Should web hosting companies provide free site transfer?

TheCompWiz · Feb 1, 2017

Do you guys think that web hosting companies should provide free website transfer if a client wants to move their websites from another hosting company to them? Some companies do offer this service for free, while others charge you for any costs. Do you think it should be a default service offered with each hosting plan? should it be free or paid site transfer service?

hostens · Feb 1, 2017

This should really depend on a provider, their services and website that needs transfer. I really don't think it should be default service offered free with each hosting plan. You can't expect $0.xx per month package include custom CMS site transfer from VPS without control panel. Site transfer should be discussed individually with a provider before purchase if client expect to receive it.

Midnight_Dan · Feb 1, 2017

A lot of companies do offer the service for free, which is great when you're looking for a new provider. Other providers I've seen offer the first x number of sites for free but then charge for any websites over that - which is understandable because if you have multiple websites it can be time consuming to transfer multiple sites over and making sure they all function how they should be.

To answer your question however - in my opinion it does depend on the circumstances, how many websites need to be transferred, etc.

webhostuk · Feb 1, 2017

Yes its a complete Web hosting company decision to offer migration service FREE or Paid. We personally offer FREE migration because support is our primary strength. Our plus point in web hosting industry in not marketing heavily, but we get customer from our existing costumers reference due to our support quality. To improve our quality of support we prefer to offer FREE migration.

24x7CSM · Feb 1, 2017

A web hosting provider should provide website transfer services free for any incoming new business since the provider is going to service the website. Its actually a common practice and moving website from another provider is not a big deal if the client is signing up for a long term.

In case of migrating reseller accounts , we have seen providers offering it for FREE ( Ofcourse new organizations ) since they are getting new business.

HostXNow · Feb 1, 2017

It depends on whether service is unmanaged or managed, and whether the service is Shared/Web, Reseller, VPS or Dedicated Server. Shared/Web and Reseller are managed by default, and usually, include unlimited website transfers (or at least they should).

You may or may not have to pay extra for a website to be transferred to VPS/Dedicated Servers depending on whether the service is managed or unmanaged. Even if unmanaged or managed they may not still include website migration for free, or they may charge something for let's say anything over 10-20 cPanel accounts. So you would need to check this with the providers you are interested in.

Collabora · Feb 1, 2017

It depends on the complexity of the transfer. For example, if its from cPanel host to cPanel host it can be simple and easy to assist with the migration. But if its from Plesk to cPanel or from one OS to another it may become too labor intensive to offer such a service for free. To be brutally honest, one must draw the line between being someone's web host and their IT department. Time is money, as they say and you can only do so much for a couple bucks a month.

NickR · Feb 1, 2017

All your points are great and all, but providers like Bluehost and other EIGs charge a fixed amount for any migration - even a simple cPanel to cPanel migration. I doubt they'll do anything complicated like from cPanel to non-panel VPS.

Where's the logic in that? Charging a fixed amount for a simple migration, and getting a new client? Since you are getting a new customer, you should not charge him anything extra. You should be thankful he chose you as a provider and do the work for free, or else he'll just find another provider that offers free migrations. Yes, I'm looking at you, EIG.

cloudean · Feb 2, 2017

Hi,
Migration for cpanel to cpanel / plesk to plesk is easy and has least chance of failure. [can be given free]
but If you are migrating from cross platform; this is expert level work, If not done right, leads to complete failure.

Migrating database if crucial part.

You should decide free / paid based on level of difficulty and required time.
Make sure to confirm with client and service provider.

You don't want to loose client in this process.

gagah · Feb 2, 2017

Believe it or not some people likes to be charged extra, makes them feel like dealing with a real business.

i learned this from a salesman lol.

The answer is it depends. We for example offer free site migration but if when the migration ticket is opened the request is too ridiculous (like transferring multiple sites from a VPS with very high load on the node), we try to inform them that it's probably gonna take more than 24 hours because we don't have a dedicated migration team, and dealing with the migration can ruin other tickets. But still, free migration is a good tool for small webhosting provider to help get new clients from the big ones.

energizedit · Feb 2, 2017

I think it is a good service to provide but with limitations. If they are a simple WHM transfer tool away from moving and there aren't hundreds of them, then it should be free. If it is not a simple transfer or there are more than say 25 it becomes a real work intensive project, so I don't see a problem with charging for that.

LJSHost · Feb 2, 2017

I would say yes and seem to spend a lot of my time doing migrations for people.
Some providers do charge for migrations while others do not, I think a few hours of work is a small price to pay for a customer that could be with you for many years.

It's always nice when I get emails thanking us for a smooth and painless migration and have also got new signup's from customers that referred us simply because of the free migration service. Most migrations take under an hour to complete while others do take more time, I had a guy the other day that sent me 16 public_html directories and 16 databases that he wanted all setup as addon domains. It took a few hours but that time invested is worth it long term to keep customers happy and getting new business from them due to going that extra mile.

belinda · Feb 3, 2017

It depends if your hosting services are managed or unmanaged.

For our hosting service, it is unmanaged. However for shared hosting, we will assist with migration for first time and new customers who transfer in with their cpanel/plesk backup and when they purchase the same control panel.

ulterios · Feb 3, 2017

Offering free website transfers would be a plus to help draw new customers who either don't want to, don't have the time to or don't know how to transfer their websites themselves.

Offering something for free that in many cases doesn't take long is a big plus and can start things off on a good note with the customer.

Of course I would completely understand if they had limits because of the size of the transfer, the setup of the previous hosting, etc.

liveinhost · Feb 3, 2017

Most of the hosting company will give free website transfer.

AlbaHost · Feb 3, 2017

Sure they do because its on their interest to get customers, just like as we do

Should web hosting companies provide free site transfer?

Well-known member

Well-known member

Member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Active member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Member

Well-known member

Member

Well-known member

Sponsors

Tag Cloud