What to Check After Migrating WooCommerce Subscriptions
Why Migrations Are Risky Specifically for Subscriptions
A typical WordPress migration checklist (database, files, DNS, SSL) covers most of what a static site needs, but subscription billing depends on several things that don't show up as obviously broken right away — a missed cron configuration or a blocked outbound connection can leave the site looking completely normal to visitors while silently failing to process renewals in the background.
The Checklist That Matters Here Specifically
- Cron reliability on the new host. Confirm whether the new server supports a real server-level cron job the same way the old one did, and reconfigure it explicitly rather than assuming it carried over.
- Outbound connections to payment gateways. A new server's firewall, IP reputation, or outbound connection rules can silently block API calls to Stripe, PayPal, or other gateways that worked fine on the old host — test an actual transaction, not just that the site loads.
- Webhook endpoint URLs. If the domain changed, or even if it didn't but the gateway's webhook configuration references the old server in some way, confirm webhooks are still being delivered and processed correctly.
- SSL certificate validity on the new server, since payment gateways generally require valid HTTPS and can silently reject requests from a misconfigured or expired certificate (covered in more depth separately).
- Server timezone configuration matching what's expected, affecting renewal timing as covered in the renewal-time-of-day question.
A Practical Migration Sequence
- Migrate to a staging environment first, never straight to production for a subscriptions-carrying site.
- Manually trigger a full renewal cycle on staging for a test subscription, confirming the charge processes and the subscription's data updates correctly.
- Verify webhook delivery using the gateway's own dashboard, confirming requests are reaching the new server successfully.
- Only cut over DNS/go live once every check above passes, and monitor the first few real renewals closely afterward rather than assuming everything is fine.
See WordPress migration for a subscriptions-aware migration done properly, with these specific risks checked before going live.