# Leaving GoDaddy: how to move your site and email out

Source: https://dijihost.co.uk/guides/leaving-godaddy/
Updated: 2026-10-18

> To leave GoDaddy safely, list every product and renewal date on the account, copy the email first, move the website second and transfer the domain last, cancelling nothing until the new setup has run for a fortnight. dijihost does the whole move for you, with migration included in Complete Hosting at £1 a day + VAT.

## Key facts

- One GoDaddy invoice often covers several separate products: domains, hosting, mailboxes, SSL and add-ons.
- Each product has its own renewal date, so write them all down before you start.
- Mail already delivered stays in the old mailbox until you copy it across over IMAP.
- Calendars, contacts, aliases and forwarders do not travel with an IMAP copy.
- A site built in a hosted website builder cannot be downloaded as files and has to be rebuilt.
- You can leave the domain registered at GoDaddy and simply point it at a new server.
- dijihost Complete Hosting is £1 a day + VAT, with free migration (moving more than 5 email accounts may be charged).

## Start by reading your own invoice

**Leaving GoDaddy** is one invoice and several separate departures. The domain, the website, the mailboxes and whatever got added at checkout are sold together and have to be unpicked one at a time. Sort the email first, the site second and the domain last, and none of it hurts.

That order is deliberate. A website that blinks for an hour is embarrassing. Email that blinks for an hour loses messages nobody knows were sent.

Open the billing screen before anything else and write down every line. If you are not sure the account in front of you is the one actually serving the site, [three quick lookups](https://dijihost.co.uk/guides/where-is-my-website-hosted/) settle it. Accounts we get handed usually hold some mix of:

- One domain, or eleven, several of which nobody remembers buying
- A hosting plan, which may or may not be what the website runs on
- Mailboxes, billed per person per month
- An SSL certificate as its own paid line
- Privacy and protection add-ons on the domain
- Sometimes a website builder subscription, which changes the whole job

Note every renewal date. Losing hosting for a day is recoverable. Losing a domain because a renewal slid past mid-move is not.

## Plan the email properly

### Work out what kind of mailbox you have

Depending on when the account was opened, your mail is either a Microsoft mailbox sold and billed through GoDaddy, or an older mailbox on their own platform. The two lead to different work. With a Microsoft mailbox there is sometimes a route that keeps the mailbox where it is and only changes who bills you, which saves the copying entirely. Ask that early, before you spend an evening dragging folders about.

### Copy the mail while you still have both

The usual method is dull and reliable: set up the new mailbox, add both accounts to one desktop mail program as IMAP, and drag the folders across. Large mailboxes take hours and stall if the laptop sleeps. A sync tool you can run twice, once for the bulk and once for stragglers, is better.

Two things get missed. Anyone set up with POP rather than IMAP may have years of mail that exists only on their laptop, so back that machine up separately. And calendars and contacts do not travel over IMAP at all; export them as files. Write down every alias, forwarder, catch-all and autoresponder too, because none of it shows up in a mail copy and it all has to be rebuilt by hand. That list is why invoices@ keeps working three days after the move.

### Switchover day

When the MX records change, new mail lands in the new mailbox and older mail stays in the old one, so run one last catch-up sync a day later. Warn staff before their phones need reconfiguring, not at 9am. Keep the old mailboxes paid up for a month and do not delete anything: deleting a mailbox deletes the mail inside it. For the DNS side of mail, see our sister site's guide to [SPF, DKIM and DMARC](https://dijituldns.co.uk/guides/spf-dkim-dmarc-setup/).

## The website depends on what built it

If your site is WordPress or any ordinary PHP application on their hosting, it moves the way any site moves: files one way, database the other, test, switch. Our step-by-step guide to [moving a WordPress site to a new host](https://dijihost.co.uk/guides/move-wordpress-site-new-host/) covers it.

Sites built in GoDaddy's own website builder are a different answer. There are no files to take, because the pages are assembled by their system rather than stored as a site you can download. You save the text and images, and the site gets rebuilt somewhere else. That is how every hosted builder works. Better to know in week one than on go-live morning.

Check which PHP version the site runs on, too. Older sites are often stuck on an unsupported version. We run PHP 5.6 to 8.5, selectable per site, so an old site can move first and be brought forward afterwards.

## The domain: move it, or just repoint it

You can leave the domain registered where it is and simply change where it points. Plenty of people do exactly that. We prefer domain, DNS and hosting under one roof: one login to fix things on a Sunday evening instead of three.

If you do move it, a .com or .net uses an authorisation code (EPP or transfer code) from the domain settings once the lock is off. A .uk domain has no code and moves by a change of registrar tag instead. Two traps: a domain usually cannot be transferred within 60 days of registration or a change of owner details, and the approvals go to the domain's contact address, so that must be a mailbox you can still read, not the one you are switching off.

The full mechanics live on our sister site: [transferring a .co.uk domain](https://dijituldns.co.uk/guides/transfer-co-uk-domain/), [pointing a domain at a new host](https://dijituldns.co.uk/guides/point-domain-to-new-host/) and [checking who owns your domain](https://dijituldns.co.uk/guides/check-domain-ownership/).

## A sane order of play

- Inventory the account and every renewal date on it.
- Build the new mailboxes and copy the mail in, with nothing switched over yet.
- Rebuild aliases and forwarders on the new side from your written list.
- Get the website working on the new server and check it while the public still sees the old one.
- Change the records, mail and web, then send a test message in from an outside address.
- Wait a fortnight. Then transfer the domain, then cancel, in that order.

In fairness to GoDaddy, they are one of the largest providers in the world and for plenty of people they are fine. The reasons people ring us are structural: renewal prices are not always the price on the way in, and a company that size answers through a process rather than from somebody who already has your site open. That matters the first time the site goes down in the middle of a working day.

## What it looks like when we do it

You send us the domain and the logins, and we do the lot. Migration is free for hosting customers (moving more than 5 email accounts may be charged), and we would rather copy the mail ourselves than talk you through it over the phone. [dijihost Complete Hosting](https://dijihost.co.uk/complete-hosting/) is **£1 a day + VAT**: managed UK hosting with Plesk, Cloudflare DNS, daily backups kept for 14 days, free SSL and 10 mailboxes. If it goes sideways on a Sunday, you get Olly, not a queue position.

If you want the mail kept on separate infrastructure from the website, so trouble with one cannot silence the other, ask and we can set it up that way. See our [website migration](https://dijihost.co.uk/website-migration/) page, or [order online](https://clients.dijitul.uk/order) and call 01623 650333.

## FAQs

### Will I lose my emails if I leave GoDaddy?

Not if you copy them before anything is switched. Mail already delivered stays in the old mailbox, so it has to be copied over IMAP into the new one while both accounts are still live and paid for. Keep the old mailboxes running for a month after the move, and never delete a mailbox to save a few pounds.

### Can I move my website off GoDaddy but keep the domain there?

Yes, and it is a normal thing to do. Domain registration and hosting are separate products, so you can point the domain at a new server and leave the registration where it is. We usually suggest bringing the domain across eventually, simply because one login is easier to deal with in a hurry than three.

### How do I get my GoDaddy transfer code?

Find the domain in your account, take the transfer lock off, and request the authorisation code from its settings. It may be called an EPP code or a transfer code. Give that code to your new registrar and approve the confirmation message. A .uk domain does not use a code at all and moves by a registrar tag change.

### Can a GoDaddy website builder site be moved to another host?

Not as files. Sites built in a hosted website builder are assembled by that company's software rather than stored as something you can download and run elsewhere, which is true of every builder of that kind. You keep the text, the images and the domain, and the site is rebuilt on the new platform.

### Can dijihost move my GoDaddy site and email for me?

Yes. Send dijihost the domain and logins and we move the website and mail, leaving your GoDaddy account running until the new setup has settled. Migration is included in Complete Hosting at £1 a day + VAT, though moving more than 5 email accounts may be charged. Older PHP sites are welcome.

## Pricing and ordering

dijihost Complete Hosting is £1 a day + VAT (£365 a year + VAT). Order at https://clients.dijitul.uk/order or call 01623 650333.