Cancelling a service (and keeping your data)
Cancel without losing data, the difference between cancel and terminate, and migration exits.
Cancelling is easy; cancelling without regret takes one extra step.
Cancel vs terminate — they are not the same
Cancel stops future renewals. The service keeps running until the end of the period you have already paid for, then goes away.
Terminate immediately stops it now. This is destructive and, on most services, irreversible — the data is deleted.
Choose deliberately. If you are unsure why your service still exists after you "cancelled", you probably requested a cancel-at-period-end and it is behaving correctly.
Do this before you cancel
Take a full backup. Files, databases, DNS zones, mail, configuration. See Back up your data.
Export anything with a proprietary format — mailboxes as mbox/Maildir, playlists, stream configs.
Record your DNS records if you are moving the domain, so you can recreate them elsewhere.
Lower your TTLs a day or two beforehand if you are migrating a live site, so the cutover is quick.
Verify the backup restores. An untested backup is a hope, not a plan.
How to cancel
Open the service in the panel and choose Request cancellation. Pick immediate or end-of-period. You will get an email confirming the request; keep it.
Migrating rather than leaving
If the reason you are cancelling is cost or features, it is worth checking whether a resize or a different plan solves it — read Upgrading and downgrading. And if you are moving to us, Migrating your hosting to HostingSwift covers the reverse direction.
Related reading