Web Hosting Canada (WHC) uses cPanel, so migrating to CanSpace is a clean cPanel-to-cPanel move — files, databases, email, and DNS all come over intact. This article covers both the let-us-do-it path and the self-serve approach.
Option A: Let us handle it
- Sign up for a CanSpace hosting plan.
- Open a support ticket and include your WHC cPanel login URL, username, and password. If you'd rather not share credentials, you can also generate a backup yourself and send us the file (Option B covers how).
- We take it from there — typically complete within a day, with no downtime.
Option B: Migrate yourself
Step 1: Sign up with CanSpace
Order your hosting plan so the destination cPanel account exists.
Step 2: Generate a full backup from WHC
- Log in to your WHC Client Area.
- Go to Services → My Services, click your hosting plan, then click Login to cPanel.
- In cPanel, search for backup and open Backup (not Backup Wizard — the older, more complete tool).
- Click Download a Full Account Backup under Full Backup.
- Set Backup Destination to Home Directory, optionally provide an email to notify you when it's done, and click Generate Backup.
- When ready, download the
.tar.gzfile from the list of available backups at the bottom of the page.
Step 3: Send us the backup
Open a support ticket and either:
- Attach the file to the ticket if it's under about 50 MB.
- Share a download link (Google Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer).
- Upload to your new CanSpace cPanel account via File Manager or FTP and tell us the path.
We'll restore it into your new account — usually done within minutes to an hour depending on size.
Step 4: Verify before switching DNS
Preview the migrated site on our servers before touching DNS — see How to preview your site before updating DNS. You can catch any issues (broken plugins, missing images, old URLs) while the live site is still running on WHC.
Step 5: Update nameservers
If your domain is registered at WHC:
- In the WHC client area, go to Domains → My Domains.
- Click the domain, then Nameservers.
- Enter the CanSpace nameservers from your "New Account Information" email.
If your domain is registered elsewhere, update the nameservers at that registrar instead. DNS propagation is usually complete within a few hours, up to 24-48 in rare cases.
Moving a domain from WHC to CanSpace
Optional but convenient: transferring the domain registration itself (not just the hosting) puts everything under one roof. See How do I transfer a domain to CanSpace?. You'll need the EPP/authorization code from WHC's domain management page — and for .ca domains, the transfer completes immediately.
Email notes
A cPanel full backup includes email accounts and message contents. Your mailboxes come across the same way they'd appear on WHC — assuming you were using IMAP and leaving mail on the server. POP3 users who've been downloading mail to a local client have no server-side history to migrate; your mail lives in your client.
After the migration, update your device's mail settings to point to our server (the hostname in your "New Account Information" email) instead of WHC's. Ports and login details stay the same.
Common issues
- Backup generation fails on large sites. If your account is over about 5 GB, cPanel's full-backup tool may time out. Contact WHC support to ask for a manual backup, or migrate in pieces.
- WHC-specific scripts not working after migration. WHC has custom WordPress staging integrations that don't exist on standard cPanel. If you had a staging environment, rebuild it on our side using cPanel's own staging feature (WP Toolkit).
- Let's Encrypt SSL not reinstalled automatically. SSL certificates need the domain to point at our server before they can be issued. Don't worry about SSL until after DNS propagates — see Activate SSL and fix Not Secure warnings.
Related articles
- What's included in our free website migration
- How to preview your site before updating DNS
- How do I transfer a domain to CanSpace?
Need a hand? Open a migration ticket
