This article explains the differences between a site migration and a domain transfer. These two terms sometimes lead to confusion, because people may assume that a domain name (example.com) and website are the same thing. However, they are two separate services that can be hosted by the same company or different companies.

In a site migration, a hosting account's content is copied from one hosting provider to another. The migrated content usually includes:

• Website files

• E-mail messages

• Databases

• cPanel settings (for cPanel-based accounts)

A site migration does not affect the existing, functioning site. Content is merely duplicated, not removed. In order for the site at the migration destination to become the new "active" site, the domain's name servers must be updated to point to the new server hosting the migrated content.

A site migration can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two, depending on how much content there is to migrate.