Migrate a whole self-hosted server to managed hosting

If you already build on your own server (SSH) but want to drop the ops, you can migrate the whole server onto GOCO managed hosting: the sites’ original files are pulled from the source server to managed hosting and statically archived, the platform provisions a plan that your existing license covers for free, the site and batch records move with them, and the source server is then de-licensed and can be deleted.

Static archive = kept as-is, but no longer rebuildable / publishable

Migrated sites are statically archived from their original files — they keep exactly how they looked at migration and stay reachable, but they can no longer be rebuilt or publish articles (to change content you’d rebuild from scratch). If you still need AI rebuilds / scheduled publishing on these sites, don’t migrate.

Prerequisites

• The source server must be a paid, licensed self-hosted server (free-trial / unpaid servers can’t migrate).
• It has at least one site.
• It has no migration already in flight; if a previous migration stalled mid-way it needs operator help — contact support (that case does not consume a migration credit).
• The total site count fits within a single hosting plan’s cap (max 2000 sites, the XL 2000 tier); above that, migrate in batches or contact an admin.

Migration quota

“Migrate to hosting” has its own rolling-365-day quota (3 per 12 months by default, counting successful migrations only; independent of the self-server “Change IP / transfer license / transfer to another user” quotas). The dialog header shows “X of Y migrations remaining this year”.

Billing & plan

• The platform auto-picks a plan tier by site count (Starter 50 / Standard 300 / Large 600 / XL 1000 / XL 2000); you only choose a region.
• The new plan is covered free for the remaining validity of your existing license; it only switches to monthly renewal after that — you don’t pay again for the same sites.
• Any one-time platform-fee difference for an XL tier (if applicable) is charged together with the first month’s hosting fee; the dialog spells out the fees before you start.
• A GOCO AI add-on bought on the source server carries over to the new plan.

Steps

1. Open the migration dialog

   On the Servers page, click “Migrate to goco hosting” on that server’s license card (or reach it from the server detail). A preflight shows: the site / batch counts to migrate, the auto-provisioned tier and quota, your remaining migrations this year, and the fee breakdown.

   Open Servers ↗

2. Pick a region and confirm

   Choose a region in the region dropdown (Taiwan / Hong Kong / Singapore / Korea / Japan). Review the fees and the “what happens after migration” notes, then click “Confirm migration”.

3. Watch the transfer

   The migration runs in the background; the dialog shows each site’s archiving progress (queued / active / done / failed), bytes transferred, speed and concurrency. Closing the dialog only hides progress — it doesn’t interrupt the migration, and you can reopen it anytime. A site that keeps failing to pull is skipped (left on the source server, not counted) so one bad site never aborts the whole run.

4. Cutover

   Once everything is pulled, the platform: writes the sites as a static archive to managed hosting, provisions the plan (covered free by your existing license), moves the site and batch records, and binds the domains; the source self-hosted server is de-licensed and marked “migrated”, and you can delete it later.

After migration: switch DNS

Once migration finishes, the hosted sites need their domains pointed at the hosting endpoint — same as a fresh managed-hosting site. On the Domains page, follow each site detail’s “Domains needing DNS setup” to add the records (routing CNAME + certificate CNAME + ownership TXT); once they propagate, the certificate issues automatically and the site is reachable. Full steps in managed-hosting DNS.

Note

Migration only moves the site files and records — it does not change your DNS. Until you switch DNS, visitors still resolve to the old server IP; finish the DNS cutover and confirm managed-hosting access before deleting the old server.

Failure & rollback

• If migration fails at startup (e.g. the migration service is briefly unavailable), it auto-rolls back and your source server is untouched; any first-month hosting fee already charged is refunded to your wallet, or recorded as “owed” and refunded within one business day if it doesn’t return immediately.
• A single site failing mid-transfer is skipped (stranded) while the rest migrate; those sites stay served by the source server.
• If a whole migration stalls and moves to “manual review”, contact support — your migration credit is not consumed.

Related pages

Binding & managing your own servers

Domain resolution

Orders, wallet & quotas