How to migrate to Vultr
Moving an existing site to Vultr — what they handle for you, what you'll do yourself, and the safe order to do it in.
Free migration not advertised
Support during your move: ticket, knowledge base
Performance-first migration to Vultr
Vultr's 92ms TTFB and 256ms fully-loaded time (desktop) suggest decent baseline performance, but you'll need to optimize the move to avoid downtime. Their 99.93% uptime across all measured periods means reliability shouldn't be your bottleneck—your migration process will.
Pre-migration: verify your target specs
- Storage limits: The $5/mo plan gives 25GB; $10/mo gets 55GB. Check your current site's disk usage first.
- No free SSL: Budget time to configure Let's Encrypt or bring your own certs post-migration.
- Support reality: Tickets and docs only—no live chat or phone if you hit snags.
Migration steps (no sugarcoating)
- Back up everything twice—Vultr doesn't offer managed migrations.
- Lower DNS TTL to 300 seconds at least 48h before cutover.
- Manual transfer:
- SCP/SFTP files to your new Vultr instance (no built-in file manager)
- Export/import databases via CLI or temporary phpMyAdmin
- Test rigorously on the Vultr IP before DNS changes—their global datacenters (NY, London, Tokyo, etc.) may behave differently than your current host.
Post-migration checks
- SSL: Install certificates immediately—unencrypted traffic will hurt performance.
- Monitor TTFB: Compare against your old host's 92ms baseline. If slower, tweak PHP/MySQL configs.
- Uptime alerts: Their 99.93% track record is solid, but always set up third-party monitoring.
No magic buttons here. This is a manual VPS move with performance potential, but zero hand-holding.