Transferring Your Domain and Hosting to a New Provider

Switching website providers sounds technically complicated, so many companies put it off, even after years of dissatisfaction with the result or the responsiveness. In reality it comes down to a few clear steps, provided your current arrangement for the domain and hosting is in order. And if it is not, if today you do not know who formally "holds" your domain, this is the best moment to check, not the day you want to leave.

How does transferring the domain and hosting to a new agency work?

The process depends mostly on who has had registrar access until now. A typical transfer with us goes like this:

We check the current state. Where the domain is registered (Register.si, the Slovenian .si registry, or a foreign registrar), where the hosting runs, and whether you yourself have access to both.
We build the new site on Cloudflare, separate from the old hosting, without touching the existing site until everything is ready and tested.
We sort out access to the domain. If the domain is already in your name and at a registrar where you have the password, no registrar transfer is needed; we only change the DNS settings. If the old provider still formally "holds" the domain, we first transfer it to your name and your account.
We switch the DNS records to Cloudflare once the new site is verified and ready.
We wait for the change to propagate and check that the site now runs correctly at the old address, with all the email and subpages you use.
We hand everything over to you: the domain, hosting on your own account, the source code and, where relevant, the agent prompts on your own Google Drive.

For a rebuild of an existing site this process is standard practice, not an exception. The new site is built in parallel and the old one stays live until the switch is confirmed. Nothing happens in a rush, and nothing gets switched until you have seen the new site working yourself.

Does the site go down during the transfer ("downtime")?

Honestly: a registrar transfer (if one is needed) involves unlocking the domain and an authorisation (EPP) code, which can take a few days. That depends on the registrar, not on us. A DNS change also does not take effect everywhere at the same moment, because it spreads across the internet.

That does not mean the site has to be unavailable in the meantime. If you plan the process properly, with the new site ready and verified before anything is switched, visitors keep seeing the working old site until the transition is complete. Outages almost always happen because someone switches hastily or without preparation: they change DNS before the new site is ready, or delete the old hosting before the new one is verified. They do not happen because a transfer is risky in itself. A good provider explains the transition to you step by step in advance, so you know what is happening and when.

What do I need from the old provider?

This is where you find out whether your relationship with the previous provider was fair. From them you need:

Access to the domain registrar (or confirmation that the domain is already in your name and on your account).
Access to the hosting, or confirmation that you can move the content and settings without their involvement.
The site's source code, if it is a custom-built solution, or a content export if it is WordPress or a similar system.
The DNS records that currently keep your email and site running, so you do not lose them in the transition.

If the provider answers any of these with excuses or stalling, you know who you were dealing with. With Segentic, everything is yours from the start. The domain, hosting and code are in your name, not ours, so this question never comes up with us.

Why moving to a static site is easier

A site without a database or plugins (the kind we build on Cloudflare) is simply easier and cheaper to move than a typical WordPress site, where everything is intertwined: database, plugins, themes. A concrete example: in the rebuild for Jadmiral we moved the site from WordPress to Astro on Cloudflare. The site loads roughly 4 times faster, and the annual hosting cost fell from €350 to €12.

When to decide to switch

If you are stuck today with a provider who will not give you access to the domain or hosting, that is not a normal state of affairs. It is a sign that it is time to switch. Write to us and we will check what you currently have in hand. You get a reply the same working day and a quote within 48 hours.