Website Migration: What It Costs and How Long

Your site runs on Wix, Squarespace, Webflow or a WordPress install someone set up years ago. Now every new page fights the template, and the plugin bill keeps climbing.

You have started to price a move, and the quotes are hard to compare. One is a fixed fee for a template rebuild. Another is an open hourly estimate. Before you talk to anyone, you want a straight answer on cost and time, and on what could break.

Quick answer

A website migration means rebuilding your site on a new platform while keeping every existing URL working. Airful's Platform Migration engagements typically run $5,000 to $20,000 and take two to six weeks. Page count, custom functionality, integrations and any redesign decide where you land. The biggest risk is lost search rankings, and a redirect map approved before cutover is the main protection against it.

What a migration actually consists of

A migration is four pieces of work, and a quote should account for each one. This is how we run Platform Migration work, and it follows the sequence in Google's guidance on site moves with URL changes.

The first piece is a content and asset audit. We list every page, image, PDF, form and integration on the current site, along with the pages that earn traffic. Google notes that images and downloads you host may already be getting search traffic or links.

The second piece is the redirect map. Every old URL is paired with its new address, and someone on your side signs it off. The third is the rebuild, done in phases on a staging domain so you can compare it with the live site as it grows.

The fourth is cutover. The domain points at the new site and the redirects take over. We then watch traffic, form submissions, error rates and redirect hits for a week. Your old site stays live for the whole build, so visitors see nothing change until the new site answers on your domain.

The risk that matters most

The biggest risk in a migration is losing URLs. Every page that ranks has an address, and the search standing that page has earned is attached to it. Move the page without telling search engines, and the old address returns an error. Anyone arriving from a search result or a backlink hits a dead page.

A redirect map is the main protection against that risk. At cutover, each pair in the map becomes a permanent redirect. Google's documentation on redirects and Google Search explains that a permanent redirect tells Google to show the new URL in results. Its site-move guidance adds that permanent redirects do not cause a loss in PageRank.

Two details separate a careful map from a rushed one. Each old page should point to its closest match on the new site. Google warns that sending many old URLs to the home page can be treated as a soft 404. Skip that shortcut. The redirects should also outlive the launch, and Google's site-move guidance recommends keeping them for at least 1 year.

You can only check that rankings held if you measured them before the move. Know which pages bring traffic and enquiries, then compare the same pages afterwards. Our Growth Observability Setup engagement exists for teams with no reliable baseline to compare against.

What moves the price up or down

Price follows the number of distinct page layouts more than the raw page count. Fifty blog posts that share one template are cheap to move. Twelve pages that each have their own layout cost more, because each is designed and built separately.

Custom functionality is the largest swing factor. A booking flow, a members' area, a pricing calculator or a client portal is real software that needs building and testing. For each one, ask whether it should be rebuilt at all, or whether an existing tool you embed would do. Build vs. Buy: A Decision Framework for Internal Tools sets out how we make that call. If your site has grown into something closer to an application, the work moves towards Operational Platforms, which is a different engagement.

Integrations add predictable cost. Each form, booking widget, payment provider, CRM and analytics property is reconnected and tested on staging before the domain moves. A silently broken enquiry form is the failure we guard against most, because nobody notices until the leads stop.

Content changes bundled into the move add writing and approval time. Review rounds are where timelines slip.

The other big decision is like-for-like or redesign. A like-for-like move keeps the current look and structure on a better stack. A redesign adds design rounds and usually changes URLs too. Google advises changing one thing at a time, for example moving the platform first and changing the layout after. Combining them is possible, but it costs more and makes any ranking change harder to trace.

What it typically costs and how long it takes

Engagements in this shape typically run $5,000 to $20,000 and take two to six weeks. The lower end suits a modest marketing site with standard forms, moved like-for-like. The upper end suits sites with custom functionality, several integrations, content rewrites or a large archive that needs careful URL mapping.

Duration tracks the same factors, plus one more. The redirect map and each staging phase need your sign-off. Quick approvals keep a project near the short end. Slow ones push it out, whatever the size of the site.

Five platform migrations with full data and domain cutover sit behind the advice in this post.

What to freeze, and what to provide

Freeze structural changes to the old site once the audit starts. New pages, renamed URLs, fresh posts and menu changes added mid-build either get missed or force a second pass on the redirect map. If something must go live, tell us, so it lands in both places.

Content edits are a softer freeze. Fix a typo on the live site if you need to. Larger rewrites belong in the new build, where you review them on staging. Hold off on changing tracking tags, analytics properties, form endpoints or domain settings during the build, because the cutover depends on them.

What we need from you is short:

• Access to the current site or application and its hosting
• Brand assets and any content changes you want made during the move
• A named person to approve the redirect map and the cutover window

The last item matters most. Migrations stall when approvals have no owner.

How to judge a quote

Compare quotes on what they include before you compare them on price. A quote you can trust names its deliverables. Look for a content and asset audit, a redirect map you approve before launch, a staging site you can review in phases, and a monitored cutover.

Then ask direct questions. Who owns the code and the hosting account when the project ends? How are forms, bookings, payments and analytics tested before the domain moves? What happens to pages you decide to drop? Who watches the site in the week after launch?

We would be wary of a low quote that treats the migration as a template rebuild. The cost shows up later, in lost rankings and broken enquiry forms.

Where to start

1. Export your current sitemap and mark the pages that bring traffic or enquiries.
2. List every integration on the site, including forms, booking tools, payment providers, chat widgets and analytics tags.
3. Decide whether this is a like-for-like move or a redesign, and say so in every brief you send.
4. Name the person on your side who will approve the redirect map and the cutover window.
5. Ask each agency for a sample redirect map and a description of how they monitor cutover.

Frequently asked questions

Will migrating my website hurt my Google rankings?

A well-run migration should keep your rankings. Every old URL is mapped to its new address and served as a permanent redirect at cutover, so search engines carry the old page's standing to the new one. Expect some short-term movement while Google recrawls the site.

What is a redirect map in a website migration?

A redirect map is a list that pairs every URL on your current site with its address on the new one. At cutover it becomes the set of permanent redirects, so old links and search results still land on the right page.

Should I redesign my website at the same time as migrating it?

If budget and timing allow, move the site like-for-like first and redesign afterwards. Google advises changing one thing at a time during a site move, and a separate redesign makes any ranking change easier to trace. If you combine them, expect a higher quote and a longer timeline.

What should a website migration quote include?

A good quote names a content and asset audit, a redirect map you approve before launch, a staging site you can review in phases, and a monitored cutover. It should also state who owns the code and the hosting account when the project ends.