Redesigning a website that came with your hosting plan

If your website was built with the site builder that came with your hosting or domain plan, you can almost always redesign it, but usually not by moving the site itself. Those builders rarely let you take the site with you, so the path is: find out exactly what your plan includes, save your words and photos, build the new site elsewhere, point your domain at it, and cancel only the builder once email and the domain are safe.

Why so many small business sites live on a host's builder

When you register a domain or buy hosting, most big hosting companies offer a website builder in the same checkout. GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Web.com, IONOS, Hostinger, Bluehost and others all have one. It looks like the easy option: one company, one bill, a template, and a site online the same afternoon.

The trouble shows up later:

The designs age. Templates from several years ago look dated, and switching templates inside the builder often scrambles the layout.
The price climbs. Introductory prices for the first year are common; renewals are often much higher. Why hosting renewals double explains the pattern.
Everything is tangled. The domain, the site, the email and sometimes a security add-on all sit on one account, and it is not obvious which bill pays for what.
You cannot take it with you. The pages exist only inside that company's builder. There is usually no "export" button that produces a site you could run elsewhere.

None of that means you did anything wrong. It just means a redesign is a move, not an edit.

Find out what you actually have

Log in to your hosting account and open the list of products or subscriptions. Write down every line item, its renewal date and its price. You are looking for:

A website builder product. Names vary: "Websites + Marketing", "Website Builder", "Sitebuilder", "Website Maker". This is the site you will replace.
WordPress hosting. This is different. A WordPress site can be copied to another host, because the files and database are yours. If that is what you have, see moving from an old WordPress site instead.
The domain registration, which has its own renewal.
Email, which might be a mailbox plan from the host itself or a Microsoft 365 plan resold by the host.
Add-ons: SSL certificates, "SEO tools", backup services, privacy protection. Some you need, many you do not.

This list is the most important page of the whole project. It tells you what to keep, what to replace and what you can stop paying for.

Save everything before you change anything

Because the builder will not export your site, you need your own copy of what is on it:

Text. Open each page in your browser, select the text, and paste it into a document with the page name at the top. Include the footer and any pop-ups.
Photos. Find the original files first: on your phone, your computer, in old emails, in a photographer's delivery folder. They are sharper than the copies the builder shows. For the rest, download the images from the builder's media library if it has one, or save them from the page.
Page addresses. Copy the address of every page, such as /services or /about-us. The new site should keep these or forward them, so links from Google and bookmarks keep working.
Screenshots of each page, on a computer and on a phone, so you remember what was where.
Form messages and contact lists, if the builder stored them.

What to save before you replace your old website has a fuller list.

Point the domain at the new site, and leave it where it is for now

You do not have to move your domain away from the hosting company to use a new website. You can leave it registered where it is and change one or two settings so that it points at the new site. That is usually the safer first step, because it keeps the domain and email untouched while the website changes.

Our step-by-step guides cover the common companies: GoDaddy, Network Solutions, IONOS, Hostinger, DreamHost. Keeping your domain where it is explains the idea. Later, if you want everything away from that company, you can transfer the domain at your own pace.

Before you touch the settings, take a screenshot of the domain's DNS records, especially the ones labeled MX, which route your email.

Watch the email

This is where host-builder moves most often go wrong. Email is frequently bundled with the same account:

If your mailboxes are a separate product (for example Microsoft 365 through the host), cancelling the website builder should not affect them. Check by reading the product list: is email its own line with its own renewal?
If email is part of a bundle ("Website + Email" or a hosting plan that includes mailboxes), cancelling the bundle cancels the mailboxes. Move email first, or keep that plan until you have.
If the host controls your DNS, switching to a new site must not remove the email records.

Keeping your email working during a website change covers this in detail.

Cancel only the builder, and only at the end

Once the new site is live on your domain, your email works, and you have watched it for a couple of weeks:

Turn off auto-renew on the builder product. Do not delete the account the same day.
Keep the domain registration and email active, unless you have deliberately moved them.
Remove add-ons you no longer need, such as a security certificate for the old builder site. The new site's provider normally handles that for the new site.
Check your card statement at the next renewal date to make sure only what you meant to keep was charged.

What to do this week

Log in and write down every product, renewal date and price on your hosting account.
Mark which ones are the builder, the domain and the email.
Copy your text, photos and page addresses into your own folder.
Screenshot the domain's DNS records.
Ask support in writing what cancelling the builder would affect.

With your content saved, you can see your site rebuilt first from what is on the current builder site, and point your domain at it only once you like the result.