Move your site to your own hosting

Before you start

• Hosting with PHP 8.1 or newer and a MySQL or MariaDB database. Almost every hosting plan has both.
• A login to your hosting panel (cPanel, Plesk or similar), or FTP access to it.
• Your domain pointing at that hosting. If it is not there yet, ask your hosting how to point it - they do it every day.
• Your site published: the archive carries the published version, not the draft in the editor.

Download your site

1. Open your dashboard, then Site settings -> Your hosting.
2. Press "Prepare download". It usually takes under a minute. You can close the window - the files wait for you there.
3. Download both files: "Site archive" and "Installer". Keep their names as they are - the installer finds its archive by name.
4. The files are kept for 7 days. Changes you publish later are not in them: prepare a fresh archive right before you move.

Install it on your hosting

1. In your hosting panel open "MySQL Databases". Create a database and a user, and give the user all privileges on that database. Write down the database name, the user and the password.
2. Open the File Manager of your hosting (or an FTP program) and go to the folder of your domain - usually public_html. It should be empty.
3. Upload both files into that folder.
4. In your browser open your domain with the installer name after it, for example https://yourbusiness.com/sc-install-abc123.php. Use the exact name of your installer file.
5. The installer checks your hosting first. Then enter the database name, user and password (the host is usually localhost) and your email, and press Install.
6. Wait until it says "Your site is ready". It unpacks the site, sets it up and removes itself and the archive.
7. Press "Set your administrator password" to choose a password for the WordPress admin of your site. The link works once.

Or let us move it for you by FTP

1. Create the empty database in your hosting panel, as in step 1 above.
2. Open Site settings -> Your hosting and fill in "Or let us move it for you": the FTP server, login and password, the folder of your site, its address, and the database name, user and password. Your hosting panel shows all of them, usually under "FTP Accounts" and "MySQL Databases".
3. Press "Check only" to see that everything is ready, or "Move my site" right away - it checks first and starts only if every check passes.
4. The move takes a few minutes. You can close the window: the steps continue on our side, and the screen shows them when you come back.
5. At the end the screen shows the link to set the password of your WordPress admin. The link works once.
6. Your FTP and database passwords are used only for this move: they are kept encrypted for at most an hour and erased when the move ends. We prefer an encrypted connection (FTPS) and tell you when your hosting only offers plain FTP.

What happens next

• Your site opens on your domain, with the same pages, images, languages and design.
• Your free address (yourname.sitecreatorengine.com) starts sending visitors to your domain as soon as the installed site reports in - usually right after the installer finishes. You see the new address in Site settings -> Your hosting.
• Requests from the forms on your site keep arriving in your dashboard, as before.
• Online bookings keep working: the booking window on your site takes free times from your dashboard, and every booking lands in your weekly calendar here. Hours, services and payment you still set in the dashboard. If our service cannot be reached for a moment, the window asks visitors to call or write to you instead.
• Emails from your site - password resets for its WordPress admin and notices about new requests - are sent through our mail service, so they arrive even when your hosting does not allow sending mail.

Update the site on your hosting after new changes

1. Publish your changes in the editor first: the update carries the published version.
2. Moved by FTP: open Site settings -> Your hosting, enter the FTP password in "Update the site on your hosting", tick "Replace the site on my hosting" and press "Update my site".
3. Moved by hand: press "Prepare download", upload the two new files into the SAME folder where your site is, and open the installer. It recognises your site and offers "Update site".
4. Before replacing anything, the installer saves a copy of the current version - all files and the database - into a closed folder named sc-backups-... next to your site. The two latest copies are kept.
5. Users of your WordPress admin and their passwords stay. Pages and settings changed directly in that WordPress admin are replaced by the new version - make changes in our editor instead.
6. Requests your site has not sent to your dashboard yet are kept and sent after the update.

If something does not work

• The installer says PHP is too old: switch the PHP version to 8.1 or newer in your hosting panel, then open the installer again.
• The installer says this folder already has a WordPress: upload the files into an empty folder. The installer never overwrites a site that is not yours - your own site from an earlier move it updates instead.
• The installer says the database already has a WordPress: create a new empty database, or change the table prefix in the installer form.
• The page stopped while unpacking: open the installer again - it continues where it stopped.
• Your domain opens with www but not without it (or the other way round): in your hosting panel add the other variant to this site as an alias or a redirect. The installer tells you when this is needed.
• "Could not connect to the database": check the database name, user and password. On most hostings the database name and user start with your account name, like account_site.
• The download link says it has expired: open Site settings -> Your hosting and press "Prepare download" again.

Or ask your assistant

Ask any assistant in your dashboard, for example "How do I move my site to my hosting?" - it walks you through these steps and gives you the button to the Your hosting screen.