Project overview
The client runs a membership site with 40,000 subscribers, paid courses and a WooCommerce-powered checkout. Their shared hosting throttled at predictable peak times, and wp-admin had become nearly unusable at 9-second page loads.
Client’s problem: peak-hour slowdowns, a host unwilling to tune anything, and fear that migration would break paid-content access for thousands of members.
Project goals: move the full stack to a dedicated VPS without downtime, without breaking memberships, and with a rollback path at every step.
Our solution
- Staging environment built on the new VPS before any DNS change
- Serialization-safe URL & path replacement across database and options
- Membership & payment webhooks verified in staging with live-mode test transactions
- Server tuning: PHP 8.3, OPcache, Redis object cache, MariaDB configuration
- DNS TTL lowered 24h ahead; cutover executed in a 4-minute window
- 301 map for legacy URLs, full SSL/HTTP2 setup, post-launch monitoring for 7 days
Key deliverables
- Migration plan with rollback checkpoints
- Staging-verified clone of the live site
- Tuned server stack (PHP 8.3, Redis, MariaDB)
- Zero-downtime DNS cutover
- Webhook & payment verification report
- 7-day post-migration monitoring log
Technologies used
WordPress · WooCommerce · Membership plugin · Nginx · PHP 8.3 · Redis · MariaDB · Cloudflare DNS
Results & client feedback
The cutover happened on a Tuesday at 15:40 — support received zero reports of downtime or failed logins. Admin dashboard loads dropped from 9s to 1.2s, and peak-hour checkout latency disappeared. Membership renewals processed normally the same evening.
Before & after metrics
Before
After
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