You’ve been on the same hosting provider for two years. The bills crept up. Support started feeling robotic. Someone recommended a new host that offered free migration — and they promised zero downtime. It sounded too good to be true. That’s because it was.

Free website migration has become the bait of the hosting industry. Companies dangle it like a gift, knowing full well that a rushed, careless migration often creates problems that send customers right back — or worse, trap them because fixing the damage feels harder than staying put.

After migrating hundreds of sites at PapaBear, we have seen every version of what can go wrong. This guide breaks down the real costs hiding inside “free” migration, what hosts hope you will not find out, and how to protect yourself.

What Hosts Actually Mean When They Say “Free Migration”

There is no industry standard for what “free migration” includes. One host might move your files. Another might move your files and database. A third might do all of that plus DNS. None of them will tell you which one you are getting unless you ask — and even then, the answer changes once the migration starts.

Here is what a typical free migration usually covers:

• Files only: Your HTML, images, and code. No database. No emails. No settings.
• Files + Database: WordPress core and content, but WordPress plugins and theme settings may need reconfiguration.
• “Full” migration: Still missing things like cron jobs, SSL configuration, email accounts, DNS精细 records, and third-party integrations.

Ask any technician who has cleaned up a bad migration. The problems are never in the files. They are in the gaps between what was promised and what was actually moved.

8 Problems That Surface After “Free” Migration

1. Broken Database Connections

WordPress stores its content in a database. During migration, that database gets exported, transferred, and imported on the new server. If the import fails silently — and it does, more often than hosts admit — your site loads, but parts of it are blank. Blog posts disappear. Product pages show nothing. You do not find out until a customer tells you.

2. Plugin and Theme License Keys Lost

Many premium plugins and themes are licensed to your old domain. When you migrate, those licenses do not follow automatically. You spend an afternoon reactivating everything, and if your old host was less than honest, they may have already reassigned those licenses to another customer.

3. Email Accounts That Vanish

Your business emails are not stored on your website. They live on the old server. If the migration does not explicitly include email account transfer, you lose access to every mailbox. Inboxes, sent messages, contacts — all of it. Some hosts consider email “separate” from the migration. You may find this out after they have already shut down your old account.

4. SSL Certificate That Breaks

Your SSL certificate is tied to your server’s private key. When you move to a new server, that key changes. If the migration team does not provision a new SSL certificate or properly migrate the Let’s Encrypt setup, your site shows a security warning. Some hosts solve this in minutes. Others take three days while your traffic drops to zero.

5. DNS Propagation Chaos

When DNS changes propagate, some visitors hit the old server and some hit the new one — simultaneously. If your old host does not keep your old server running during the transition, visitors on the old DNS get nothing. A proper migration keeps the old server live as a fallback for 48 to 72 hours. Most free migrations do not offer this.

6. Cron Jobs and Scheduled Tasks That Stop

WordPress relies on scheduled tasks — cron jobs — for updates, backups, email notifications, and ecommerce order processing. These are server-level settings. A file-only migration leaves them behind. You will not notice until your backups stop, your WooCommerce order confirmations go silent, or your security plugin stops scanning.

7. Permalinks and Redirects That Break

Your URLs are stored in the database. If the migration does not update internal links correctly, you end up with mixed content warnings, broken images, and 404 errors on pages that exist but do not load. Search engines penalize broken sites. Your SEO rankings can drop in days.

8. Downtime You Were Promised Would Not Happen

The “zero downtime migration” pitch is marketing. Every server change requires at least a brief window where DNS is updating. The real question is not whether there will be any downtime — it is how long the host keeps the old server running as a safety net. Free migrations typically use the cheapest method: copy the files fast, flip the DNS, and shut down the old server. The customer absorbs the risk.

The Lock-In Strategy Behind Free Migration

Here is what many budget hosts count on when they offer free migration: most customers will not check their site thoroughly before the old account expires. By the time problems surface, the old server is gone, backups are deleted, and the customer has nowhere to go except back to the same host — or pay for emergency recovery.

This is not paranoia. It is a documented pattern in the hosting industry:

• Old server accounts are closed within 24 to 48 hours of DNS change
• Backups are deleted from the old server before the customer can verify integrity
• “Migration support” consists of a generic ticket queue with 72-hour response times
• Emergency rollback is offered at a premium price — if it is even possible

The host got a new customer. You got a problem that now costs more to fix than if you had paid for a proper migration from the start.

What a Real Migration Includes (vs. “Free”)

A professional migration done right is not just moving files. It is recreating your entire digital environment on a new server. Here is the difference:

How to Protect Yourself Before You Migrate

You do not have to trust any host — including us — blindly. Here is what to do before you agree to any migration, free or paid.

Create your own backup first.

Before touching anything, download a full backup of your site. Use a plugin like UpdraftPlus or All-in-One WP Migration. Store it somewhere outside your current hosting account — Google Drive, Dropbox, or your local computer. This is your safety net. No host should object to you having one.

Export your email separately.

If your host manages your business email, export everything before migration day. Use your email client to download all messages via IMAP. Check that your contacts, sent folder, and rules are all there. Email is often the most valuable data a business has — and the first thing a free migration forgets.

Get the scope in writing.

Reply to the migration offer with a specific question: “Does this include database migration, email accounts, SSL setup, DNS configuration, and a 48-hour DNS fallback window?” If the answer is vague, push for specifics. A host that will not write down what they are migrating will not fix it when it breaks.

Set a DNS TTL of 300 seconds before you start.

Your DNS records tell the internet where to find your site. The Time To Live (TTL) value controls how long caches hold that information. Set it to 300 seconds (5 minutes) at least 24 hours before migration day. This makes DNS changes propagate faster and gives you more control over the transition window.

Test everything before you cancel your old account.

Use a staging environment or a temporary URL to check your migrated site before you point your domain at the new server. Verify that all pages load, forms work, images display, and emails send. Do not cancel your old hosting account until you have confirmed the new site is functioning correctly.

What PapaBear Does Differently

We offer free migration because we think you should not have to pay extra to leave a bad host. But we have built the process to actually work — not just to sound good in a marketing email.

If something breaks during your PapaBear migration, we fix it. No extra charge. No blaming your old host. We own the process from the moment you sign up until your site is running exactly as it should on our servers.

Frequently Asked Questions

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