Migration rule
Do not cancel the old platform until access, money, email, and URLs are proven on the new one
Run a pilot with real product types and test learners, freeze content changes, cut over in a controlled window, and keep a rollback path. The highest-risk items are recurring billing, learner entitlements, progress history, email consent, domain changes, and public redirects.
Phase 1 · Inventory
Build a source-of-truth migration workbook
| Inventory | Export or record | Acceptance rule |
|---|---|---|
| Products | Courses, bundles, downloads, coaching, community, memberships, prices, coupons, access duration | Every sellable and free offer has an owner and destination |
| Content | Video masters, captions, audio, PDFs, text, quizzes, assignments, certificates, drip rules | Files are locally backed up and rights are documented |
| People | Students, admins, authors, affiliates, consent, tags, enrollments, progress, completions | Counts reconcile by product and status |
| Money | Orders, invoices, subscriptions, payment plans, refunds, disputes, taxes, payouts | Finance can reconcile before and after cutover |
| Marketing | Forms, segments, sequences, broadcasts, automations, attribution, pixels, affiliates | Every revenue or onboarding flow has a migration owner |
| Public web | URLs, titles, descriptions, canonicals, schema, links, sitemap, backlinks, analytics | Every indexed URL has a keep, redirect, or retire decision |
Phase 2 · Contract and payment check
Resolve recurring billing before building pages
- Read cancellation, export, data retention, domain, and refund terms for the old platform.
- Ask whether payment tokens and active subscriptions can transfer, who owns the merchant account, and which approvals are required.
- Document plans that cannot migrate: grandfathered pricing, installments, coupons, tax settings, multiple currencies, PayPal agreements, app-store purchases, or marketplace orders.
- Choose a customer path for each exception: preserve, recreate with consent, continue billing on the old system, or end and invite re-purchase.
- Confirm the new gateway, business country, verification, settlement currency, reserve, payout, tax, refund, and chargeback route with a real test transaction.
Never collect or transfer card details manually. Billing credentials are regulated data handled by approved platforms and processors.
Phase 3 · Rebuild and map
Create one-to-one maps before importing
Product map
- Old product and price → new product and price.
- Old enrollment rule → new access rule.
- Old completion requirement → new requirement.
- Old certificate → new or archived certificate.
User map
- Old user ID → email and new user ID.
- Enrollment, expiration, progress, completion, certificate.
- Subscription, coupon, payment plan, refund status.
- Email consent, tags, community role, support notes.
URL map
- Old public URL → retained URL or 301 destination.
- Page title, description, canonical, headings, schema.
- Internal links, downloadable assets, images, embeds.
- Backlinks and campaign URLs worth updating.
Automation map
- Trigger → conditions → action → delay → exit.
- Sender identity, template, consent, suppression.
- Purchase, failed payment, completion, cancellation.
- Analytics event and owner for failure alerts.
Phase 4 · Pilot
Migrate one representative product end to end
- Select a product with video, captions, download, quiz, drip, certificate, coupon, payment plan, email onboarding, and community access.
- Import a small group containing a new student, active learner, completed learner, expired learner, refunded buyer, and subscription customer.
- Test desktop and mobile as each role; compare access, progress, emails, receipts, tax, community, certificate, and support history.
- Run purchase, failed payment, refund, cancellation, reactivation, and payout reconciliation.
- Record every manual repair and multiply it by the full catalog and user count.
- Obtain written sign-off from content, finance, support, marketing, and the business owner.
Phase 5 · SEO and domain cutover
Preserve public discovery while the application changes underneath
| Before | During | After |
|---|---|---|
| Export crawl, sitemap, index coverage, top landing pages, backlinks, titles, canonicals, and analytics baseline | Keep high-value slugs, install one-to-one 301 redirects, update DNS carefully, retain HTTPS, and prevent staging indexation | Crawl redirects, submit sitemap, inspect priority URLs, monitor 404s, rankings, traffic, conversions, and canonical selection |
Do not redirect every old URL to the homepage. A permanent redirect should point to the closest equivalent content. Keep redirects for as long as external links and search systems may use the old URLs.
Phase 6 · Communication and support
Tell each customer exactly what changes for them
- Announce the reason, cutover window, new login URL, password process, mobile app, saved progress policy, billing status, and support channel.
- Segment instructions for active students, completed alumni, subscribers, expired users, affiliates, instructors, and administrators.
- Create screenshots and a two-minute walkthrough of first login and content access.
- Staff support for the first 72 hours and tag migration issues separately from ordinary questions.
- Never ask users to send passwords, full card numbers, identity documents, or one-time codes by email.
Go-live gate
All 15 conditions should be true
- Catalog counts reconcile.
- User and enrollment counts reconcile.
- Active access is correct.
- Progress policy is implemented.
- Certificates are preserved or replaced.
- Subscriptions have an approved path.
- Purchases, refunds, and payouts reconcile.
- Email consent and suppression migrated.
- Automations passed test events.
- Priority pages retain metadata.
- Redirects return the intended destinations.
- Analytics records real-time tests.
- Support instructions are ready.
- Backups and exports are stored securely.
- Rollback ownership and deadline are documented.
After launch
Keep the old system read-only until reconciliation is complete
Monitor daily for at least the first week, then weekly through one billing cycle. Compare sales, payouts, refunds, failed payments, login failures, content errors, email delivery, course completion, support volume, crawl errors, and search traffic. Cancel the old platform only after the retention period, subscription plan, legal needs, and export verification are satisfied.
Frequently asked
Migration questions
Should I migrate all courses at once?
Usually not before a representative pilot. A phased migration reduces risk, but active subscriptions, shared community, and one domain can make split operation complex. Choose the sequence from dependencies.
Can a vendor migration service do everything?
Vendor services often move selected content and customer records, not every automation, URL, progress field, subscription, tax record, integration, or support history. Obtain a written in-scope list.
When can I cancel the old platform?
After data retention, active access, billing, finance reconciliation, redirects, support, legal records, and rollback requirements are satisfied—not immediately after DNS changes.
What should be backed up?
Original content files, captions, course structure, users, enrollments, progress, certificates, orders, subscriptions, refunds, tax records, consent, automations, URLs, metadata, analytics, and configuration evidence.
Next decisions
Choose the destination and model its real cost
This checklist is operational guidance, not legal, tax, or payment-security advice. Confirm regulated-data and contract questions with qualified professionals and providers.