What happens when you leave our hosting service?

What happens when you leave our hosting service?

We're very sorry to see you go, but we'll make the transition as easy as possible! Please try to make sure you and your new host read this document and have a good migration plan in place.

Preparing to go

In normal production, your files are not stored in one place. The database, web server and media server are all in different locations. We normally need at least a day's notice to prepare your site for migration.

Performance Foundry does not store WordPress files in a publicly accessible folder. Your host will need to have a 'blank' WordPress instance to add your content files to. Copying the symlinks we use to your new host will not work.

Performance Foundry can be hired to migrate your site away; or there are three major strategies people use for DIY migrations:

DIY: Restore from backup files

We can create a Dropbox directory where you can download the latest backups of your files and your database. They are usually compressed into a couple of zip files, but could be quite large (especially the files backup, since it includes your media uploads directory). These can be copied and uncompressed on the new server, and then added into place. 

DIY: New host wants access

Alternatively, if your host would like access to the files and WordPress install, we can arrange that. We do not have cPanel or other GUI. Your server is controlled from the command line, reducing security and performance impacts. 

You can add your new host as an admin user from within the WordPress dashboard (User > Add New).

Your new host can send you a "public key", and you can pass that onto us. We will create an sFTP user for them, so they can access the files through sFTP. We do not have password-based sFTP access. 

DIY: Plugin-based migration

Most migration plugins work perfectly with our systems. Please be sure we have already moved your files from the media server, and that you avoid banned plugins. 

Installation on a new host

Once you have those files, you have everything you need to install your site on a WordPress compatible host. The actual installation can be quite technical, so we recommend you use the new host's support team to help you with this.

We do not handle redirects through the WordPress app. Redirects will need to be created by your new host.

We recommend your new host has an SSL certificate in place for you before migration. 
After migration, we recommend your host does a search-replace for your CDN URLs and for any webp images that are handled through Thumbor. 

DNS redirection

To avoid any downtime, only after you have installed your site on the new host, you change the DNS records of your domain. That way your users will not notice the change of servers. 

Plugins

We pay for several premium tools that are used to help manage and speed up all sites on our servers. We will be removing the licence keys for these before giving you the files and database. In most cases, we will not remove the actual files. If you want to renew these licenses, you'll be able to find payment links within the plugin interfaces after migrating.
These may include:
  • Akismet spam protection
  • Kraken or ShortPixel image compression tools
  • WP DB Migrate Pro
  • Sucuri monitoring
  • Various theme and plugin licences, if using our developer licences for them
  • Performance Foundry plugins, including Foundry Anvil, will no longer be supported outside of our environment, unless a retainer or updates licence is in place. We cannot guarantee their function or security in other hosting environments.

Other premium services, such as Thumbor and ElasticSearch will not work from outside our hosting environment. Please ensure your new host knows what they're doing, and a proper migration plan is in place.

Must Use Plugins

Performance Foundry runs two sets of MU Plugins across all our hosted sites. One gives you the Foundry Anvil plugin and has several controls for performance and security. The other is a suite of tools from Pagely, designed to assist with integration into the hosting stack, including performance, security, CDN and caching tools. 

We strongly recommend you do not migrate these plugins to your new host, and that you find replacements for their functions. Your new host should be able to help you choose the best security, caching, CDN and performance-enhancing functions for their environment.  

File deletion

We will keep all files for a week or so after you move hosts, so if something goes wrong you can contact us for these files. However, we will delete these files, normally within a week of the site leaving our servers, so please check that everything has been moved over correctly!

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