Transfer Website from Cloudways to Hostinger: How do you handle Cloudflare DNS?

So I’m going to walk you through how to properly transfer a website from Cloudways to Hostinger, specifically if you’re using Cloudflare DNS. And I say “properly” because there are like three or four things that will go wrong if you don’t know what to watch for, and I ran into basically all of them while doing this myself.

We’re talking custom login URLs breaking the migration, SSL certificate errors that’ll stop you dead in your tracks, Redis caching issues that make your site act weird after the move, and making sure your new hosting IP address is actually configured in Cloudflare because your old server has a different IP than your new one.

But Cloudflare is not going to know that. So we gotta fix it.

Starting the Migration in Hostinger

The first thing you gotta do is go to Hostinger, click on Websites, and then hit Migrate Website. You’ll see any migrations you’ve already done or ones currently in progress—just click Migrate Website in the top right corner and add your login details.

For the website name, I don’t think it matters much if you use www or just HTTPS, but I always go with https:// followed by the domain without the www. That’s just my preference—I never add the W’s.

Once Hostinger detects it’s a WordPress site, go ahead and click WordPress, and you’ll need to enter your actual admin username and password.

The Custom Login URL Problem

This is where I ran into my first headache, and you probably will too if you’re security-conscious at all.

I don’t use the standard WP-Login or WP-Admin to access my sites. I add something different like /web-login or whatever—you get the idea. I change it so that hackers will have a harder time finding the page to access the website.

If you do the same thing, you’re going to have trouble here because Hostinger is looking for the base WordPress login page.

You can try adding your custom login URL in the field Hostinger gives you. I tried that. It failed. I tried wp-login.php, tried just wp-login, tried just /login. None of it worked with my custom URL in place.

So my suggestion is just go back to your WordPress site, find whatever security plugin is changing your login URL, and deactivate it before you start the migration. I also deactivated a couple other security and performance plugins while I was at it just to make sure nothing else got in the way.

Once those are off, the standard WordPress login page should work and Hostinger can do its thing.

The SSL Certificate Issue That’ll Block Everything

While I was checking on my plugins, I typed in the domain just to see what the site looked like and got hit with an “invalid SSL certificate” error. I hadn’t seen this particular issue before but the fix was straightforward: I went into Cloudways and added an SSL certificate. Apparently I just… didn’t have one at all on that site.

Make sure your website is actually up and has a valid SSL before you try to migrate, because I didn’t, and it caused problems before I even got to the real migration steps.

Updating Your DNS Records in Cloudflare

After the migration goes through on Hostinger’s side, you need to point your domain to the new server. Go into Cloudflare, find your DNS settings, and update your A records to point to the new Hostinger IP address.

I also turned off the Cloudflare proxy (the orange cloud icon) temporarily. This is important because if the proxy is on, Hostinger might not be able to generate SSL correctly. Once the SSL is set up on Hostinger’s end, you can turn the proxy back on.

After updating the records, refresh the page a couple times to make sure everything saved correctly. Then go visit your domain and see if it loads. If it does, you’re in good shape.

Verifying the Transfer Actually Worked

Here’s the thing that most people skip and then they regret it. Just because the site loads doesn’t mean it’s loading from Hostinger. It could still be pulling files from your old Cloudways server, and if you delete that server before confirming, you’re going to have a bad day.

The way I verified it was going into Hostinger’s file manager and looking at the files. Go to public_html and check if you can see your WordPress content, your plugins folder, your theme files—all of it.

If those files are there on Hostinger, that means the website’s files are actually living on the new server and not just being served from the old one.

I also tried using a hosting checker website to see where the domain was pointing, but because I’m using Cloudflare it just showed Cloudflare as the host. Not super helpful for this particular check.

Deleting the Old Server

Once you’ve confirmed everything is on Hostinger, you can go ahead and delete the website from Cloudways. Go to the server, find the application, and delete it. It takes a few minutes to process.

The real test is simple: after you delete it from Cloudways, can you still access the site? If yes, congratulations—you’re fully running on Hostinger. If the site goes down after deleting… well, that’s why we checked first.

Quick Recap of What to Watch For

• Before you migrate: Make sure your SSL certificate is valid and your site is actually loading. Deactivate any security plugins that change your login URL, and turn off any caching or performance plugins that might interfere.
• During migration: Don’t delete anything from your old server. Enter your standard WordPress login credentials and use the default login URL.
• After migration: Update your A records in Cloudflare to point to Hostinger’s IP. Turn off the Cloudflare proxy temporarily so Hostinger can generate its SSL. Verify your files are actually on Hostinger through the file manager before you delete anything from Cloudways.

The whole process isn’t complicated once you know what’s going to trip you up. It’s just that the first time you do it, every single one of these issues feels like the migration is broken when really it’s just a setting to toggle.