Migration guide
Moving from Bluehost to SiteGround
This is one of the easier migrations to get right, because SiteGround has done the hard part for you. Its free WordPress Migrator plugin copies a live site across without touching the original, which removes most of the manual export-and-import work that makes host moves stressful.
The DNS side is less generous. SiteGround's Site Tools has no zone file import or export, and — like Bluehost — it will only let you edit a zone once the domain already points at its nameservers. So the records get retyped, and the window in which you retype them is after the switch, not before.
The four jobs below are independent. Plenty of people move only the website and leave the domain at Bluehost indefinitely, which is a perfectly sensible end state.
Steps checked against both control panels on August 9, 2026. Provider interfaces change — if a menu has moved, the official docs linked in each section are the authority.
Just need one thing?
Every guide below is written to be followed on its own. Pick the one thing you actually need — there is no requirement to move everything.
Move your website from Bluehost to SiteGround
Yes, and this is the most common way people do it. You can have a working copy of the site on SiteGround and change nothing else — the domain stays at Bluehost, email keeps flowing, and visitors keep reaching the Bluehost copy until you decide otherwise..
30–90 minutes with the MigratorEasy
Rebuild your DNS records in SiteGround Site Tools
Yes, and usually in its smallest form — a single A record edit. If all you want is the website served from SiteGround, you do not need to move the zone or change nameservers at all.
45–90 minutesModerate
Point your domain from Bluehost to SiteGround nameservers
Not really — and this is the one task on this page where the honest answer is no. Changing nameservers to SiteGround without immediately populating the zone will take down your email and anything else that depends on a record you have not recreated.
10 minutes to changeEasy
Transfer your domain registration from Bluehost to SiteGround
Yes, and this is the task most safely done entirely on its own. A registrar transfer is a billing and ownership change.
20 minutes of workEasy
Moving all of it? Do it in this order
Only relevant if you are moving everything. Done together, this sequence is the one that never leaves the site pointing at an empty account.
- 1
Move your website from Bluehost to SiteGround
Run the Migrator while Bluehost is still live. It copies rather than moves, so your existing site is untouched and there is no downtime.
30–90 minutes with the MigratorEasySame dayFull steps → - 2
Rebuild your DNS records in SiteGround Site Tools
Write down every record now, from the Bluehost zone export. You cannot enter them at SiteGround yet, but you must not be improvising them at cutover.
45–90 minutesModerateRecords apply within an hour of entryFull steps → - 3
Point your domain from Bluehost to SiteGround nameservers
The cutover. SiteGround's zone editor unlocks at this point, so the record entry happens immediately afterwards.
10 minutes to changeEasy24–48 hours to propagate fullyFull steps → - 4
Transfer your domain registration from Bluehost to SiteGround
Last, or never. SiteGround transfers can take up to 14 days, and nothing else waits on them.
20 minutes of workEasyUp to 14 daysFull steps →
What each step involves
Move your website from Bluehost to SiteGround
If the site is WordPress, do not do this by hand. SiteGround's Migrator plugin installs on the Bluehost site, copies the content into an empty site at SiteGround, and leaves the original running throughout. It also rewrites internal links as it goes, which is the part people most often get wrong manually.
Downtime risk: None. The Migrator copies rather than moves, and the live site stays on Bluehost until DNS changes.
Read the 5-step guide →Rebuild your DNS records in SiteGround Site Tools
SiteGround's DNS Zone Editor handles A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, SRV and TXT records. That covers almost everything a normal site needs, and it is a clean interface to work in.
Downtime risk: Real, and concentrated in the minutes after the nameserver change. Preparation is the entire mitigation.
Read the 6-step guide →Point your domain from Bluehost to SiteGround nameservers
Nameservers decide which company answers DNS for your domain. Changing them hands the whole zone over in one move — website, email, subdomains and verification records all at once.
Downtime risk: High unless you have the full record list ready to enter the moment the zone unlocks.
Read the 5-step guide →Transfer your domain registration from Bluehost to SiteGround
A registrar transfer changes which company holds the registration and bills you for it. It moves no files, no email and no DNS records, and your site stays exactly where it is throughout.
Downtime risk: None if nameservers are left alone. The transfer preserves your existing DNS delegation.
Read the 6-step guide →Where you will be working
Bluehost
Shared and WordPress hosting with its own account portal; cPanel sits behind it on most plans.
ns1.bluehost.com · ns2.bluehost.com
Sign in to Bluehost→SiteGround
Managed shared hosting with its own Site Tools panel instead of cPanel.
ns1.siteground.net · ns2.siteground.net
Sign in to SiteGround→Bluehost to SiteGround: common questions
Is the SiteGround Migrator actually free?
Yes. The WordPress Migrator plugin is free from the WordPress plugin repository, and SiteGround also exposes it in Site Tools. It is the intended path for moving a WordPress site in, and it is genuinely good — it copies the live site rather than moving it, so nothing breaks if the migration fails.
Do I have to transfer my domain to SiteGround?
No, and there is no strong reason to. SiteGround is a host first; keeping the domain registered at Bluehost, or anywhere else, costs you nothing and means a billing dispute with one company cannot take down both your domain and your site.
Will my email keep working?
Only if you plan for it. If you use Bluehost email and you move nameservers to SiteGround, the mailboxes stay at Bluehost but the MX records that route to them do not come with you. Either recreate those MX records in Site Tools, or move the mailboxes properly — and either way, download the mail over IMAP before cancelling anything.
What is the catch with SiteGround?
Renewal pricing, mostly, which is a purchasing question rather than a migration one. The migration-specific catch is the DNS ordering: no zone import, and no zone editing until the nameservers already point at SiteGround. Go in with every record written down.
Want this Bluehost to SiteGround move done for you?
I do these end to end — files, database, DNS records, nameserver cutover and the registrar transfer — with the old host kept as a rollback until it has settled.