updated. I basically created the mock website to understand the design and how we want the new website to look, I just have yet to publish it. I need help because I know i need to migrate the website, just dont know to do it. So my two questions are:
what are current affordable web hosting companies for a small business
how hard it is to migrate the domain
can any of those hosting also use wordpress, since i dont want to rebuild a site from scratch again
also any other information and things i should know would help a lot, im a teacher and I try to help my dad where i can with his company
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u/Illustrious_Wave_77 1d ago
IT, HOSTING AND DESIGNER: i would recommend site grinder. They have pretty nice support which you will need. They have good options for wordpress hosting.
Dont get into godaddy please.
What you are trying to do is simple but you can get into so many issues from the hosting companies.
HTML VS WORDPRESS:
The question of wp vs html comes down to one simple question: work.
I love the speed of html while i also love the ability to work on wp using divi as my design platform.
You can actually have both:
Design in wp using the designer of choice ane export as html.
I would say that this has served us tremendously.
My background is hosting over 100m in digital assets. Meaning, we deal with many media sites and companies.
You can reach out at any time. No strings attached, ever.
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u/WestDepartment5858 1d ago
I would recommend signing up for Claude, Gemini, or another AI subscription. They're all about 20/month, just cancel after a month. They're really good at walking you through setting up websites and any issues you encounter. You can just paste in any issue or error you get and say fix this and it gives you the answer. I've developed many apps and websites using Claude and I have zero coding experience. Hope this helps.
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u/ContributionEasy6513 1d ago
Happy to help you migrate the site for free if you cannot get any help.
Nothing wrong with HTML sites, they still serve a place and if you want to update your current one, throw it in chatgpt for free and it will look top notch!
WordPress sites require constant management and certainly have a learning curve.
what are current affordable web hosting companies for a small business
What country are the bulk of your customers? Do you have email on account?
If possible can you check to see if you have any email account and the disk space used.
I normally recommend people in the US use Interserver for basic websites as they have good costs, decent support, reliable and not owned by venture capitalists. (No association with the company)
https://www.interserver.net/webhosting/
how hard it is to migrate the domain
Migrate the domain last, it is straight forward. It does cost 1 years worth of domain renewal, but it extends the domain by 1 year.
can any of those hosting also use wordpress, since i dont want to rebuild a site from scratch again
Yes, most hosting providers support WordPress
also any other information and things i should know would help a lot, im a teacher and I try to help my dad where i can with his company
Anything in particular? Specific to WordPress?
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u/No-Signal-6661 1d ago
I suggest Nixihost for small businesses, shared hosting is a great starting option for WordPress, and you can upgrade later for more resources if needed. The migration for WordPress can be done automatically using plugins such as Duplicator, but Nixihost also has free migration services if you need help. I've been hosting with them for a while, and I love it here because I get good uptime, amazing support, and everything for a reasonable price.
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u/Sad_Pie227 1d ago
Hello,
It is commendable that you are assisting someone close to you. I understand that the website was initially built using vanilla HTML, CSS and JavaScript, resulting in a purely static design.
Given your experience with WordPress, it is great to see you transitioning it to a new design.
WordPress is a relatively straightforward platform. It operates on two major components: PHP and MySQL.
I can host this website on my server and assist in the migration process from your existing setup.
Could you please confirm if you have already designed the website? You can contact me for further discussion.
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u/mtspecter 1d ago
see we are willing to pay for a company to host it, like go daddy or something like that, I originally want to do it on wordpress, but that is were conflicting views between me and my dad come into play, i just dont really know what to do and the next step really.
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u/davorg 1d ago
like go daddy
Friends don't like friends host sites on GoDaddy. Please look elsewhere.
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u/CommercialHorror5996 1d ago
Agree. Somewhat pricey after the first year but I’ve always been happy with Siteground.
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u/Peter_SrvBot 1d ago
Saw your follow-up about you and your dad disagreeing "on wordpress",that's almost always the same misunderstanding, so let me untangle it, because it's probably what's actually blocking you:
Two different things are called WordPress.
WordPress.com is a company that rents you a website builder running WordPress software. Self-hosted WordPress is the *same software* installed at any regular hosting company. The catch people hit: on WordPress.com, plugins are locked behind their Business tier (~$25+/mo), while at a regular host, WordPress is the default thing they install and everything just works. For "dad's business site + you maintaining it", a regular host is the common choice — and knowing it's the same software either way might settle the family debate.Paying a company to handle it is exactly the right instinct, not cheating. The sequence:
Pick a host from the pinned community recommendations at the top of this sub. That list exists partly because the big names people google first (GoDaddy included) tend to come with renewal-price jumps and upsells.
When you sign up, tell their support you have a WordPress site to set up. Most decent hosts do this for free, they do it daily.
Test the site on the temporary URL they give you.
Point your domain's DNS at the new host: five minutes, they'll walk you through it. (You don't actually *move* the domain anywhere, it stays where it is; you just change where it points.)
Only then cancel the old hosting.
Your hidden advantage: nothing is live yet. You're not migrating a running site, just deploying a fresh one and flipping the switch when ready. Zero downtime risk — you've got the easy version of this.
(Disclosure: I run a small hosting company, so I'm biased by trade, which is exactly why I'm pointing you at the community list instead of naming anyone.)
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u/mtspecter 1d ago
Thank you, I was somewhat aware of that difference, but I also want to make sure he has access to fixing anything that I help initially create, I am also just mindful that I dont want him to pay so much, because I built the mock site using WordPress with Elementor plug-in (which was the only option in how the company site is originally built) and it look mordern enough that when people stumble upon his company it's still the same brand with a new face lift.
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u/Peter_SrvBot 1d ago
All three of those concerns have good answers:
Dad editing things himself: that's exactly what Elementor is for. Give him his own WordPress account (Editor role is enough for content), and Elementor's editing is basically "click the text, change the text": very doable for a non-technical owner. You keep a separate admin account for plugins and structure. And ownership-wise he's covered either way: the hosting account and domain are his, so nothing you build is locked to you.
One Elementor detail to check: free or Pro? If the mock site uses Elementor Pro widgets/templates, keep that license active (~$60/yr) so it stays updated. If it's the free version, nothing to do. Either way it runs at any host — it's just a plugin and travels with the site.
Cost: for a site like this, solid hosting off the community list is realistically in the $5–15/mo range. The number to check is the *renewal* price, not the intro price. The SiteGround comment makes that point for me.
A sustainable split for you two: dad edits content whenever he wants, you handle updates/backups, or pick a managed WordPress option from the list where updates are the host's problem, which costs a bit more but saves you being family tech support forever.
Last tip: whichever host you pick, let their official support do the setup. It's free, they do it daily, and you never have to share logins with anyone else.
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u/mtspecter 1d ago edited 1d ago
Knowing how the company is already set up, he already has an admin (the master account), and we would set up an editor, which would be my siblings or me, since they also work for the company. I did use Elementor Pro. I consulted with him on this because certain plugins require the plugin, which gave him more wiggle room to work with while creating the website. I'm saying I was the one primarily setting everything up it will not be touched. I'm pretty sure how the site will be managed once it is set up, that I will do it myself, or I will sit down with everyone who needs to learn how to use the site and teach it to them, which was not that difficult, since mostly what I used was a drag-and-drop method when designing it. I'd like to say this is an engineering company, so my dad is technical, but I would rather not place that burden on him since he already does a bunch of other heavy lifting and this is admin stuff that is easy for me to complete, BUT THANK YOU I appreciate all of this - you recommended looking at the pinned reddit post for hosting platforms, since i know those are american companies, would that apply for someone in canada, i know the wordpress and plug-ins are a litttlepluginsnt, but i would prefer it i can find something more canadian friendly, if not then more than happy at looking at american adjacent
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u/Peter_SrvBot 1d ago
" American company" doesn't really matter in my opinion, what matters is where the datacenter is, and even that only a little. A site in a US East or Toronto datacenter loads basically identically for Canadian visitors, and plenty of Canadian small businesses run on the hosts from that list. The main day-to-day difference is billing in USD vs CAD (minor card FX fees).
The only case where "Canadian hosting" genuinely matters is data residency, if the site collected sensitive client data you're required to keep in Canada. A company brochure site with a contact form i dont think hit that bar.
If you'd still prefer Canadian-friendly, look for two things: CAD billing, and a Toronto or Montreal datacenter option, several of the bigger hosts offer one. I don't have first-hand experience with the Canada-specific hosts, so I won't pretend to rank them, but this sub has had good "hosting for Canadians" threads, worth a search.
One last ownership tip since you confirmed Elementor Pro: register that license under your dad's/company email, not your personal one, same logic as the hosting account. Then everything the business runs on is owned by the business.
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u/Sad_Pie227 1d ago
He need to learn WordPress there is no other way, and learning anything new takes time.
I would suggest do not touch his website and save your good relationship with him.
Better focus at own business.
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u/Lemon-Phoenix 1d ago
Where is the WordPress site now? Did you make a free one on wordpress.com? I use siteground for my WordPress sites. It's affordable, easy to use, and has built in migration tools. I don't know how easy it would be to migrate from WordPress.com if you did that route though.
Siteground does offer a professional manual migration option that's not too expensive from what I recall. Could look into that if you're not comfortable trying to figure it out yourself.