At Hostinger, we have a control panel with all the features to easily manage your hosting plan and websites - hPanel! It is available in all of our Web and Cloud plans.
If you currently have a cPanel plan and wish to migrate your websites to a hosting plan with hPanel, follow these steps:
Step 1 - Download Your File and Database Backups
Go to your cPanel → Files section and click on Backup. In the next window, click on Download a Full Account backup. You can choose from a list of previously generated backups, if any are available, or generate a new backup. Download the desired backup by clicking on the link:
Make sure to extract the files from the backup before moving to the next step. You can use your OS terminal or a dedicated software such as 7-Zip.
Step 2 - Upload Your Website Files
First, ensure that the domains are added to your hosting plan. If you're using subdomains, create them as well.
Your website files will be located in the /homedir directory. Upload the files to the public_html folder of each domain - you can check the different available methods to do so here: How to upload a backup at Hostinger.
For subdomains, upload the files to the folder named after the subdomain, located in the public_html folder of the domain.
Step 3 - Import and Connect Databases
If you use databases, as is the case for WordPress websites, you will need to create a new database for each website: How to create a new MySQL database.
Following the example for WordPress, you can identify which database corresponds to each of your websites by opening the wp-config.php file of the website using a notepad application. The database name will appear next to the DB_NAME parameter:
In the cPanel backup you downloaded and extracted, the databases can be found in the /mysql directory. To import them, follow these steps: How to import a database with phpMyAdmin. For larger databases, import the database over SSH.
Now, connect the database to your WordPress website by replacing the following parameters with the new values in the wp-config.php file:
DB_NAME: database name
DB_USER: database user
DB_PASSWORD: database password
DB_HOST: localhost
Common Issues
If you get a database connection error, refer to this article: How to fix "Error establishing a database connection"
If your WordPress site shows a 404 error on the internal pages after the migration, recreate the permalinks
For sites built with other CMS, check the location of the configuration files to connect the database.
Step 4 - Migrate Your Email Service (Optional)
If you wish to migrate your emails as well, you can find a complete guide here: How to migrate email services to Hostinger
That's it! You have fully migrated from cPanel to hPanel. Now you can point your domain to Hostinger 😊