What to check before you cancel your old hosting
The checklist we run before an old hosting account is cancelled, so nothing that still depends on it disappears with it.
The short answer
An old hosting account is cancelled once, and whatever still lives on it disappears with it. The things that get forgotten are rarely the website: they are the mailboxes that were included, the DNS zone the account was serving, a subdomain for a tool or a campaign, a scheduled job that sends a report, a certificate, a database a form still writes to, and the invoices your bookkeeping needs. The checklist below is what we run before any cancellation. It takes an hour, it is done with the account still open, and it ends with a full export, a waiting period of at least one billing cycle after the new site is live, and a cancellation from within the account with the confirmation kept.
The checklist
| Area | Check | Done when |
|---|---|---|
| DNS | Is the domain’s DNS still served by this account’s name servers? | Name servers point elsewhere and the zone has been recreated there |
| DNS records | Does any record still point at this account’s addresses? | Every A, AAAA, CNAME and MX record has been reviewed and none references the old host |
| Were mailboxes on this account? | All mailboxes moved, tested from an outside address, old copies exported | |
| Subdomains | What subdomains exist in the account? | Each one moved, redirected or deliberately retired |
| Website files | Is a full copy exported? | Files archived in your own storage |
| Databases | Is every database exported? | Dumps stored, row counts noted |
| Scheduled jobs | Do any cron jobs run here? | Each recreated elsewhere or confirmed unnecessary |
| Forms and integrations | Does anything still post to or read from this server? | Every form and integration confirmed on the new setup |
| Certificates | Any certificates managed here? | New ones issued on the new platform, verified in the browser |
| Redirects | Are old addresses redirecting from the new platform? | Redirect map tested |
| Logs and invoices | Are they downloaded? | Stored for records and bookkeeping |
| Domain registration | Is the domain registered through this account? | Domain moved to a registrar in your name, or the registration part kept and only hosting cancelled |
| Auto-renewal and payment | Is a card on file? | Payment method removed after cancellation |
| Waiting period | Has a billing cycle passed since the new site went live? | Yes, with nothing broken |
| Cancellation | Cancelled from within the account? | Confirmation email kept |
The order that works
- Recover access to the old account if it is not already in hand.
- Inventory everything on it before touching anything.
- Export files, databases, mailboxes, logs and invoices to your own storage.
- Move DNS, email, subdomains, jobs and integrations, each verified.
- Check the domain registration and separate it from the hosting if they are bundled.
- Wait a billing cycle with the new site live.
- Cancel from within the account, remove the payment method, keep the confirmation.
After cancellation
Watch email and the site for a week. Check that the redirects still work, that no monitoring alert mentions the old addresses, and that nobody in the business reports a tool or a report that stopped. Keep the export archive for a year at least. Then the old account is history, and the only trace is a folder of exports and a line in the bookkeeping.
What this means for you
Cancel old hosting only after the checklist is clean: DNS served elsewhere, no record pointing back, email moved and tested, subdomains and jobs accounted for, everything exported, the domain safe in your own registrar account, and a billing cycle passed with the new site live. Then cancel from inside the account and keep the confirmation. An hour of checking prevents the Monday when something nobody remembered stops working.
Frequently asked questions
The new site is live. Can we cancel the old hosting today?
Not until the checklist is clean. The most common surprises are DNS still being served from the old account, a subdomain nobody remembered, a mailbox still receiving, or a scheduled job that runs something the business relies on. A few weeks of overlap costs a small fee; cancelling early costs a broken thing discovered on a Monday.
What if we do not have the login for the old account?
Recover it before doing anything else, through the provider's account recovery with the business's details. Without access you cannot export, cannot check what is on it, and cannot cancel cleanly. If a former supplier holds the account in their name, the account is theirs and you need the contents transferred out, not cancelled.
Do we need to keep anything from the old account?
Exports of files, databases and mailboxes for your records, the invoices for your bookkeeping, and any logs that matter for a dispute or an incident. Keep them in your own storage. The old site itself is usually not needed once the new one is live and the redirects are in place, but the export is cheap insurance.