Move website files and database from GoDaddy to Bluehost

• ✓An active Bluehost plan, provisioned and showing a temporary URL or IP address
• ✓GoDaddy access with File Manager or FTP, and phpMyAdmin
• ✓Enough local disk space for a full copy — check the GoDaddy disk usage figure first
• ✓The WordPress admin login, if the site is WordPress

1. 1At GoDaddy

   Take a full backup before touching anything

   Download a copy of both the files and the database and keep it off both hosts. This is not the migration copy — it is what you restore from when the migration copy turns out to be incomplete.

   • Files: GoDaddy → Web Hosting → Manage → File Manager, or connect over FTP
   • Database: cPanel → phpMyAdmin → select the database → Export → Quick → SQL
   • Store both somewhere that is neither GoDaddy nor Bluehost
2. 2At GoDaddy

   Compress public_html on the GoDaddy side

   Zipping on the server and downloading one archive is far faster and more reliable than pulling thousands of small files over FTP, which is where WordPress migrations usually stall.

   • In cPanel File Manager, open public_html, select all, then Compress → Zip Archive
   • Turn on hidden files first — .htaccess is hidden by default and easy to leave behind
   • For very large sites, GoDaddy documents FileZilla over FTP as the alternative
3. 3At GoDaddy

   Export the database

   Export the whole database as a single SQL file. For WordPress, the database name is in wp-config.php — open it and note DB_NAME, DB_USER and DB_PASSWORD while you are there, because all three are about to change.

   • phpMyAdmin → select the database → Export tab → Quick, format SQL → Go
   • If the export times out or the file is over ~50 MB, use mysqldump over SSH instead
   Over SSH, if your plan allows it

   cd ~
   zip -r site-backup.zip public_html -x '*/wp-content/cache/*'
   mysqldump -u DBUSER -p DBNAME > site-db.sql

4. 4At Bluehost

   Upload and extract on Bluehost

   Upload the archive into public_html on the Bluehost side and extract it there, rather than uploading the expanded tree.

   • Bluehost portal → Hosting → File Manager, or connect over FTP/SFTP
   • Navigate to public_html, upload the archive, then extract
   • If the zip contained the public_html folder itself, move the contents up one level so index.php sits directly in public_html
5. 5At Bluehost

   Create the database and user at Bluehost

   The database and its user are separate objects. Create both, then explicitly grant the user All Privileges — a site that loads but reports "Error establishing a database connection" is almost always a missing grant.

   • Bluehost cPanel → Databases → MySQL Databases → create a database
   • Create a user, then Add User To Database → All Privileges
   • Note the full names — cPanel prefixes both with your account name
6. 6At Bluehost

   Import the SQL file

   Import into the empty database you just created, using phpMyAdmin on the Bluehost side.

   • cPanel → phpMyAdmin → select the new database → Import → choose the .sql file → Go
   • Wait for the success message; a partial import leaves a site that half works
   • Compare the table count against the source before moving on
7. 7At Bluehost

   Update wp-config.php with the Bluehost credentials

   The site will not connect until wp-config.php names the new database, user and password. On Bluehost shared hosting, DB_HOST stays localhost.

   wp-config.php

   define( 'DB_NAME', 'yourcpanel_dbname' );
   define( 'DB_USER', 'yourcpanel_dbuser' );
   define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'the password you just set' );
   define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

8. 8At Bluehost

   Test before you touch DNS

   This is what separates a calm migration from a bad one. Load the Bluehost copy while GoDaddy still serves the public, and fix what is broken with no audience.

   • Use the temporary URL or IP that Bluehost provides for the account
   • Better: add a hosts file entry so the real domain resolves to Bluehost for you only, which catches redirect loops the temporary URL hides
   • Click through properly — forms, logins, checkout, an image deep in an old post
   hosts file entry (macOS/Linux: /etc/hosts)

   162.241.0.10  example.com www.example.com

9. 9At Bluehost

   Fix the predictable differences

   A handful of things reliably differ between the two hosts. Work through them now rather than discovering them live.

   • PHP version — match GoDaddy's first, upgrade later as a separate change
   • File permissions — directories 755, files 644
   • Confirm .htaccess actually arrived; if permalinks 404, it did not
   • Re-create cron jobs; they do not travel with files
   • Check the error log for anything referencing a GoDaddy-specific path

• Coming off Managed Hosting for WordPress is a different job

  Can cause downtime

  GoDaddy's managed WordPress product has no cPanel and no phpMyAdmin, so there is nothing to export the way this guide describes. Pull the site out with a migration plugin that produces a portable archive, or use Bluehost's migration service. Do it while the GoDaddy site is still publicly reachable, because most migration tooling works by fetching the live site.

• Hidden files are silently skipped

  Can cause downtime

  .htaccess, .user.ini and similar dotfiles do not appear in most file managers until you enable hidden files, and they are not included in a zip built from a selection that never showed them. A WordPress site missing .htaccess loads the homepage fine and 404s on every other page.

• Large database imports fail quietly in phpMyAdmin

  Can cause delays

  Above roughly 50 MB the import hits the upload or execution limit. Sometimes it errors; sometimes it stops partway and reports nothing useful. Check the table count after importing against the source, rather than trusting the absence of an error.

• Email does not live in the files

  Can cause downtime

  Mailboxes hosted with your old provider are not in public_html and are not in the database. If you use host-provided email, that is a separate migration — download the mail over IMAP before you cancel, or the messages go with the account.

• Cached URLs baked into the database

  Can cause delays

  If the domain is changing as well as the host, the old domain is written throughout the database — in post content, in widget settings, in serialized option arrays. Use a search-replace tool that understands PHP serialization; a raw SQL find-and-replace corrupts serialized data and breaks theme settings.

• ✓The site loads on Bluehost's temporary URL, or on the real domain via a hosts file entry, with no database connection error
• ✓Interior pages load — not just the homepage — proving .htaccess and permalinks survived
• ✓Images in old posts render, confirming wp-content/uploads came across in full
• ✓wp-admin logs in and the plugin list matches the GoDaddy site
• ✓The Bluehost error log is clean after a few minutes of clicking around

Nothing is live yet, so rollback is simply: do not change DNS. The GoDaddy site keeps serving as it always has. Delete the Bluehost copy and start again if the import went badly.

• FTP on Bluehost: Setup, Tools and TroubleshootingBluehostOfficial docs
• Pro Migration Services — Finalization GuideBluehostOfficial docs
• Upload files using my Web Hosting (cPanel) File ManagerGoDaddyOfficial docs
• Move my cPanel website with FTP and FileZillaGoDaddyOfficial docs