Migration guide
How to migrate from SiteGround to UpperLevel
SiteGround is a premium managed WordPress / 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 SiteGround customers to switch
If you are leaving SiteGround because your renewal tripled or your site keeps hitting CPU and resource limits, UpperLevel offers free migration, transparent pricing with no renewal hikes, and sub-5-minute human support from a host operating since 2016 with 111 verified 5.0-star reviews.
Severe renewal price shock. Intro rates jump roughly 5.6x to 6x at renewal (StartUp about $2.99 to $17.99/mo, GoGeek to $44.99/mo), confirmed by SiteGround’s own pricing KB.
CPU and resource-limit enforcement on shared plans. Sites can be throttled or taken offline for the rest of the billing month when CPU or inode limits are exceeded, with support steering customers toward pricier upgrades or cloud plans.
Per-plan traffic and storage caps that push growing sites onto higher tiers (StartUp about 10k visits/mo, GrowBig about 100k, GoGeek about 400k).
Also cited by departing SiteGround customers
- Auto-renewal and billing-friction complaints. Customers report being auto-renewed or upgraded or re-enrolled after attempting to cancel, plus PayPal setup requiring a support ticket.
- Periodic support-quality dips and slower response under load, reported alongside otherwise-strong WordPress tooling.
Want the full cost and support comparison? Read UpperLevel vs SiteGround
Before you start
Check your SiteGround renewal date first
The single most expensive migration mistake is timing: getting auto-renewed into another term days before you leave. Here is how SiteGround handles renewal, from sourced, dated references:
Promotional pricing applies only to the first billing term, then renews at SiteGround’s full published regular rates. Per SiteGround’s own KB, 12-month regular rates are $17.99/mo (StartUp), $29.99/mo (GrowBig), and $44.99/mo (GoGeek), roughly a 460 to 500 percent jump from intro pricing (about $2.99 to $17.99 on StartUp, about 6x). 24-month renewals are modestly lower ($14.99 / $24.99 / $39.99). This intro-to-renewal gap is the single most-cited SiteGround complaint across review sites, Reddit, and consumer-complaint forums.
Details are reviewed before publishing, but figures change. Confirm your own renewal date and rate inside your SiteGround account before you schedule the move.
The plan
Leaving SiteGround 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 SiteGround setup
Pick a plan, or call and we will help you choose. Tell us your domain, that you are coming from SiteGround, 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 SiteGround login or a recent backup
We need a way to fetch your site: either temporary access to your SiteGround 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 SiteGround 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 SiteGround plan, so there is never a gap.
Worth having handy before step two: your SiteGround 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 SiteGround 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 SiteGround move, answered
- How long does a SiteGround 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 SiteGround account first?
- No, and please do not. Keep SiteGround 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 SiteGround?
- Nothing on our side: the migration is free, with no per-site fee. Check your SiteGround 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 SiteGround?
- 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 SiteGround?
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 SiteGround invoice.