Leaving your FareHarbor Site
Last updated: August 20, 2025
You’ve decided to discontinue your FareHarbor Site. Now what?
Terminating your FareHarbor Site can be a complex process, as it involves migrating to a different web host and obtaining any business-owned content from FareHarbor. We can assist in gathering the current content, but you are responsible for building or contracting a new site with a new host.
FareHarbor preserves your site, and can reactivate it should you choose to resume use later.
Although your business owns any brand-related media and content, the WordPress template is FareHarbor intellectual property and cannot be fully transferred to another host.
Transitioning away from FareHarbor Sites
Please notify us at least 30 days prior to discontinuing your FareHarbor Site. This time frame allows us to ensure any monthly payments or fees are handled accordingly. See the Sites Terms of Service for more information.
Complete the tasks below to transfer to a new web host and terminate your FareHarbor Site.
Reach out to the Account Management team or submit a Support ticket notifying us of this transfer so we can assist with the process.
Please include the following details:
- Let us know you are moving from FareHarbor Sites to a new web host.
- Advise us whether an HTML ZIP file is needed.
Establish the new hosting setup and update nameservers as needed. See the Taking your new site live section for a step-by-step breakdown.
Once the nameservers have been updated, visitors will be directed to your new site.
After the DNS records are up-to-date and visitors are being directed to the new site, please notify the Account Management team or submit a Support ticket notifying us that the host transition is complete. FareHarbor will archive the old site.
Options for exporting content & media
FareHarbor will prepare the content transfer and begin preserving your site upon receiving confirmation of any preferred export options. Please review the choices below to determine whether an HTML ZIP file or using a third-party tool may be the best fit for your setup.
FareHarbor will provide a Google folder with .xml files, media, and site content upon receiving your request to leave the site.
Files exported by FareHarbor to Google Drive will be organized based on content type and/or the date it was uploaded.
- The site’s current text will be uploaded as a spreadsheet, organized by page. (Note: This format will not include HTML or CSS, and may not be accepted by all website builders.)
- Images or other media files will be uploaded in folders based upon the month and year the files were uploaded to your site.
.xml files will be included in your Google Drive folder. An .xml file will be useful for businesses that will continue using WordPress to host the new site if:
- A web developer is assisting with the process
- You have experience with WordPress development (such as creating custom post types or wiring up advanced custom fields from the database to the front end).
The .xml files will not include all elements, as many features rely on our platform’s JavaScript and CSS. As such, this option is only useful if you will be using WordPress to host the new site.
Additional export options
HTML ZIP file
An HTML ZIP file can support a full export of the site, and may be a good fit for businesses that are working with a web developer who can add HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files to a web server.
Requirements:
Developer instructions:
- Open a tab in the terminal application of your choice.
brew install httrackhttrack https://yoursite.com /Location/Where/To/Save/
There is no admin backend to update and maintain content for this option. Your new site would be visible and fully usable on the web, but updating content would involve a deep knowledge of web servers and HTML.
Third-party tools
Content can be manually retrieved using third-party tools to scrape your website and extract raw code; this is an independent process that is not assisted by FareHarbor.
Taking your new site live
Complete the following steps to take your new site live, as relevant to your setup.
Step 1: Establish the new hosting setup
- If you have a pre-existing hosting setup, proceed to Step 2.
If you don’t have a pre-existing setup, or the old site is no longer available:
- Build a new site on the host of your choice.
- Coordinate with us to keep your FareHarbor Site active until the new site is ready.
Step 2: Update nameservers
- If your nameservers currently point to FareHarbor’s Cloudflare account, change nameservers to your new website host. (Note: Access to your domain registrar is required to complete this step.)
If your DNS is self-managed, update the relevant DNS records.
Your business maintains ownership of its domain when using a FareHarbor Site. Ownership is not transferred.
Not sure how to rename DNS records? Please reach out to the domain registrar’s Support team for additional guidance.
Once the DNS records have updated, visitors will be directed to your new site.
Internal-only content. Don't copy and paste to anyone.
Process for Archiving sites and pausing payments:
Clients who inform us they are leaving.
Client reaches out to AM to archive their site
- If client contacts Support or LSS, Support or LSS submits AM escalation
AMs should try to have a conversation with the client to attempt to retain them on their FHS if possible
- If the client is still intent on leaving, the AM should submit a ticket to LSS requesting the site be archived.
- If client is on a variable model:
- LSS archives the site and marks it Archived in Close
- LSS alerts PayOps to revert booking fee by submitting the “Sites Booking Fee Change” workflow in the #payment_operations Slack channel
- All dashboards included as a Dashboard Custom Object in a client’s Close Lead should be included in the “Shortname” field of the workflow.
As of June 16, 2025, there is a “Sites Fee” field in the dashboard that is separate from the Booking Fee field. The workflow now asks what the “Sites Fee” should be. If the site is being archived, this should always be 0%.
- PayOps reverts the sites fee the same day the workflow is posted
- Close should automatically show the updated fee (this will be shown in the Close field “Sites Fee” within the dashboard custom object) within a day of the sites fee being updated
- Client Ops receives a notification that the site has been marked Archived in Close and checks if the site has an associated upgrade package (ie: SEO Gold or SEO Silver)
- If there is an associated upgrade package, Client Ops cancels billing for the upgrade
- If client is on a flat rate model:
- LSS archives the site and marks it Archived in Close
- Client Ops receives a notification that the site has been marked Archived in Close and pauses billing for the site package and any upgrade packages associated with the site.
Clients who leave without telling us.
- Clients must inform FareHarbor at least 30 days before they leave their site to ensure monthly payments are paused and booking fees are reverted.
- Annual packages in general are non-refundable. The Sites team will take refund requests on a case by case basis.
- If a client does not inform FareHarbor that they are leaving their site, the client will continue to be charged until the client informs us, or we notice that they have left their site. More info can be found in the Sites (Terms of Service)[https://fareharbor.com/legal/fareharbor-hosted-site-terms/].
- When a client changes their nameservers to point to a new website host, LSS should receive an alert from Cloudflare within about 7 days.
- LSS will submit an AM escalation within 2 days of receiving the alert.
- AM will reach out to the client within normal escalation SLA time after receiving the LSS escalation.
- If the client notes that this was a mistake (often due to the domain expiring), the LSS will assist with taking the site live again.
- If the client notes that this was intentional, LSS will follow the standard archiving process listed in the “Clients who inform us they are leaving” section above.
- If the client does not respond to the AM, LSS will move forward with archiving the site 45 days after receiving the initial Cloudflare notification.
- Within 45 days of the original nameserver escalation, if still off FHS, LSS moves forward with archiving the site.
Process for Requesting and Providing a Client’s Media & Content
See the client facing tab of this doc to view the media & content export options.
Account Management
When a client reaches out letting you know that they’d like an export of their media and/or content please follow these steps:
Submit the workflow “Request to Leave FareHarbor Website” in the Slack channel #fareharborwebsites.
This workflow will tag individuals who will export the clients content and media and compile that into a Google Drive folder you can send to the client.
Title tags and meta descriptions will be included with the content export. Although FareHarbor has put work in to optimize these, these are still considered the client’s content.
If a client requests an export of the redirects we set up on their site, please let us know and we will provide this.
If a client requests an export of their DNS records, please let us know and we will provide this.
Send the Google Drive folder provided by the LSS team to the client.
- Ask the client if they have a timeline for when they will migrate their site to their new host.
- Once the client has left their site, submit a ticket to let the LSS team know that the site can be archived. The LSS team will need a ticket once the client has left their site to ensure payments are properly paused.
If the client needs any assistance with pointing their domain to their new website, please let us know! It will be the client’s responsibility to update their nameservers or DNS records to point to their new site but we can provide instructions or clarity on where their domain is hosted.
Live Sites Support
When the workflow “Request to Leave FareHarbor Website” is submitted, please follow the steps below:
- Create a ticket in the FareHarbor Zendesk account with the clients shortname. Link the slack post and any other details in an internal note. Add the tag fhs_offboard (if the client is also requesting we archive the site immediately, add the tag fhs_archive as well). Solve it under yourself after you’ve completed the additional steps below.
- The individual site media backups now work on the VIP dashboard To download a media file, login to the VIP dash and generate a media zip file without submitting a ticket. Read more here!
To find the blog ID for a site visit fareharbor.site/wp-admin/network/sites.php, search for the domain, click “Edit”, then look in the URL for the blog ID.
- Export xml files of the site’s content (All Content), and media (make sure start date is as far back as you can go and end date is the most recent date).
If the client requests an SQL dump, please use the fh.me custom request form. The request will populate in the fhs_custom_requests Slack channel after the Airtable form is completed. Follow up will occur in that channel.
- Create a folder in this Google Drive with the client’s name. Upload the xml files, the media export from Wordpress VIP, and the content document that will be provided in the thread of the workflow.
- Wait for the AM to confirm in the thread that the client has left their site, then move forward with archiving the site using the steps listed in the (Process for Archiving sites and pausing payments) section above.
Steps to Archive a site can be found here: https://help.fareharbor.com/internal/fh-sites/web-content-specialist-resources/archiving-and-deactivating-a-fh-site/