Moving from HostGator involves handing over cPanel-level access, and your site keeps serving visitors the whole time. Request a Free Transfer from the portal sidebar and give our migration specialist your HostGator cPanel URL, username, and password. Your HostGator site keeps serving visitors while we copy files and databases over.
What to share with the migration team
HostGator runs standard cPanel, so the fastest path is your HostGator cPanel login (Panel URL, username, password) in the Free Transfer form. That single login gives the specialist access to your files and MySQL databases, so there's no need to hunt down separate FTP or database credentials.
If you don't have your cPanel password handy, HostGator's own account portal can reset it. Either way, don't paste the password directly into a public form field if you can avoid it. If you'd rather not put it in the form, use the secure-share panel on a support ticket instead: it lets you send a password with a link that self-destructs after 1 to 30 days.
Mention anything unusual about the HostGator account in the Notes field: a specific database name the site expects, a staging subdomain that shouldn't be copied, or a plugin (WordPress security plugins are common offenders) that tends to break when the domain or server changes underneath it.
What stays live, and what doesn't move automatically
Your HostGator hosting keeps answering visitor traffic for the entire migration. Nothing about DNS or nameservers changes until the copy is verified and you approve the cutover.
Two things worth deciding upfront:
- Email. Moving hosting doesn't automatically move mailboxes on most hosting accounts, so check with the migration specialist how your email will be handled and when MX records need to change.
- Domain registration. If HostGator is also your registrar, moving hosting doesn't touch that. You can point HostGator's nameservers at Flashcloud once the site is ready. Transferring the domain registration itself is a separate process with its own timing.
Once the migrated site is live on Flashcloud and confirmed, go back into your HostGator account and change that cPanel password. Don't reuse it anywhere.
Don't lose the HostGator time you already paid for
If you paid HostGator for a term that hasn't run out yet, that's not automatically wasted. Flashcloud can credit some of the unused time toward your account, separate from the free transfer itself. Grab a recent HostGator invoice or billing screenshot showing your plan and renewal date, then see migration credit for unused hosting time for how to claim it.
Moving from a page builder instead of cPanel
Everything above assumes a cPanel host like HostGator. If you're actually moving from Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify, there's no cPanel login to hand over. Those platforms don't work that way. The mechanics are different enough (usually an export/rebuild rather than a file copy) that it's worth treating as its own migration path rather than following the HostGator steps.
First time setting up your account?
If this migration is also your first task on Flashcloud, your first day with Flashcloud: a setup checklist covers the rest of the setup, security lockdown included, while the transfer runs in the background. If you're registering a new domain rather than transferring one, see free domain with hosting for how that works.
When to open a ticket
Submit the Free Transfer form to start things moving, then use Support in the portal for anything that comes up mid-migration: a stuck HostGator login, a database the specialist can't locate, or questions about your migration credit before you cancel HostGator. These go to real people, not a queue.