How to Migrate Your WordPress Site to a New Host (Step-by-Step Guide for Irish Businesses)

If you need to migrate your WordPress site to a new host, you are not alone - and it is far easier than most Irish hosting providers want you to believe. Most small businesses in Ireland are paying two to four times what they should for WordPress hosting, and the only reason they stay is because switching feels risky.

You have probably been there. The renewal email lands. The price has gone up again. You think about moving, but the idea of breaking your site keeps you where you are. So you pay. Another year of mediocre hosting, another year of overspending.

Irish businesses are routinely paying between €132 and €240 per year for hosting that could cost €60. That gap exists because legacy hosts rely on your reluctance to leave, not on the quality of their service.

This guide walks you through exactly how to migrate your WordPress site to a new host, step by step, with zero downtime. Whether you do it manually or use an automated tool that handles everything, you will know precisely what is involved by the end of this article.

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Why Irish Businesses Are Leaving Their WordPress Host

The Cost Creep Nobody Talks About

You signed up for a hosting plan that looked reasonable. Maybe it was 99 cent for the first month, or a steep discount on your first year. Then the renewal hit and the real price appeared.

This is how most Irish hosting companies operate. The introductory rate gets you in the door. The renewal rate is where they make their money. And that renewal price is almost never displayed as prominently as the promotional one.

Here is what Irish businesses are actually paying at renewal. LetsHost charges around €240 per year. Hosting Ireland comes in at €169. Blacknight sits at €165. Register365, despite its budget positioning, lands at €132 per year. These are standard shared hosting plans - nothing premium, nothing managed. For a deeper look at how these costs add up, see our breakdown of the hidden costs of cheap hosting in Ireland.

If your hosting bill has crept up and you are not sure why, you are not imagining it. Every year you renew without checking the market, you are paying a loyalty tax.

Slow Sites Are Costing You Customers

According to Google research, 53% of mobile visitors leave a site that takes more than three seconds to load. If you are running any kind of business site - a shop, a services page, a booking system - slow hosting is not a minor annoyance. It is a revenue problem.

The root cause is almost always the same. Budget shared hosting packs hundreds of sites onto one server. When another site on your server gets a traffic spike or runs a badly coded plugin, your site slows down too. You have no control over that, and neither does your host in most cases.

A slow site does not just frustrate visitors. It hurts your Google rankings, reduces your ad efficiency, and makes your business look less professional than it is. This is not a technical problem to park for later. It is a business problem happening right now.

Security and Maintenance Dumped on Your Desk

WordPress security is a real and growing concern. Thousands of new WordPress vulnerabilities are identified every year, and hundreds of WordPress sites are compromised daily. These are not scare tactics - they are the reality of running the most popular CMS on the planet.

Most Irish hosts take a hands-off approach. They give you a server and a login. Keeping WordPress core updated, patching plugins, monitoring for malware, running backups - that is all on you.

When something breaks - a plugin conflict on a Friday evening, a white screen of death over a bank holiday weekend - most budget hosts offer limited or no weekend support. You are left searching forums at 10pm trying to get your business back online.

If any of this sounds familiar, you are not stuck. Here is exactly how to move.

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What Stops Most People from Migrating (And Why It Should Not Stop You)

When you ask someone why they have not switched WordPress hosts, you hear the same three fears: "I might lose my data." "My site will go down." "It is too technical for me."

These fears are understandable. A botched migration can cause real damage. But your current hosting provider benefits enormously from those fears. Every month you delay is another month of revenue for them. The perceived risk is the product.

The actual process of migrating a WordPress site is well understood. It has been done millions of times. The tools exist. The risk, when handled properly, is minimal. The question is whether you do it manually or use a tool that automates the hard parts.

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How to Migrate Your WordPress Site to a New Host - Step by Step

Option A - Manual Migration

If you are comfortable with databases, file transfers, and DNS settings, manual migration gives you full control.

Step 1: Back up everything. Use a plugin like UpdraftPlus or All-in-One WP Migration to create a full backup of your WordPress files and database. Download both to your local machine. Do not skip this.

Step 2: Set up your new hosting account. Sign up with your new host, create a fresh WordPress installation, and have your new FTP credentials and database details ready.

Step 3: Upload your site files. Connect to your new server via FTP or SFTP and upload your entire wp-content folder, your wp-config.php file, and any custom files in your WordPress root. This can take anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours depending on your site size.

Step 4: Import your database. Export your database from your old host using phpMyAdmin or a command-line tool. Import it into the new database on your new server. Update wp-config.php with the new database name, username, password, and host.

Step 5: Update your DNS. Log into your domain registrar and change your A record to point to your new server's IP address. DNS propagation typically completes within two to four hours, though it can take up to 48 hours.

Step 6: Test everything. Check every page, every form, every plugin. Test on mobile. Check your SSL certificate. Verify that emails still work. Look for broken images or hardcoded URLs from your old server.

This approach works, but it requires genuine comfort with databases, FTP clients, and DNS management. If any of those terms made you hesitate, Option B exists for exactly that reason.

Option B - Automated Migration with Web60

This is the approach we built for people who want the result without the process. You can move your WordPress site without downtime and without touching a single technical setting.

Step 1: Sign up at web60.ie. It takes about two minutes.

Step 2: Enter your current site URL and WordPress admin credentials. That is all the migration tool needs to access your existing site.

Step 3: The tool copies everything automatically. Files, database, plugins, themes, media, configurations - all of it. No exports, no downloads, no uploads.

Step 4: Preview your site before switching DNS. This is the step most hosts skip entirely. You see your site running on Web60's infrastructure before any public-facing change happens. If something looks off, you fix it before anyone notices.

Step 5: Switch DNS when you are ready. Once you are satisfied, update your DNS. If anything goes wrong after the switch, rollback is available.

Step 6: Done. Most migrations complete same-day. Many finish in under an hour.

No FTP, no database exports, no plugin fiddling. You provide a URL and a login. The tool does the rest. For a detailed walkthrough of the Web60 migration process, see our complete migration guide.

Ready to move? Start your free migration at web60.ie - it takes less time than reading this article.

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What You Actually Get for €60 a Year

The Real Cost of WordPress Hosting in Ireland

Before you evaluate any feature list, look at what the Irish market actually charges for cheap WordPress hosting in Ireland - or what passes for it.

Host	Annual Renewal Price	Multiple of Web60
Web60	€60	1x
Register365	€132	2.2x
Blacknight	€165	2.8x
Hosting Ireland	€169	2.8x
LetsHost	€240	4.0x

These are standard renewal prices for basic shared WordPress hosting plans. Not VPS. Not dedicated.

€60 per year is not a promotional rate. It is not a first-year discount that doubles at renewal. It is the price - the same in year one as in year five.

The gap is not because Web60 cuts corners. The platform was built from scratch to host WordPress efficiently, using modern infrastructure instead of the legacy systems most Irish hosts still run. When your technology is efficient, you do not need to charge €240 to make the numbers work.

What Is Included (No Add-On Fees)

Every Web60 account includes:

• Managed WordPress hosting on Irish infrastructure
• Automated daily backups with one-click restore
• Free SSL certificate, automatically configured
• WordPress core, plugin, and theme updates handled for you
• Security monitoring and malware protection
• Email support including weekends
• No bandwidth caps or storage upsells
• Free automated migration from your current host

There is no "basic" tier that forces you to upgrade for backups. There is no €30/year SSL add-on. There is no premium support tier gated behind a higher price. Everything listed above is included at €60 per year, for every site.

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Irish-Hosted, GDPR Compliant WordPress Hosting

Where your hosting provider stores your data matters more than most people realise, especially since Brexit. For a full guide to GDPR requirements for Irish business websites, see our article on GDPR and business websites in Ireland.

Register365, despite its Irish branding and .ie domain, serves sites from UK-based infrastructure. Post-Brexit, the UK is a third country under GDPR. That does not automatically make it non-compliant, but it introduces data transfer considerations that would not exist if your data stayed in Ireland or the EU. For regulated industries, healthcare providers, or anyone processing sensitive customer data, this distinction is worth understanding.

Web60 runs on Irish infrastructure. Your data stays in Ireland. There are no cross-border transfer questions to answer, no adequacy decisions to monitor, and no additional contractual clauses required. If a client or a regulator asks where their data is hosted, the answer is straightforward: GDPR compliant WordPress hosting, on Irish soil.

Web60 is not a generic hosting platform that happens to support WordPress. It is built exclusively for WordPress. When you contact support, you are dealing with a team that knows WordPress inside and out - from plugin conflicts to performance bottlenecks.

The platform is built by SmartHost.ie, an established Irish hosting company with a track record in the Irish market. The infrastructure, the migration tool, the management layer - it is all built and maintained in-house.

See how Web60 compares to your current host at web60.ie.

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Frequently Asked Questions About WordPress Migration

How long does migration take? Most sites migrate in under an hour. Larger sites with extensive media libraries may take a few hours. Same-day completion is standard with Web60's automated tool.

Will my site go down during the move? No. Your existing site stays live throughout the entire migration. The new copy runs in parallel. Your site only switches over when you update your DNS, and even that transition is seamless for visitors.

Do I need any technical skills? Not with Web60. You need your site URL and your WordPress admin login. The automated migration tool handles everything else. If you can fill in a web form, you can migrate your site.

What about my emails? If your email runs through your hosting provider (e.g., an @yourdomain.ie address tied to your hosting account), you will need to ensure your MX records remain pointed at your email provider. Web60's support team can walk you through this. If you use Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or any external email service, your email is completely unaffected.

Can I move back if something goes wrong? Yes. Web60 offers rollback capability. Your original site remains untouched until you are fully satisfied with the new setup.

Is €60 per year really the full price? Yes. €60 per year covers managed WordPress hosting, daily backups, SSL, updates, security monitoring, and support. The renewal price is the same as the sign-up price. No introductory pricing. No surprises.

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Move Your WordPress Site Today

You are likely overpaying for hosting that is slower than it should be, with security and updates left entirely in your hands. Migrating is far simpler than most people expect.

Visit web60.ie and start your automated migration. Enter your site URL, provide your WordPress login, and the tool handles the rest. You will preview your site on Irish infrastructure before anything changes publicly.

€60 per year. All-inclusive. Same-day migration. Irish servers. No lock-in. No renewal surprises.

Start your free migration at web60.ie - €60/year, everything included.

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About Web60 - Web60 is built and run by SmartHost.ie, an Irish hosting company. We built Web60 because we saw too many Irish businesses stuck on slow, overpriced WordPress hosting with nowhere simple to go. If you have questions, you can reach us at hello@web60.ie.