Moving between a hosted site and your own server
There is no button, command or import tool for moving a choir's site between our hosted service and a server of its own. This page says what exists, what does not, and what does not carry over, so you can plan. It is for whoever is deciding where the site should live.
From hosted to self-hosted
- Your data. An export of a hosted site's data is made for you by support: write to support@choirmastercms.com and ask. See Your data: exports, closing your account, how long we keep things.
- Getting it into a new self-hosted site. There is no documented import. The way to load an export into a self-hosted site has to be arranged with support. Do not close your hosted account until that is done and you have checked the result.
- A fresh start is always possible. You can install a new self-hosted site, get a licence key and enter your content again. See Start a site you run yourself.
From self-hosted to hosted
The Setup and migration package is the route we offer: we set up your site on the hosted service and move your existing content across. See Have us set up your site. Back up your own site first: What to back up.
What does not carry over, either way
| Hosted | Self-hosted | |
|---|---|---|
| Card payments (ticket sales and online gifts) | Available, with your own Stripe account connected. See Take card payments. | Not available. The software has no card payment set-up of its own; tickets and gifts are recorded without it. |
| Custom style sheet | Not available. The box is not shown and the server refuses one. | Available to the Site Admin, under Site Settings > Theme. Anything you wrote is lost on a move to hosted. |
| The site's own mail server (sending announcements from your own address) | A hosted setting. Its password is kept sealed for that site and does not travel. | You set up email providers in the environment instead. See Email providers. |
| Licence key | None. The hosted service has no key to set and updates itself. | Required, tied to one website. See Your licence key. A key is not used on a hosted site. |
| Plans | Free, Starter and Premium decide which features are on. | No plans. Everything is available. |
| Updates | Looked after by us. | Yours: How updates work. |
| Backups | Looked after by us. | Yours: What to back up. |
Settings that live in the database (names, wording, colours, concerts, members) are in both, but check each feature after a move: a switch that is on in one place may need to be turned on in the other, and the hosted plan decides what shows on a hosted site. Compare the list in Plans and editions compared and Hosted and self-hosted: what is different.
Moving within self-hosting
Moving a self-hosted site to another server, or restoring one, is different, and is covered by Restore a backup, or move to a new server.