Move a domain to another subscription or customer in Plesk

Sometimes a website ends up in the wrong place: an agency hosted a client's site in its own subscription, two businesses split, or a site needs its own resources. Plesk can move a domain to another subscription and change who owns a subscription, without a full migration.

Before you start

• Plesk administrator (or reseller) access to both subscriptions.
• A backup of the source subscription; see Backup Manager.
• The target subscription must have enough free resources (disk, domains, mailboxes, databases).

Move a domain to another subscription

1. Open the source subscription and go to Websites & Domains.
2. On the domain, open the Move Domain option (in the domain's menu or under Hosting & DNS).
3. Select the target subscription.
4. Choose what to move: website files, databases, mail accounts and messages. Plesk moves them all by default.
5. Click OK and wait for the task to finish.

Plesk changes file ownership to the target subscription's system user and updates paths. The domain keeps its DNS zone and SSL certificate.

Things that need attention

• Database credentials: database names may change if the target uses a different prefix. Update your application's configuration file.
• Hard-coded paths: applications that store absolute paths such as /var/www/vhosts/old.example/ need updating.
• Main domain: the subscription's main domain cannot be moved this way. Instead, change the subscription's owner, or rename domains.
• FTP users and scheduled tasks: recreate those tied to the old subscription's system user.

Change a subscription's owner

When the whole subscription should belong to another customer:

1. Go to Subscriptions and tick the subscription.
2. Click Change Subscriber (or Change Owner).
3. Choose the new customer or reseller.
4. Confirm.

Nothing is copied – only ownership changes – so this is instant and safe. See customers and resellers.

Change the service plan

To give a subscription more resources, tick it in Subscriptions, click Change Plan and choose another service plan, or Customize to set individual limits. Plans are described in create domains, subscriptions and plans.

Check afterwards

• Open the website and log in to its admin area.
• Send and receive a test email.
• Check SSL in SSL It! and reissue if needed.
• Review disk usage in both subscriptions.

Troubleshooting

• Move option unavailable: the domain is the main domain, or you lack permission on the target.
• Target limits exceeded: raise limits or change the target's plan first.
• Site errors after move: check database names and file paths in configuration files, and the Log Browser.

Next steps

• Migrate sites from another server.
• Add domains and aliases.
• Manage IP addresses.