Migration guide
How to migrate from Flywheel to UpperLevel
Flywheel is a premium managed WordPress host owned by WP Engine. 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 Flywheel customers to switch
If you are leaving Flywheel over premium pricing, per-site plugin and overage fees, or support that slowed after the WP Engine takeover, UpperLevel offers free hands-on migration, sub-5-minute human support, and honest pricing with no renewal hikes, trusted since 2016 with 111 five-star reviews.
Support quality declined since WP Engine acquired Flywheel. Reviews cite contradictory replies, slow responses over a week, and dismissive answers to real performance issues.
Low satisfaction signal. A very low TrustScore on Trustpilot (around 1.4 out of 5), dominated by one-star reviews, versus Kinsta 4.8 and SiteGround 4.9.
Premium pricing that does not scale. A single $25 entry plan, no budget tier, costs climb fast for more sites or traffic, and reviewers call it overpriced.
Also cited by departing Flywheel customers
- Add-on fees. Managed plugin updates $8 per site, Performance Insights is paid, no included email hosting, so the real bill exceeds the headline price.
- Overage charges on top of plan limits, plus a control panel reviewers call confusingly organized with features buried in an Advanced tab.
Want the full cost and support comparison? Read UpperLevel vs Flywheel
Before you start
Check your Flywheel renewal date first
The single most expensive migration mistake is timing: getting auto-renewed into another term days before you leave. Here is how Flywheel handles renewal, from sourced, dated references:
Unusual for the industry. Flywheel does not use intro versus renewal bait pricing. The advertised price is what you pay at sign-up and at renewal. Reviews and the Flywheel pricing page confirm no renewal jump, and existing subscriptions were grandfathered when plans realigned to WP Engine. For accuracy, a switcher page should not claim renewal hikes here. The pain is high baseline price plus add-on and overage fees, not a renewal surprise.
Details are reviewed before publishing, but figures change. Confirm your own renewal date and rate inside your Flywheel account before you schedule the move.
The plan
Leaving Flywheel 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 Flywheel setup
Pick a plan, or call and we will help you choose. Tell us your domain, that you are coming from Flywheel, 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 Flywheel login or a recent backup
We need a way to fetch your site: either temporary access to your Flywheel 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 Flywheel 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 Flywheel plan, so there is never a gap.
Worth having handy before step two: your Flywheel 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 Flywheel 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 Flywheel move, answered
- How long does a Flywheel 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 Flywheel account first?
- No, and please do not. Keep Flywheel 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 Flywheel?
- Nothing on our side: the migration is free, with no per-site fee. Check your Flywheel 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 Flywheel?
- 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 Flywheel?
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 Flywheel invoice.