Leaving a website builder

A website builder makes a first site quick to set up. Moving off one takes more planning, because each builder lets you take different things with you.

What each builder lets you take

• Wix. Wix says that for a Wix site to work properly, it needs to be hosted and operated on Wix's servers. It also says the content you build on Wix belongs to you. Moving means rebuilding the pages elsewhere from your own copies of the words and pictures.
• Squarespace. Squarespace exports some content as an .xml file in WordPress format. That covers layout pages, one blog page, text and image blocks and gallery pages. Other page types, product blocks, video blocks, style settings and custom CSS stay behind. A trial site can't be exported.
• Shopify. Shopify can export a store's products as a CSV file, a spreadsheet format. Shopify suggests this for a backup or for editing products in bulk.
• WordPress.com. Its export file holds posts, pages, comments and links to your images. WordPress.com asks you to keep the old site public while the new one copies the images across.

Keeping your domain

A domain bought through the builder moves to a new registrar by transfer.

• Wix emails a transfer code to the domain's registrant contact address. It says you cannot transfer a domain within 60 days of buying it. For .uk and .co.uk names it asks for an IPS tag from your new provider instead. Some providers have to accept the request by hand, and Wix says this should be done within 5 days to avoid the transfer being rejected.
• Squarespace says a transfer can take up to 15 days. It suggests recording your DNS settings first, because most domain hosts can't keep them in place. A .uk name follows different rules, set out in its country-code guides.
• Shopify says only the store owner can move a domain to another provider. For a .uk name you get an IPS tag from the new provider and then contact Shopify Support. A transfer can take up to 7 days. If the new platform doesn't use HTTPS, Shopify says visitors see a browser error for the next 90 days.

For names such as .com, ICANN's rules add a lock. After you change the holder's name, organisation or email address, the name stays with its registrar for 60 days. Where the holder has no email address on record, a change to the administrative contact's email counts instead. ICANN adds that some registrars let you opt out of this lock, and that a registrar may turn down a move in the first 60 days after a name is registered.

Keeping your email

Email for your domain is steered by settings called MX records. Wix says business email stops working after a transfer until the MX records are added again. Squarespace says to adjust your MX records with the new provider after transferring, if Google Workspace is attached to your domain.

Before you cancel

Squarespace advises moving your domain away before you cancel the website plan, if you want a different provider to manage it.

The NCSC suggests that a business backs up its website along with its other data. Save your own copy of every page's words and pictures before the old account closes.

Useful links

• Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere (Wix Help Center)
• Transferring a .co.uk or .uk domain away from Wix (Wix Help Center)
• Export your site content (Squarespace Help Center)
• Transferring a domain away from Squarespace (Squarespace Help Center)
• Transferring Shopify-managed domains (Shopify Help Center)
• Export your content (WordPress.com Support)
• Domain name holder FAQs (ICANN)