Migration guide
How to migrate from Liquid Web to UpperLevel
Liquid Web is a premium managed and cloud host (VPS, dedicated, and managed WordPress or WooCommerce via its Nexcess brand), a business-tier host rather than a budget shared 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 Liquid Web customers to switch
If you left Liquid Web because support got slow and outsourced after the 2023 buyout, or because the premium price and contract lock-in stopped making sense for your site, UpperLevel gives you a real human in under 5 minutes, free hands-on migration, and flat pricing with no renewal hikes, backed by a team that has been doing this since 2016 with 111 perfect 5.0-star reviews.
Support quality has visibly declined since the 2023 buyout. The once-praised Heroic Support now draws complaints of longer waits, more outsourced or offshore agents, and tickets bouncing between staff for hours on simple issues.
High absolute cost for small businesses. Premium VPS, dedicated, and managed tiers (tens to hundreds of dollars a month) are overkill and pricey for a small site or store, and headline discounts assume an annual prepay.
Mid-contract price increases with a lock-in catch. Customers have reported about 12 percent increase emails where keeping the old rate meant agreeing to a 12-month contract.
Also cited by departing Liquid Web customers
- Inconsistent performance for the price. Independent tests have measured elevated server response times (around 859ms in one review) despite the premium positioning.
- Complexity for non-technical owners. The dashboard and managed-server controls are aimed at developers and agencies and are clunky for beginners, with some managed-server changes still requiring a support ticket.
Want the full cost and support comparison? Read UpperLevel vs Liquid Web
Before you start
Check your Liquid Web renewal date first
The single most expensive migration mistake is timing: getting auto-renewed into another term days before you leave. Here is how Liquid Web handles renewal, from sourced, dated references:
Unlike most budget hosts, Liquid Web does NOT generally run a steep intro-to-renewal jump. Multiple sources and its own pricing pages show the signup rate and the renewal rate matching on VPS and dedicated plans (Renews: $29.00/mo at the same rate, what you see is what you get). The defensible pricing friction is different: Liquid Web has sent mid-contract price-increase notices (a documented about 12 percent increase), and the offer to lock the current price required monthly payers to commit to a 12-month annual contract. So the catch is contract lock-in and absolute cost, not a hidden renewal-doubling.
Details are reviewed before publishing, but figures change. Confirm your own renewal date and rate inside your Liquid Web account before you schedule the move.
The plan
Leaving Liquid Web 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 Liquid Web setup
Pick a plan, or call and we will help you choose. Tell us your domain, that you are coming from Liquid Web, 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 Liquid Web login or a recent backup
We need a way to fetch your site: either temporary access to your Liquid Web 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 Liquid Web 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 Liquid Web plan, so there is never a gap.
Worth having handy before step two: your Liquid Web 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 Liquid Web 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 Liquid Web move, answered
- How long does a Liquid Web 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 Liquid Web account first?
- No, and please do not. Keep Liquid Web 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 Liquid Web?
- Nothing on our side: the migration is free, with no per-site fee. Check your Liquid Web 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 Liquid Web?
- 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 Liquid Web?
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 Liquid Web invoice.