Migration guide
How to migrate from Bluehost to UpperLevel
Bluehost is a budget shared / WordPress host (Newfold-owned, WordPress.org-recommended mass-market host). If you have decided it is time to go, here is exactly what the move looks like: five steps, four of them ours. Our team does the hands-on work for free, you approve a preview, and your visitors never notice the switch.
- 111 5.0-star reviews
- Since 2016
- Human support in under five minutes
Why people make this move
What pushes Bluehost customers to switch
If you are leaving Bluehost over the renewal sticker-shock, the upsell pressure, and the long support holds, UpperLevel maps directly to those pains: free hands-on migration (no $149.99 per site fee), sub-5-minute human support instead of scripted upsell calls, and flat pricing with no renewal hikes, backed by a track record since 2016 and 111 5.0-star reviews.
Steep renewal price hikes. Low intro rates require a 36-month prepay and then renew at roughly 1.5x to 2.5x (Starter $3.99 to $9.99/mo, Pro $9.99 to $16.99/mo per Bluehost’s own pricing page).
Aggressive upsells during signup and support. Add-ons like SiteLock, CodeGuard backups, and domain privacy are pre-checked at checkout, and support reps are widely described as pushing sales over fixing the actual issue.
Declining support quality and long waits. Reviewers report a post-Newfold-acquisition decline toward scripted, outsourced support and lengthy holds (one WPBeginner reviewer cited 73 minutes to get basic questions answered).
Also cited by departing Bluehost customers
- Migration friction. Free migration is limited to a single WordPress site claimed within 30 days and excludes email and domain. Otherwise it is $149.99 per site plus $99 per mailbox, and several users report botched transfers.
- Reliability and backup caveats. Independent uptime tests and third-party trackers have logged periodic outages, and Bluehost’s terms place ultimate backup responsibility on the customer.
Want the full cost and support comparison? Read UpperLevel vs Bluehost
Before you start
Check your Bluehost renewal date first
The single most expensive migration mistake is timing: getting auto-renewed into another term days before you leave. Here is how Bluehost handles renewal, from sourced, dated references:
Intro pricing applies only to the initial term and renewals jump sharply. Bluehost’s pricing page lists Starter renewing at $9.99/mo (from $3.99), Business at $13.99 (from $6.99), Pro at $16.99 (from $9.99), and Elite at $28.99 (from $19.99), roughly a 1.5x to 2.5x increase. Renewal at the higher rate is automatic, and customers frequently report being surprised by the first-renewal bill, among the most common complaints across review sites.
Details are reviewed before publishing, but figures change. Confirm your own renewal date and rate inside your Bluehost account before you schedule the move.
The plan
Leaving Bluehost in five steps
This is the whole process. You do step one, share access in step two, and approve the preview in step four. We do the rest.
- Step 1
Start your UpperLevel order and tell us about your Bluehost setup
Pick a plan, or call and we will help you choose. Tell us your domain, that you are coming from Bluehost, and anything unusual about your site, like a store, a membership area, or custom code. That is all the preparation there is.
- Step 2
Hand us your Bluehost login or a recent backup
We need a way to fetch your site: either temporary access to your Bluehost dashboard or a full backup export. Credentials are used only for the move, and we confirm with you before touching anything.
- Step 3
We copy your files, database, and email
Our team copies everything off Bluehost onto NVMe storage tuned for your site: files, database, and mailboxes where they apply. You keep working as usual, because your live site stays untouched while we work on the copy.
- Step 4
Review your site on a private preview
Before anything changes publicly, you get a preview link to click through your migrated site. Forms, store checkout, logins, we test them with you. Nothing goes live until you say it is right.
- Step 5
We flip DNS with no downtime, then you cancel
When you approve, we point your domain at UpperLevel with a cutover timed so visitors never see an outage. Only after your site is verified live should you cancel the old Bluehost plan, so there is never a gap.
Worth having handy before step two: your Bluehost dashboard login, access to wherever your domain is registered (for the DNS update), and any wp-admin credentials for the site itself. Missing one? Start anyway — we will find the path together on the phone.
After the move
What week one looks like on this side
The move is the start, not the finish. From the first night, daily backups run with 30-day retention, your SSL certificate renews itself, and malware scanning with unlimited removal watches the site you just brought over. Your invoice will read the same number next year, because the renewal price is the signup price. And when you have a question, the people who physically performed your Bluehost migration are the same ones answering the phone in under five minutes.
All included, all free
What moves with you
- Your full site: files, themes, plugins, and uploads
- Your database, copied and checked row for row
- Permalinks and internal URLs preserved, so search rankings carry over
- Mailboxes and forwarders, where your email lives with your host
- PHP version matched to what your site runs today
- Free SSL issued and forced before the cutover
- DNS handled for you, timed for zero downtime
- A human on the line the whole way, in under five minutes
Questions
The Bluehost move, answered
- How long does a Bluehost migration take?
- Most moves are finished within a day of us getting access, and we agree the timing with you up front. Larger or more complex sites can take longer, and we tell you that before we start, not after.
- Do I need to cancel my Bluehost account first?
- No, and please do not. Keep Bluehost active until your site is verified live on UpperLevel, so your site and email never have a gap. Once you confirm everything works, cancel the old plan and keep the difference.
- Will my site go down during the move?
- No. We work on a copy while your current site keeps running, test that copy on a private preview, and time the DNS cutover so visitors are never staring at an error page.
- What does it cost to leave Bluehost?
- Nothing on our side: the migration is free, with no per-site fee. Check your Bluehost renewal date before you start, because cancelling right after an auto-renewal usually means asking them for a refund instead of just not being charged.
- Can I move more than one site off Bluehost?
- Yes. Freelancers and agencies regularly bring batches of client sites across. Tell us the inventory up front and we sequence the moves so nothing overlaps, with each site getting the same preview-then-cutover treatment. Our Pro tier covers up to three sites.
Moving from somewhere else?
Guides for other hosts
Ready to be done with Bluehost?
Free white-glove migration, human support in under five minutes, and a 45-day money-back guarantee. Start today and your site can be moved, tested, and live before your next Bluehost invoice.