Migration guide
How to migrate from DreamHost to UpperLevel
DreamHost is a budget shared host with a separate managed-WordPress (DreamPress) tier. 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 DreamHost customers to switch
If you are leaving DreamHost because the year-two renewal nearly tripled, support means a paid callback instead of a fast human, and the move feels like a chore, UpperLevel answers each directly: free hands-on migration, sub-5-minute human support at no extra charge, and flat pricing with no renewal hike, backed since 2016 by 111 perfect 5.0-star reviews.
No standard inbound phone line. The only way to talk to a human is a callback, which is a paid add-on (about $9.95 one-time or about $14.95/mo for three callbacks) on most plans, a frequent source of frustration in reviews.
Steep renewal price hikes on shared hosting, roughly 1.6x to 2.8x the intro rate, so the year-two bill can be two to three times year one for the same service.
Inconsistent support quality. Reviewers cite slow email replies (often an hour or more), repetitive responses that do not resolve the issue, and inconsistent ticket and email response times rather than a steady standard.
Also cited by departing DreamHost customers
- Performance and uptime that do not always match the marketing. Independent measurements report average uptime around 99.84 percent against DreamHost’s 100 percent claim, with fully-loaded page times in independent 2026 tests around 1.6 to 1.9 seconds (slower under load), since DreamHost’s shared stack uses Apache rather than LiteSpeed.
- Long-prepay pricing structure. The cheapest advertised rates require 1 to 4 year commitments, and month-to-month billing carries up to about a 60 percent premium, so the real cost over multiple years is much higher than the headline number.
Want the full cost and support comparison? Read UpperLevel vs DreamHost
Before you start
Check your DreamHost renewal date first
The single most expensive migration mistake is timing: getting auto-renewed into another term days before you leave. Here is how DreamHost handles renewal, from sourced, dated references:
Sharp intro-to-renewal jumps on the core shared plans: the three shared tiers renew at roughly $10.99, $12.99, and $25.99/mo versus their $2.89 / $3.99 / $9.99 first-year promos — about 1.6x to 2.8x (Launch $2.89 to $10.99, roughly 280 percent), so the year-two bill is two to three times year one for identical service. DreamPress renewals are gentler, climbing from about $14.99/mo intro up to about $107.99/mo on DreamPress 20, with the lower tiers stepping up a softer ~33 to 39 percent. The first-year free domain is also generally tied to annual or multi-year terms, not monthly billing.
Details are reviewed before publishing, but figures change. Confirm your own renewal date and rate inside your DreamHost account before you schedule the move.
The plan
Leaving DreamHost 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 DreamHost setup
Pick a plan, or call and we will help you choose. Tell us your domain, that you are coming from DreamHost, 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 DreamHost login or a recent backup
We need a way to fetch your site: either temporary access to your DreamHost 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 DreamHost 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 DreamHost plan, so there is never a gap.
Worth having handy before step two: your DreamHost 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 DreamHost 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 DreamHost move, answered
- How long does a DreamHost 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 DreamHost account first?
- No, and please do not. Keep DreamHost 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 DreamHost?
- Nothing on our side: the migration is free, with no per-site fee. Check your DreamHost 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 DreamHost?
- 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 DreamHost?
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 DreamHost invoice.