How to migrate to Hostwinds
Moving an existing site to Hostwinds — what they handle for you, what you'll do yourself, and the safe order to do it in.
Choosing the Right Plan
Hostwinds’ Dallas and Seattle datacenters delivered 78ms North American response times in testing, with server processing completing in 34ms. If your audience is primarily US-based, these locations will likely outperform Amsterdam. Their VPS plans (confirmed offshore-DMCA) suit sites needing predictable resources—benchmarks showed 110ms TTFB and 875ms fully loaded desktop pages. Match your current CPU/RAM usage to their listed tiers; overprovision slightly if your traffic spikes.
Pre-Migration Prep
Lower DNS TTL to 300 seconds (5 minutes) at least 24 hours before migrating. This minimizes downtime during cutover. Backup everything: files via SFTP/rsync, databases as SQL dumps. Hostwinds offers live chat, ticket, and phone support if you hit snags—document any custom configurations (e.g., .htaccess rules) to reapply later.
Transfer and Test
Upload files to the new VPS via SFTP. Import databases using MySQL/MariaDB CLI or phpMyAdmin. Test functionality on the temporary URL (e.g., server IP or staging subdomain). Verify:
- TLS handshake times (~33ms in tests)
- DNS resolution (~2ms)
- End-to-end page loads against your old site’s benchmarks
Cutover and Post-Migration Checks
Update DNS records (A/AAAA for root, CNAME for subdomains). Monitor:
- TCP connect times (~28ms) for consistency
- Server response (~97ms) for degradation
- Broken links or mixed-content warnings via crawlers
Hostwinds’ offshore-DMCA stance may benefit sites with ambiguous copyright risk, but verify jurisdiction needs independently. No surprises if you’ve matched specs to traffic and tested thoroughly.