Real people, on-site in Ireland.
Real people, on-site in Ireland.
Leaving Blacknight is three separate jobs that people tend to treat as one: moving the website, moving the mailboxes, and, if you want to, moving the domain. Do them in that order, keep the old account live until everything is checked, and you can change host without any downtime. Plenty of small businesses ask this for ordinary reasons, such as consolidating suppliers or wanting a different control panel.
Start with an inventory. Log in and list what you hold at Blacknight: the hosting account or accounts, the domain registrations, the DNS zone, the email mailboxes and any add-ons such as backups. They can all be separate products with separate renewals. The domain can stay with Blacknight even after you move the site, which is often the safest first step.
A few facts help. Blacknight announced in July 2022 a new hosting platform with a new control panel, new plans and a new email service, using Plesk for new shared accounts, with existing customers to move across at a later date. Titan Email is included with its hosting plans. So depending on when your account was created, you may be on an older or newer platform, and what you see in the panel can differ from guides online.
The site is the part you can copy without breaking anything. Build the copy on the new host, test it against a temporary address, and only then change DNS. Our guide to migrating a website without downtime covers the principle.
HostBible's migration team works from any control panel, Plesk included, and tests on a staging copy while your old site stays live. Blacknight's homepage also links to its own website migration page for people coming the other way, so migration is a normal part of the market.
Email is where leaving goes wrong. Blacknight's own post says Titan Email works with standard mail clients such as Outlook, Apple Mail and Thunderbird. That means you can usually copy each mailbox's folders by IMAP into a new mailbox on the new service, then switch the MX records. Our guide to migrating email hosting explains the order.
Lower your DNS TTL a day or two before the switch, copy the mail, change the MX records, then check that new mail arrives at the new service. Keep the old mailboxes alive for a week or two in case a sender still has a cached record.
Moving the domain is optional and can happen last. For .ie you need an Authcode, which comes from your current registrar or the .ie registry, goes to the registrant and administrative contact addresses, and is handed to the new registrar. Details are in our guide to transferring a .ie domain.
Check the renewal date first. Blacknight's December 2025 post explains that a domain more than 45 days overdue enters a redemption stage with a restore fee of €90. Do not start a move with a domain that is close to expiry, and see what happens when a .ie expires if you are close.
On the day, work through the same short list whichever host you choose. First confirm the new site loads correctly on its temporary address, including forms, logins and any checkout. Second, lower the TTL on your DNS records a day ahead so the change spreads quickly. Third, copy the DNS records you rely on, especially MX, SPF, DKIM and any verification TXT records, into wherever your DNS will live.
Then switch the records, watch for the site and mail on the new service, and leave the Blacknight hosting account running for a week or so. Cancel only when both the site and email have been confirmed from outside your own network. Our guide to DNS propagation explains why some visitors see the old site for a while.
Where is the data? Blacknight's homepage says all its servers are hosted in Ireland, with data centres in Carlow and Dublin. If Irish hosting matters for your customers or contracts, ask any new host the same question in writing. HostBible states data centre regions rather than individual countries, so check our guide to data residency in Ireland against your own requirements before you decide.
Then ask what the backup policy is, how migration works, and whether email is included. HostBible includes free migration with its hosting plans, covering files, databases, email and WordPress sites. This is general information, so check the current terms of anything you buy.
HostBible's team moves your files, databases, email and WordPress sites to a hosting plan, building and testing a copy while your current site stays live.
See website migration