GoDaddy offers several hosting products, each with a different migration path: traditional cPanel hosting (straightforward), Managed WordPress hosting (export via plugin), and Business / VPS plans (depends on the setup). This article covers the common cases.
Identify which GoDaddy product you have
Log in to GoDaddy and look at My Products:
- Web Hosting / cPanel Hosting — standard cPanel, easiest to migrate. Follow the cPanel route below.
- Managed WordPress — GoDaddy's managed WP platform, no cPanel. Follow the Managed WordPress route.
- Business Hosting — essentially a managed VPS running cPanel, migrates like cPanel hosting.
- Websites + Marketing / GoCentral — GoDaddy's proprietary site builder. Can't be exported directly; the site has to be rebuilt. See the Wix migration article — the approach is similar (rebuild on SiteJet or WordPress).
Route 1: cPanel hosting (including Business Hosting)
Option A: Let us handle it
- Sign up for a CanSpace hosting plan.
- Open a support ticket with your GoDaddy cPanel login URL, username, and password. Include the domain.
- We do the full cPanel-to-cPanel restore.
Option B: Migrate yourself
- Access cPanel on GoDaddy. In your GoDaddy Product page, click Manage next to your hosting plan, then cPanel Admin.
- Generate a full backup. In cPanel, search for backup and open the Backup tool (not Backup Wizard). Click Download a Full Account Backup. Leave destination as Home Directory, click Generate Backup.
- Download the
.tar.gzfile when it's ready (usually a few minutes for small sites). - Send us the backup — attach to a ticket, share a Dropbox/Drive link, or upload to your CanSpace cPanel via File Manager.
- We restore — typically within a few minutes for small accounts, longer for larger ones.
- Update nameservers in GoDaddy's DNS Management panel to the CanSpace nameservers from your "New Account Information" email.
Route 2: Managed WordPress
Managed WordPress doesn't give you cPanel or standard FTP access, so the migration is WordPress-to-WordPress via an export plugin. The tool of choice is All-in-One WP Migration, which is free and reliable.
- Install All-in-One WP Migration on your GoDaddy Managed WordPress site — from WP admin, Plugins → Add New, search for it, install and activate.
- Export: All-in-One WP Migration → Export. Pick Export to → File. The plugin creates a
.wpressarchive containing the whole site — database, files, plugins, themes, media. Download it. - Sign up for a CanSpace hosting plan and install a fresh WordPress (cPanel → Softaculous → WordPress).
- Install All-in-One WP Migration on the new WordPress site.
- Import: All-in-One WP Migration → Import → From → File. Upload the
.wpressfile. The plugin replaces the fresh WordPress install with the imported site. - Update nameservers once you've verified the migrated site works on a temporary preview URL.
All-in-One WP Migration's free version has an upload size limit of 512 MB. For larger sites, either use their paid extension or contact us — we can import larger archives directly.
Route 3: Websites + Marketing (GoCentral)
GoDaddy's Websites + Marketing (formerly GoCentral) is a proprietary site builder. It doesn't export to WordPress or any standard format — the site has to be rebuilt. You have two good options on CanSpace:
- SiteJet — included free with every plan. It has AI-assisted site generation that can recreate a basic marketing site in under an hour. Good for straightforward business sites.
- WordPress — included free with every plan. The industry standard; more work to set up but open-ended customization and you're not locked in.
Before cancelling your GoCentral subscription, save everything you'll want to reuse: text copy (copy-paste into a document), images (right-click and save from your live site), and any contact form data. Then rebuild on CanSpace using your saved content.
Moving the domain itself
If your domain is also registered at GoDaddy, transferring it to CanSpace puts everything in one place. See How do I transfer a domain to CanSpace?. You'll need an EPP/authorization code from GoDaddy (under My Domains → your domain → Additional Settings).
Common issues
- "Download a Full Account Backup" missing in GoDaddy cPanel. Some GoDaddy plans disable this feature. In that case use the individual backup tools: Files (Home Directory Backup), Databases (MySQL Database Backup), and export each email account. It's more fiddly, but works — or just let us handle it.
- Wrong PHP version after import. GoDaddy Managed WordPress runs on their own PHP configuration. After import you may want to set the PHP version in MultiPHP Manager — PHP 8.2 or 8.3 for modern WordPress.
- Email was via Microsoft 365 (GoDaddy reseller). GoDaddy resells Microsoft 365 email separately from hosting. Your email stays with Microsoft regardless of where you host. Just make sure the MX records stay pointed to Microsoft after the DNS switch — see Set up Microsoft 365 MX records on CanSpace.
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?
Ready to leave GoDaddy? Open a migration ticket
