Read the migration notice closely, find out what moves and what you must do yourself, and test forms, email and certificates afterwards. If the move needs as much work as switching hosts, switch to a provider you know.

The email nobody reads twice

Hosting companies are bought and sold more often than their customers realise. The first sign is usually a cheerful email announcing that your host is joining a larger group, and promising that nothing changes for now.

Months later a second email arrives. Your account will move to new servers on a certain date, the control panel will look different, and the support number has changed.

A third, often a year on, is the renewal invoice at a new price.

Most businesses read the first, file it, and are surprised by the other two. Each deserves more attention than it gets.

What usually changes after a sale

The fifth is the one that catches people out. Email often moves on a different day from the website, and old messages, folders and filters do not always come with it.

Read the migration notice properly

The notice usually gives a date and a window of hours. Look for three other things in it.

What the host will move for you, and what it will not: databases, email messages, scheduled tasks, security certificates, old backups.

What you are expected to do yourself, and by when. Some notices bury a line asking customers to change their DNS settings, which is easy to miss and expensive to ignore.

And who to contact if something breaks during the move, including at night, since many migrations happen overnight.

Where your DNS lives decides what breaks

DNS is the system that tells browsers and mail servers which computer answers for your domain. When the host moves your site, the computer changes, and so does its numeric address.

If the host manages your DNS, it will usually update the records itself. If your DNS is managed somewhere else, at the registrar or by a previous web designer, nobody at the host can change it.

Then the site keeps pointing at the old server until someone updates the record, and goes dark on the day the old server is switched off. The notice may mention this in a single sentence.

A worked example

A forklift dealer with a rental fleet and a small service department ran its website, quote forms and email on a shared plan with a host it had used for eight years.

The host was bought, and a migration notice arrived in the spring. The office manager read it, saw that the host would move everything, and filed it.

The move happened overnight and the site looked fine the next morning. Nine days later a regular customer phoned to ask why two rental quote requests had gone unanswered.

The forms sent their email from the web server. The dealer's domain had an SPF record, a line in DNS listing the servers allowed to send email on its behalf, and that line still named the old server.

So messages from the new server looked like forgeries to the dealer's own email system, which quietly filtered them out.

The repair took an afternoon: the record was updated, the forms were set to send through a real mailbox with a login, and a test request now goes through every Monday morning.

At the first renewal the price went up, and the dealer moved to a provider it could phone, doing the move once, with a checklist.

Test what nobody looks at

A migrated site that loads is not the same as one that works. The home page is the first thing everyone checks and the least likely thing to have broken.

Submit every form and confirm the message arrives. Send and receive email from each address. Check the padlock is still there, since certificates issued through the old host's system may not carry across.

Then confirm that backups are running on the new system, that scheduled tasks such as booking reminders still fire, and that the site runs on a version of PHP its software supports.

Prices at the first renewal

Acquired hosts often keep existing prices until the next renewal, then move customers onto the buyer's price list.

Read the new list carefully. Backups, certificates or email accounts that used to be included may now be charged separately, and the total matters more than the headline plan price.

If the renewal arrives in a different currency from the one you used to pay in, allow for that as well.

When to move instead

A migration notice is effectively asking you to move: new servers, new addresses, a new panel, everything retested. That is most of the work of changing providers.

If you are going to do that work anyway, it is reasonable to do it once, to a provider you have chosen and can reach by phone, rather than to one that was chosen for you in a sale.

Move sooner if support has become hard to reach, if the price rises sharply, or if your data leaving Canada matters to your customers.

And do it with someone who has moved sites before. Most of what breaks in a move, like the dealer's forms, stays invisible until a customer mentions it.

The counter-case

Plenty of sales change nothing customers notice for years. The buyer keeps the brand, the servers and the staff, and the only sign is a new logo on the invoice.

A simple site with its DNS at the host may come through a migration untouched. And moving in a hurry, in your busiest season, carries risks of its own.

So read every notice, test after every move, and treat the next renewal as a decision rather than an automatic payment.

Before you renew

  1. Find this year's emails from your host.
  2. Note any migration date and window.
  3. Check where your DNS is managed.
  4. Submit every form after any move.
  5. Send and receive from each email address.
  6. Read the new price list before renewal.
  7. Decide whether to move before the renewal is due.

Step three is the one that decides how much can break. A host can move everything it controls, but if your DNS sits somewhere else, the most important change in the whole migration is yours to make.

A new owner often brings new prices too, and the currency side of that is covered in hosting bills in US dollars.

Frequently asked questions

What changes when a web host is bought?

Often the servers, the control panel, prices at renewal, support, the email system and sometimes the country where your data is kept. Some changes take a year to appear.

What should I look for in a migration notice?

The date and window, what the host will move and what it will not, anything you must do yourself, and who to call if something breaks overnight.

Why does it matter where my DNS is?

If the host manages your DNS, it updates the records itself. If DNS is managed elsewhere, nobody at the host can change it, and the site goes dark when the old server stops.

What should I test after a migration?

Every form, every email address in both directions, the security certificate, backups, scheduled tasks such as reminders, and the PHP version. The home page loading proves very little.

Why did my form emails stop after the move?

Often because the domain's SPF record still lists the old server, so mail from the new one looks forged and gets filtered. Updating the record or sending through a real mailbox fixes it.

When is it time to change hosts?

When the migration already needs most of the work of a move, when support becomes hard to reach, or when prices rise sharply. Move once, to a provider you choose.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Host just announced a new owner?

Forward us the migration notice. We will tell you what it changes for your site and whether to stay.

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