Migration guide
How to migrate from GoDaddy to UpperLevel
GoDaddy is a mass-market shared / managed WordPress host (also domain registrar). 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 GoDaddy customers to switch
If you are leaving GoDaddy because the renewal bill spiked, the add-ons piled up, and support kept selling instead of solving, UpperLevel maps directly to every gap: free migration off GoDaddy, sub-5-minute access to a real human (not a script or an upsell), and honest pricing with no renewal hikes from a US team that has been doing this since 2016 with 111 perfect 5.0-star reviews.
Steep renewal price jumps. Intro rates roughly double to triple at the first renewal (WordPress Basic about $5.99 to $6.99/mo intro to roughly $14.99/mo renewal), so the real cost is far higher than the advertised teaser.
Aggressive upselling. A long, add-on-heavy checkout that pushes a string of upsell prompts (SSL, email, security, privacy) before you reach the cart, plus support agents who pitch upgrades and add-ons as the fix rather than resolving the actual issue.
Essentials are unbundled extras. Business email (Microsoft 365) from about $2.99 to $5.99 per mailbox/mo, SSL (around $119.99/yr on the Economy plan), website security (about $5.99/mo), and other add-ons inflate the bill well beyond the base plan price.
Also cited by departing GoDaddy customers
- Migration friction. GoDaddy’s self-serve migration tools are free, but its full white-glove Managed Migration is a quote-only paid service, and reviewers report the DIY path can be slow or error-prone.
- Inconsistent support quality. Reviews are mixed, with recurring complaints of scripted agents who do not grasp the problem and worst-case phone or chat waits of 40 to 45 minutes when trying to resolve issues or cancel.
- Middling performance. Independent 2026 tests put out-of-box page loads in the 3 to 4 second range (dropping under 2 seconds only after adding caching and a CDN, several of which are paid), slower than faster competitors.
Want the full cost and support comparison? Read UpperLevel vs GoDaddy
Before you start
Check your GoDaddy renewal date first
The single most expensive migration mistake is timing: getting auto-renewed into another term days before you leave. Here is how GoDaddy handles renewal, from sourced, dated references:
Aggressive intro-to-renewal jumps are GoDaddy’s defining pricing trait. Managed WordPress Basic commonly renews around $14.99/mo (from a roughly $5.99 to $6.99/mo intro), Deluxe around $19.99/mo, and Ultimate around $26.99/mo. Shared Web Hosting Economy renews around $11.99/mo (from about $5.99/mo). Reviewers describe year-two cost increases ranging from roughly 100 to 150 percent up to 200 percent or more depending on the product, and domains famously follow the same pattern. The big surprise bill lands at the first renewal, a churn-at-renewal pattern that is a recurring theme in 2025-2026 reviews.
Details are reviewed before publishing, but figures change. Confirm your own renewal date and rate inside your GoDaddy account before you schedule the move.
The plan
Leaving GoDaddy 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 GoDaddy setup
Pick a plan, or call and we will help you choose. Tell us your domain, that you are coming from GoDaddy, 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 GoDaddy login or a recent backup
We need a way to fetch your site: either temporary access to your GoDaddy 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 GoDaddy 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 GoDaddy plan, so there is never a gap.
Worth having handy before step two: your GoDaddy 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 GoDaddy 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 GoDaddy move, answered
- How long does a GoDaddy 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 GoDaddy account first?
- No, and please do not. Keep GoDaddy 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 GoDaddy?
- Nothing on our side: the migration is free, with no per-site fee. Check your GoDaddy 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 GoDaddy?
- 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 GoDaddy?
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 GoDaddy invoice.