Margin Notes
Hosting with free migration — Onboarding labour is where agency margin quietly goes to die
Written for whoever moves client sites in for a living — where a migration is not a technical event but an unbudgeted afternoon repeated once per new client.
Straight answer first
Choose a supplier whose staff perform the migration, cover files, databases, mailboxes and configuration, and let you inspect the copy before the domain is switched — here that is done for you at no charge, usually inside 24 hours, on a Pro plan or any other.
The reason to care is arithmetic rather than sentiment. Every client you win arrives attached to a site somewhere else, and if moving it is your unbilled labour then your acquisition cost rises with every sale. A supplier who absorbs that work is quietly funding your growth.
Written by the Hosting Seller staff · Checked 24 August 2026
NVMe
Disk under every account
Free
Domain for the first year
99.9%
Uptime target we hold
Flat
Cost across the renewal
Nothing keeps a client at a poor host like the fear of moving, which is exactly why the shops worth buying from remove that fear. What is less often noticed is that the same fear is the reason agencies inherit sites they never wanted to touch.
Onboarding is the part of an agency relationship that is hardest to price and easiest to underestimate. The site itself is usually straightforward. It is the mail, the DNS, the forgotten cron job and the incumbent's reluctance that consume the afternoon.
Count what onboarding actually costs you
Write down the hours for the last three clients you took on: credential chasing, the copy itself, mail reconfiguration on however many devices, DNS, the check, the cutover, and the week of small surprises afterwards. That figure is your true cost of sale, and most agencies have never calculated it.
Once you have it, two things become obvious. First, an onboarding fee is defensible and should probably exist. Second, a supplier who does the migration for you is worth real money even if their plan costs marginally more, because they are removing the most expensive hour of the engagement.
Here the migration is done by our staff at no charge, typically inside a day, and it covers files, databases, mailboxes and configuration rather than handing you a plugin licence and an article.
The incumbent who will not hand anything over
Plan for it, because it happens. The previous supplier is slow, unreachable, or unwilling, and the client is caught between you. The one thing that reliably prevents a deadlock is that the client — not the previous agency — controls the domain.
Where you do have hosting credentials, take a full copy first and worry about tidiness later. Where you do not, the domain is the lever: if the client can change delegation, the site can be rebuilt or restored at the new host and the switch made without the incumbent's cooperation.
This is also the argument for how you hold your own clients. If your offboarding is graceless, it will eventually be described to somebody by a client who left. An account that moves as an account, with backups the client can take themselves, makes leaving well cost you nothing but the client.
Cutover, and the mail that goes missing
The website part of a migration rarely causes an incident. Mail does. A mailbox that is copied but then reconfigured badly on a phone, or a DNS change made before the new mailboxes exist, produces exactly the failure a client remembers: a quote that never arrived.
Sequence it deliberately. Copy the site and the mail, verify the copy while the old host is still serving, reduce the record's time-to-live in advance, then change delegation and let traffic drift across with both copies live. Nobody outside should see a gap.
Then check devices rather than servers. The client's phone, the office desktop and whoever handles enquiries are where the failure actually surfaces, and half an hour of that at cutover prevents the calls that otherwise arrive over the following week.
What belongs in the onboarding line
Charge for the work you do rather than the work the supplier does. Credential chasing, device reconfiguration, DNS tidy-up and the post-move week are yours; the copy itself is not, if your supplier performs it.
State what is included and what is not. An onboarding fee that covers 'the migration' is ambiguous when a client's ancient bespoke integration turns out to need rewriting, and the ambiguity always resolves against you.
Use the trial window as a rehearsal. Move one real site inside the money-back period — 30 days on shared, business, WordPress and WooCommerce hosting, 7 days on reseller — and see how the process actually behaves before you build a client promise on it.
Why we make this argument
We do the migrations we are describing, so read this as a supplier making a case rather than as neutral research. The case is checkable: ask the desk what a migration covers before you commit anything to a client.
Absorbing the move is a deliberate commercial choice on our part. It lowers the cost of trying us, which is a better use of money than an introductory rate that resets in year two.
- Migration performed by our staff, not by a plugin licence
- Files, databases, mailboxes and configuration all carried
- The copy verified before delegation is changed
- The old site still serving until you say switch
Why Hosting Seller
On every plan, as standard
The expensive hour removed
The copy itself is done by our staff at no charge, which takes the most costly part of onboarding off your cost of sale.
Mail carried, not rebuilt
Mailboxes and configuration come across with the files and databases, which is where migrations actually go wrong.
A check before the switch
You inspect the copy while the old host is still serving, so cutover is a decision rather than a leap.
Offboarding that costs you nothing
Accounts move as accounts and backups are yours to take, so a client who leaves does so without a story to tell about you.
A trial that is genuinely cheap
Move one real site inside the refund window and judge the process on evidence before you promise it to a client.
A cost that holds
The renewal figure matches the joining figure, so an onboarding quote written today is still accurate at the next renewal.
Price Tags Compared
How we compare with the household names
Typical sign-up and renewal prices across the market, set next to ours — the second number most comparison charts leave off.
| Line item | Hosting SellerBest seller | Typical big-brand host | Typical budget host | Typical loss-leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price / mo* | $2.42/mo | $4–$6 | $2–$4 | $1–$3 |
| Price at renewal / mo | $2.42/mo | $10–$15 | $8–$12 | $4–$6 |
| Renewal price on the entry plan is unchanged | ||||
| SSL on every plan | ||||
| Site migration included | ||||
| The entry plan uses NVMe storage | ||||
| Entry plan gets a backup daily | ||||
| Live human support, 24/7 |
*The number in our column is the cheapest plan on our shelf, priced on an annual term and pulled live from the very catalogue that feeds the pricing page, so it cannot drift out of date. Other columns show the ranges shared hosting tends to advertise inside each bracket: introductory rates that normally ask for a one-to-four-year commitment, then climb once that term expires. Naming individual competitors and printing their prices is something we have stopped doing. A figure we cannot re-check on the day you read it has no business sitting in front of you. So compare us with whoever you are genuinely weighing up, and read the renewal line first. That line tells you more than the headline ever will.
First Steps
From choosing to live
- 1
Cost your last three onboardings honestly
Hours for credentials, copy, mail, DNS, cutover and the week after. That number is your true cost of sale and it is usually a surprise the first time anybody writes it down.
- 2
Secure the domain before the hosting
Client control of the domain is what breaks a deadlock with an uncooperative incumbent. Everything else can be rebuilt; delegation cannot be taken.
- 3
Check devices, not servers, at cutover
Phones, desktops and whoever handles enquiries are where a mail failure actually appears. Half an hour there prevents the calls that otherwise arrive all week.
In the Box
Packed with every plan
- Migration performed by our staff rather than by a tool you run
- Files, databases, mailboxes and configuration all included
- A verification window before delegation is changed
- The old site serving throughout, so nobody sees a gap
- Typically completed inside 24 hours
- Account-level moves in and out, including when a client leaves
- Backups you can download yourself at any time
- Daily backups on the new account from day one
- A 30-day window on hosting plans and 7 days on reseller
- The renewal figure printed next to the joining figure
Across the Counter
Things people ask us all the time
What does onboarding a client actually cost me?
More than the plan. Credential chasing, the copy, mail reconfiguration on every device, DNS, verification, cutover and the following week of small surprises. Write down the hours for your last three and you will have your real cost of sale — and a defensible onboarding fee, plus a reason to value a supplier who performs the copy for you.
What do I do when the previous supplier will not release anything?
Work from the domain. If the client controls delegation, the site can be rebuilt or restored at the new host and switched without the incumbent's cooperation. Where you do have credentials, take a complete copy first and tidy afterwards. Deadlocks are almost always about who holds the domain, not about who holds the files.
Which part of a migration actually breaks?
Mail, nearly always. The website copies cleanly; mailboxes reconfigured badly on a client's phone, or a DNS change made before the new mailboxes exist, produce the failure a client remembers — a quote that never arrived. Sequence the move so both copies are live, then check devices rather than servers.
How should I word the onboarding line on a quote?
Charge for your work and name what is excluded. 'Migration included' is ambiguous the moment a bespoke integration turns out to need rewriting, and ambiguity always resolves against the agency. If your supplier performs the copy at no charge, say that too — it makes the fee you do charge easier to justify.
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Stop paying for every client you win.
Migration performed by our staff, mail and databases included, verified before cutover, usually inside 24 hours.
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