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GoDaddy migrations trip people up in a way Bluehost migrations don’t, because GoDaddy usually isn’t just your host — it’s also your domain registrar, and sometimes your email provider too. If you want to Migrate GoDaddy to Cloudways with Zero Downtime, the DNS cutover, the refund window, and even which migration tool you use all depend on details specific to GoDaddy’s setup, not generic “switch hosts” advice. This guide walks through the GoDaddy-specific forks: cPanel vs. Managed WordPress, domain-and-host-in-one-place DNS mechanics, a known plugin bug worth checking before you go live, and a cancellation timeline that won’t cost you a refund.
GoDaddy Web Hosting (cPanel) vs. Managed WordPress: Which Migration Path Applies to You
GoDaddy sells two structurally different WordPress hosting products, and the one you’re on determines your entire migration plan. Web Hosting (cPanel) is traditional shared hosting — you get a cPanel control panel, FTP/SSH access, and a standard WordPress install with direct file and database access, similar to what Bluehost customers work with. Managed Hosting for WordPress, rebranded around “Airo for WordPress,” is a locked-down, WordPress-only environment with auto-updates and AI design tools, but no cPanel and more restricted server-level access.
That distinction matters because GoDaddy Managed WordPress auto-migrates you in during onboarding, but moving out to a third-party host isn’t self-service the way cPanel’s export tools are — there’s no built-in “export everything” button. If you’re on Managed WordPress, skip ahead to the expert-assisted migration section below; the plugin method described next assumes you have SFTP and database credentials, which cPanel gives you directly and Managed WordPress may not expose the same way.
On the cPanel side, two constraints are worth checking before you start. GoDaddy caps SSH access to the primary hosting account only — secondary FTP users can’t use SFTP and have to fall back to FTP over TLS, which matters if multiple people manage your site. GoDaddy also enforces a directory cap of 500,000 files/folders on Windows or 250,000 inodes on Linux, with a recommended limit of 1,024 files per individual folder. If you’re running a media-heavy WordPress site with years of uploads, check your /wp-content/uploads/ file count before migrating — a bloated media library sometimes needs archiving first.
Pre-Migration Audit: What to Check Before You Touch DNS
Before provisioning anything on Cloudways, run through a short checklist so nothing breaks mid-migration:
- Confirm your hosting type (cPanel vs. Managed WordPress) — this decides your migration method.
- Count your inodes/files if you’re on cPanel with a large media library, to avoid hitting GoDaddy’s transfer limits before you’re even done exporting.
- Check for Smush Pro and Hummingbird if installed (more on the specific bug below).
- Note whether your domain and email are both on GoDaddy — the DNS section below has a branch just for this.
- Screenshot your current DNS records (A, CNAME, MX, TXT) as a rollback reference in case anything needs to be restored quickly.
If you want a structured version of this checklist to work through step by step, our free VPS migration checklist tool covers the same pre-flight items in a printable format.
Step-by-Step: Migrating GoDaddy to Cloudways with the WordPress Migrator Plugin
For GoDaddy Web Hosting (cPanel) users, Cloudways’ free “WordPress Migrator” plugin cloudways
handles unlimited migrations from any host, GoDaddy included, and typically finishes in around 20 minutes for a standard site with no cost involved. New Cloudways accounts also get a 3-day free trial with no credit card required, which is enough time to run this whole process and verify the result before committing to a plan.
- Create the destination app on Cloudways first. Spin up a new WordPress application on the server size you want (more on sizing in the pricing section below).
- Install the Cloudways WordPress Migrator plugin on your GoDaddy-hosted source site, from the WordPress plugin directory.
- Enter your Cloudways destination details in the plugin — your email, destination URL, SFTP host, and the database name/credentials shown in your Cloudways app dashboard.
- Click Migrate and monitor progress. The plugin handles files, database, and settings in one pass.
- Verify the migrated site on its temporary Cloudways URL before touching DNS — check pages, forms, WooCommerce checkout if applicable, and plugin functionality. New wp-admin credentials are issued in the Cloudways dashboard.
Only move to the DNS cutover step once you’ve confirmed the staging copy works correctly. This order — migrate, verify, then cut over DNS — is what makes the process zero-downtime: your GoDaddy site keeps serving live traffic the entire time you’re testing the Cloudways copy.
No cPanel Access? Use Cloudways’ Free Expert-Assisted Migration Instead
If you’re on GoDaddy Managed WordPress rather than cPanel, the plugin method above may not have the server access it needs. Cloudways offers a free expert-assisted migration for a customer’s first website — you open a support ticket, and Cloudways engineers handle the full file, database, and settings transfer with minimal downtime, usually completed within 1–2 business days depending on site complexity, followed by post-migration testing on their end.
This is the path we’d point most non-technical GoDaddy Managed WordPress users toward. It costs nothing extra beyond your Cloudways plan, and it sidesteps the credential-access problem entirely — you’re not hunting for SFTP details that GoDaddy’s locked-down environment may not surface the same way cPanel does.
Pointing Your GoDaddy Domain to Cloudways (DNS Cutover, Zero Downtime)
This is where GoDaddy migrations diverge most from a typical host switch. Because GoDaddy is commonly both your domain registrar and your host — unlike Bluehost setups, where the domain often lives elsewhere — you need an explicit plan for updating DNS on the same account you’re migrating away from.
- Get your new server’s IP address from the Cloudways dashboard’s Servers tab, after your migration is verified.
- Lower your DNS TTL to around 600 seconds (10 minutes) on the A record a day or more before cutover — not at the moment of cutover. The existing (longer) TTL is cached until it naturally expires once, so this step only helps if you do it in advance.
- Edit the A record in GoDaddy’s DNS management to point to the new Cloudways server IP.
- Add a CNAME record for
wwwpointing to the root domain, if your theme or setup needs a separate www pointer. - Add the domain in Cloudways under Domain Management → “Add Domain,” matching it to the correct server/app before or as DNS updates propagate.
- Expect 24–48 hours for full global propagation, even with a low TTL — some ISPs cache outside your control. Keep the GoDaddy hosting account active and untouched during this window as a fallback.
Email warning: many GoDaddy customers also run email through GoDaddy (Microsoft 365 from GoDaddy or GoDaddy Email Essentials) on the same domain. Moving your website to Cloudways does not require moving your email — hosting and email are controlled by separate DNS record types (A/CNAME vs. MX). The common mistake is accidentally overwriting MX records while editing the A record. Double-check your MX records are untouched after saving DNS changes, and your GoDaddy email keeps working exactly as before.
The Smush Pro / Hummingbird Bug: Fix Common GoDaddy Migration Errors Before You Go Live
Before you cut over DNS, check your plugin list for a known issue. Users migrating sites to and from GoDaddy report recurring problems with pro-tier optimization plugins — specifically Smush Pro and Hummingbird — throwing errors after migration, along with inconsistent or corrupted resource URLs and stale cached page versions. This isn’t a rare edge case; it’s specific enough that it’s worth a deliberate check rather than discovering it after your domain is already pointed at the new server.
If either plugin is active, deactivate it before migrating, run the migration, verify the site loads cleanly on the Cloudways temporary URL, then reactivate and reconfigure the plugin from scratch rather than trusting its migrated settings. It’s a small extra step, but it’s exactly the kind of thing a plugin-only, click-and-hope migration skips — and exactly why we’d lean toward the WordPress Migrator plugin (which handles the full file/DB transfer cleanly) or Cloudways’ expert-assisted migration over relying on a caching plugin’s own “site duplicator” feature to move a GoDaddy site.
Cloudways’ staging environment
Cloudways Pricing After GoDaddy
Cloudways structures pricing into two routes: Flexible, where you choose your own cloud provider (DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, or Google Cloud) and server size, and Autonomous, an autoscaling WordPress-focused tier. Entry pricing varies by provider — expect a DigitalOcean-backed plan to start somewhere in the $11–14/month range (sources vary between $7 and $14 depending on the exact tier and promotional pricing checked, so confirm the current rate on Cloudways’ pricing page before you commit), with Vultr and Linode starting around $14/month, AWS around $20.56/month, and Google Cloud around $37.33/month.
| Plan (DigitalOcean-backed) | Approx. Price | RAM | Recommended For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB / entry tier | ~$11/mo | 1GB | Small personal sites, low traffic |
| 2GB | ~$14/mo | 2GB | Solo-founder WordPress blog, up to ~50,000 monthly visitors |
| 4GB | ~$28/mo | 4GB | WooCommerce stores or blogs above 100,000 monthly visitors |
Prices last verified: 2026-07-12 — treat as directional; confirm exact current figures on Cloudways’ pricing page before publishing to a reader as a final quote.
Every plan tier includes unlimited hosted applications per server, free SSL, automated backups, staging environments, caching, and 24/7 support — none of it is gated behind a higher tier, which is a real difference from GoDaddy’s model, where staging and DDoS protection are reserved for Deluxe and Ultimate plans. For most people coming from GoDaddy Managed WordPress Basic or Deluxe, the 2GB Cloudways plan is a reasonable like-for-like starting point, and Cloudways cloudways is currently running a 3-day free trial with no credit card required, plus 30% off your first three months if you sign up through our link.
Compare that to GoDaddy’s own pricing: Managed WordPress plans run roughly $5.99–$12.99/month at intro rates, but only if you lock into a 36-month term — and renewal pricing after that intro window climbs meaningfully, with one competing report citing a jump to $15–20/month. That gap between intro and renewal pricing is one of the more common reasons GoDaddy customers start looking elsewhere in the first place.
When to Cancel GoDaddy (Refund Window Timeline)
Don’t cancel GoDaddy the moment your new site is live — GoDaddy’s refund policy is tighter and more time-boxed than a typical “cancel anytime, no rush” host. According to GoDaddy’s published refund policy (last revised May 27, 2026, though the live policy page blocked automated access during our research, so this is worth a quick confirmation with GoDaddy support before you rely on exact numbers), the refund window depends on your plan’s term length: annual plans (12+ months) get roughly a 30-day / 720-hour window, while monthly or shorter sub-annual plans (including 6- and 9-month terms) get only about 48 hours. Refunds aren’t automatic — you have to actively request one through GoDaddy support inside that window, and if the hosting service is considered “already performed,” GoDaddy may treat it as non-refundable even within the window. If your plan bundled a “free” domain, its list price typically gets deducted from any refund.
The practical sequence: verify your Cloudways site fully, let DNS propagate for the full 24–48 hours, confirm email is unaffected, and then request your GoDaddy cancellation — inside your plan’s specific refund window if getting money back matters to you. Canceling GoDaddy too early, before DNS has fully propagated worldwide, risks visitors hitting a dead site if anything needs to roll back.
Who Should Migrate from GoDaddy to Cloudways (and Who Shouldn’t)
A third-party comparison (methodology not independently verified, so treat the exact figures as directional) reports Cloudways posting a median Time to First Byte around 292ms against roughly 398ms for GoDaddy, with uptime around 99.97% versus 99.91% over its test window. The same comparison rated Cloudways’ support quality higher (9.3 vs. 8.1) but gave GoDaddy the edge on beginner-friendliness and out-of-the-box GTmetrix scores — which is a fair way to frame who each host actually serves.
Migrate to Cloudways if: you’ve outgrown shared hosting’s performance ceiling, you want real server-level control without managing raw infrastructure yourself, you’re running WooCommerce or a traffic-growing blog, or GoDaddy’s renewal price jump has made the “cheap” plan not cheap anymore. Cloudways cloudways makes the most sense here specifically because it gives you managed backend flexibility (DigitalOcean, Vultr, and others under one dashboard) without needing to run your own server ops.
Stay on GoDaddy if: you’re a true beginner who values hand-holding and an all-in-one dashboard over raw performance, your site gets minimal traffic and the performance gap isn’t costing you anything real, or you’re inside a GoDaddy contract term where an early exit forfeits money you’d rather not lose. Cloudways isn’t the right move for someone who wants zero technical involvement — you’re still choosing server sizes and, in the Flexible tier, a cloud provider, even if Cloudways abstracts away the raw server management GoDaddy hides completely.
our full verdict on whether Cloudways is worth it
If you’re coming from a different host rather than GoDaddy specifically, our Bluehost-to-Cloudways migration guide covers the same zero-downtime process for Bluehost’s more standard single-domain, single-host setup.
Related reading: Cloudways Vultr High Frequency markup, Cloudways staging environment, Cloudways for WooCommerce.
FAQ
Can I migrate my GoDaddy domain to Cloudways without losing email?
Yes. Web hosting and email use different DNS record types — A/CNAME records point your site to Cloudways, while MX records keep routing your email through GoDaddy (or wherever it’s hosted). As long as you don’t overwrite your MX records while editing the A record, GoDaddy email keeps working through the entire migration.
How long does a GoDaddy to Cloudways migration take?
The WordPress Migrator plugin itself typically finishes in around 20 minutes for a standard site. Full DNS propagation after cutover takes another 24–48 hours. If you use Cloudways’ free expert-assisted migration instead, expect 1–2 business days for the transfer plus their post-migration testing.
Will I lose money if I cancel GoDaddy right after migrating?
Not necessarily, but timing matters. GoDaddy’s refund window is roughly 30 days for annual plans and about 48 hours for monthly or shorter terms, and refunds require actively contacting support — they’re not automatic. Verify your new Cloudways site and let DNS fully propagate before canceling, but don’t wait so long you miss your plan’s refund window if a refund matters to you.
Does Cloudways offer a free migration from GoDaddy?
Yes — Cloudways offers a free expert-assisted migration for a customer’s first website, regardless of source host, including GoDaddy. This is the recommended route for GoDaddy Managed WordPress users who don’t have cPanel-level file and database access.
What if I’m on GoDaddy Managed WordPress instead of Web Hosting (cPanel)?
Skip the plugin-based DIY method and use Cloudways’ free expert-assisted migration instead. GoDaddy Managed WordPress doesn’t expose a self-service “export everything” tool the way cPanel does, so the SFTP/database credentials the plugin method needs may not be readily available.
Final Verdict: Migrate GoDaddy to Cloudways with Zero Downtime
If you’re on GoDaddy Web Hosting (cPanel), the WordPress Migrator plugin route gets you to Cloudways in about 20 minutes with no cost and no downtime, as long as you verify the staging copy before touching DNS. If you’re on GoDaddy Managed WordPress, skip straight to Cloudways’ free expert-assisted migration rather than fighting for credentials the platform doesn’t hand over easily. Either way, check for Smush Pro/Hummingbird conflicts before you migrate, keep your MX records untouched if GoDaddy also handles your email, and don’t cancel GoDaddy until your new site has been live and verified through a full DNS propagation window — with your plan’s refund deadline still in view. Cloudways’ 3-day free trial and first-migration-free offer make this close to a no-risk way to find out whether the switch is worth it for your site.
