Reseller playbook · Intermediate · 1–2 hours or a support ticket
How to migrate email to new host — The Riskiest Hour in Taking On a New Client
A client will forgive a website that looks odd for an afternoon; they will not forgive a morning where nobody in the office could receive mail.
Straight answer first
Mail, not the website, is what decides whether a client thinks the migration went well — so build every destination mailbox before a single DNS record changes, and overlap the MX cutover so both servers are answering while the world catches up.
One to two hours covers a small firm if you do it yourself, and it is free with hosting if you hand it to us. Either way the sequence is fixed: destinations first, history second, MX third, mop-up fourth, devices last.
Written by the Hosting Seller staff · Checked 24 August 2026
Intermediate
Skill assumed
Quick
Turnaround
5
Stages in order
24/7
Cover on the day
Written for whoever is taking the client on. It assumes you have credentials for the outgoing provider, a room full of people who use that mail all day, and no appetite for explaining a gap.
There is one irreversible-feeling moment in this job and it is the MX change. Everything before it is preparation you can redo; everything after it is recovery. Read the sequence section before you touch anything.
Why mail decides the verdict on the whole move
A website that flickers during a migration is noticed by you and possibly by the client's marketing manager. Mail that stops is noticed by every member of staff simultaneously, and each of them tells the person who hired you. That asymmetry is why mail deserves the careful hour and the site can have the quick one.
It is also why mail migration is the single most common reason a new client relationship starts badly. The technical work is not hard. The consequences of getting the order wrong are simply out of proportion to the effort involved.
The sequence, and the one order that cannot be swapped
Destinations exist, then history copies, then MX changes, then a second sync sweeps up, then devices are reconfigured. The only step with no safe alternative ordering is the first: if MX points here before the mailboxes exist, arriving mail hits a server with no matching account and bounces to the sender with a permanent failure.
Overlap rather than cut over. Change MX while the old server is still accepting mail, and sending servers that retry will land wherever answers. Anything that reached the old side during propagation is collected by the second sync, which is what makes 'nothing lost' a literal claim rather than a hopeful one.
What the client's staff actually experience on the day
From a desk in the client's office, a migration looks like this: mail arriving as usual, then a password prompt at some point in the afternoon, then mail arriving as usual again. Warn them about the password prompt in advance and the day is a non-event. Fail to warn them and you will take eleven phone calls about it.
Send one short note before you start — what will change, what will not, and who to contact. Phones are the awkward part, because a mail app that has silently stopped collecting looks identical to a mail app with nothing to collect. Tell them what to look for.
What to quote, and what we do for nothing
Price the inventory and the client communication, not the sync. Counting folders and messages per mailbox, writing the staff note and being available on the day is the work; the IMAP copy largely runs itself. A fixed price per mailbox with a floor for the project reads better to a client than an hourly estimate that sounds like uncertainty.
Migration itself is free with hosting here, mailboxes included, done by our staff. Hand over the credentials for the outgoing provider and the whole account comes across — files, databases, mailboxes and configuration — with the old site still serving until DNS moves, so the client never sees a gap.
The migration this playbook assumes
Site and mailbox migration is done by our staff at no charge, usually inside a day, with the old site still answering while the copy is checked.
You verify the copy before DNS changes hands, which means the client's cutover happens on evidence rather than on optimism.
- Destinations built before any record moves
- The MX change overlapped, never cut over
- A staff note that prevents eleven phone calls
- Migration done for you, at no charge
Why Hosting Seller
On every plan, as standard
Mail treated as the real risk
Puts the careful hour where the client's verdict is actually formed, rather than on the website.
One fixed sequence
Names the single ordering that has no safe alternative, so the irreversible moment is planned rather than met.
The client's day, described
Says what staff at their desks will see, which is what the pre-migration note has to cover.
A basis for a quote
Separates the billable work — inventory and communication — from the sync that runs itself.
The mop-up pass named
Includes the second sync that turns 'nothing lost' into something you can actually demonstrate.
Or hand it over entirely
Migration including mailboxes is done by our staff at no charge, with the old site serving throughout.
First Steps
From choosing to live
- 1
Inventory the folder counts before you touch anything
Screenshot message counts per folder for every mailbox. Thirty seconds each turns 'I think it all arrived' into a checklist you can hand the client, and it is the only evidence you will have if anything is questioned.
- 2
Build every destination mailbox first
Create the same addresses on the new account and leave them empty. Nothing else in this job can start, and no DNS record may move, until every destination exists and accepts a login.
- 3
Copy the history over IMAP
An IMAP-to-IMAP sync mirrors folders, flags and structure from the old server. It is the only method that preserves the lot, and it is included free if you would rather our migration team ran it.
- 4
Overlap the MX change, never precede it
Point MX here while the old server still accepts mail. Sending servers retry for hours or days, so whichever end answers takes the message and nothing is refused during propagation.
- 5
Second sync, then reconfigure the client's devices
One more IMAP pass collects whatever the old server took during the changeover. Then update server names on each device — or keep the same mail.clientdomain pattern and most devices need nothing at all.
In the Box
Packed with every plan
- Site migration done for you by our staff, at no charge
- Mailboxes moved as part of the migration, history included
- You check the copy before DNS changes hands
- Webmail in the browser plus IMAP, POP and SMTP
- Mailboxes on the client's own domain
- Daily backups across every client account
- WHM for you, a cPanel of their own for every client
- Private nameservers under your own brand
- cPanel, the panel the rest of the trade already knows
- Real people answer, for you and for them
Across the Counter
Things people ask us all the time
How should I quote a mail migration for a client?
Price the inventory, the staff communication and your availability on the day; the IMAP sync largely runs itself. A fixed figure per mailbox with a project floor reads as competence, where an hourly range reads as uncertainty. And note that the migration itself is free with hosting here.
The client's staff will ask why their phone stopped collecting mail — what do I tell them first?
Warn them before the day, in one short note: there will be a password prompt, here is what to enter, and here is who to contact. A silently stalled mail app looks exactly like an empty inbox, so tell them what the symptom is before they invent an explanation.
Will you run the migration instead of me?
Yes, free with hosting, mailboxes and IMAP history included, and we get the DNS sequence right. Open a ticket with the outgoing provider's login details. You check the copy before anything is switched, and the old site keeps serving until it is.
How quickly can a new client account be ready?
Minutes. The account opens as soon as the order clears, the domain attaches straight away — free for year one on annual plans — and the one-click installer puts WordPress or any of 240+ applications in place. If they already have a site elsewhere, hand it over and we move it free, usually inside a day.
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