Email migration from GoDaddy, cPanel or Zimbra to Microsoft 365 follows the same path: audit your mailboxes, make sure you control your domain’s DNS, choose plans, set up the Microsoft 365 tenant and verify the domain, create users, copy the mail across with IMAP migration or a tool such as BitTitan MigrationWiz, then switch the MX record and reconnect everyone’s devices. Done in that order, staff keep working while their email moves in the background, and nothing is lost at the switch.
Many Kenyan businesses started with email that came with their web hosting: a cPanel account from a local host, a GoDaddy email plan, or a Zimbra server someone set up years ago. It worked until the mailbox filled up, spam got through, or a staff member’s password was stolen. Moving to Microsoft 365 gives you larger mailboxes, Outlook on every device, Teams and proper security controls. This guide walks through the move in practical steps, including the problems we see most often.
Before you start: what kind of email do you have?
The source system decides the migration method, so identify it first. Log in to webmail and look at the address bar and branding, or ask whoever pays the hosting bill.
- cPanel email (webmail through Roundcube or Horde, often bundled with website hosting). Supports IMAP, so mail can be copied with IMAP migration or MigrationWiz.
- GoDaddy Professional Email or Workspace email. Also IMAP-based, so the same methods apply.
- Microsoft 365 bought from GoDaddy. If you sign in at a GoDaddy page but use Outlook and Teams, you are probably already on Microsoft 365, managed by GoDaddy. Moving that to a partner is a different job, closer to a tenant change than an IMAP copy, and needs careful planning.
- Zimbra. Mail moves over IMAP. Calendars, contacts and shared folders need a migration tool or a manual export.
How to migrate company email to Microsoft 365
- Audit your mailboxes. List every address on the old system with its size, owner and purpose. Mark which are real people, which are shared addresses such as info@ or accounts@, which are aliases, and which belong to staff who have left. Note any mailbox close to its storage limit and any old PST archives on laptops.
- Check domain and DNS access. Find out where your domain is registered and where its DNS is hosted, and make sure you can log in to both. For .co.ke, .or.ke and other .ke domains, the registrar is a KENIC-accredited registrar, often your web host or a former developer. Recover the login now, not on cut-over night.
- Choose your plans. Decide which plan each person needs. Staff who only need email, Teams and web apps can go on Business Basic; staff who need desktop Word, Excel and Outlook need Business Standard or higher. Shared addresses usually become shared mailboxes, which do not need their own licence in most cases.
- Set up the tenant and verify the domain. Create the Microsoft 365 tenant, add your domain and prove you own it with the TXT record Microsoft gives you. Do not change the MX record yet: mail keeps flowing to the old system while you prepare.
- Create users and mailboxes. Add each user with the same email address they have today, assign licences, create shared mailboxes and aliases, and switch on multifactor sign-in before any data arrives.
- Migrate the mail. Copy existing email from the old server into Microsoft 365 while staff keep using the old system. Use Microsoft’s built-in IMAP migration for straightforward email-only moves, or a tool such as BitTitan MigrationWiz when you also need calendars and contacts, many mailboxes or more control. Run a first full pass, then incremental passes to pick up new mail.
- Cut over the MX record. At an agreed quiet time, often a Friday evening, point the MX record at Microsoft 365 and add the Autodiscover, SPF and later DKIM and DMARC records. Lower the record’s TTL a day or two before so the change spreads quickly. Then run a final migration pass to collect anything that arrived during the switch.
- Reconfigure devices. Remove the old account from Outlook on each laptop and from phone mail apps, then sign in with the Microsoft 365 account. Install Outlook and Teams on phones. Give staff a one-page note on what changed and who to call on Monday morning.
- Decommission the old system. Keep the old mailboxes read-only for an agreed period in case something was missed, export a final archive if you need one, then cancel the old email plan so you stop paying twice. Do not cancel the hosting if your website still runs on it.
If your email is already Microsoft 365 from GoDaddy
If you already sign in to Outlook and Teams through GoDaddy, you do not need an IMAP copy: your mailboxes are already in Microsoft 365, in a tenant that GoDaddy administers for you. Leaving GoDaddy then means one of two routes, and the right one depends on your licences, your domain and how much control you want.
- Take over the existing tenant. The tenant stays, but administration and licences move away from GoDaddy, so mailboxes do not have to be copied. It needs careful timing so licences do not lapse during the change.
- Move to a new tenant. A 365 to 365 migration copies mailboxes and files into a fresh tenant that you control from day one, and moves the domain across at cut-over.
Either way, export or note any settings you rely on first, such as shared mailboxes, forwarding rules and DNS records, and do not cancel the GoDaddy plan until mail is flowing in the new set-up.
IMAP migration or MigrationWiz?
Use IMAP migration when you only need email and the mailbox count is small; use a migration tool when you need calendars and contacts too, or want more control. IMAP migration is built into Microsoft 365 and copies email folders from cPanel, GoDaddy and Zimbra servers. It does not move calendars, contacts or tasks, and it needs each user’s old password or an admin login to the old server.
BitTitan MigrationWiz, which we use for Microsoft 365 migration projects, is a paid tool that handles larger and more complex moves, with scheduling, repeated passes and reporting on what moved. For a business with years of client correspondence and shared calendars, that reporting is worth having.
| Need | IMAP migration | Migration tool (e.g. MigrationWiz) |
|---|---|---|
| Email folders | Yes | Yes |
| Calendars and contacts | No | Depends on the source system |
| Extra licence cost | No | Yes, per mailbox |
| Repeated passes before cut-over | Yes (incremental sync) | Yes |
| Reporting on what moved | Basic | Detailed |
Next step: send us how many mailboxes you have and where your email is hosted, and we will recommend the method and plan for your move.
No obligation. Our team in Karen, Nairobi answers you directly.
Which plan should you move to?
Most organisations leaving cPanel or GoDaddy email land on a mix of Business Basic and Business Standard, adding Business Premium for people who handle sensitive data. All three give each user a 100 GB mailbox, 1 TB of OneDrive storage and Teams, which is usually a large step up from shared hosting.
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic, KES 865 per user per month: email on your domain, web and mobile Office apps, Teams and 1 TB of storage.
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard, KES 1,729 per user per month: everything in Basic plus desktop Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook on up to five PCs or Macs per user.
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium, KES 2,717 per user per month: adds device management, advanced phishing protection, conditional access and data loss prevention.
Prices exclude VAT and are 5% below the standard price, invoiced in KES or USD. Full details are on our Microsoft 365 pricing page.
Common problems and how to avoid them
Almost every migration problem we see comes from DNS, passwords or forgotten mailboxes, not from Microsoft 365 itself. These are the ones to plan for.
- Nobody can log in to the domain. The developer who registered the .co.ke domain has moved on, or the account is in a former employee’s name. Recovering it through the registrar can take time, so start this before anything else.
- The website breaks when DNS moves. If you move DNS hosting as well as email, copy every existing record, including the website’s A record, before you switch. Changing only the MX and email records avoids this.
- Email bounces after cut-over. Usually an MX record left pointing at the old server, two MX records competing, or a user created with a different spelling of their address. Check MX, SPF and each user’s address before the switch.
- Mail goes to spam at the recipient. The old SPF record still lists only the old server. Update SPF to include Microsoft 365, then set up DKIM and DMARC.
- Missing calendars and contacts. IMAP migration moved the email but not the rest. Decide in advance whether you need a tool or a manual export.
- Unknown passwords. IMAP migration needs access to every old mailbox. Collecting passwords from staff is slow and risky, so use an admin method where the old system allows one, or reset passwords in a planned way.
- Old mail stuck on laptops. Staff whose old setup used POP have years of mail only on their own computer, not on the server. Find these people in the audit and import their PST files separately.
- Phones still checking the old server. Staff keep sending from an old account on their phone. Remove the old accounts as part of device set-up.
How long does an email migration take?
It depends on how many mailboxes you have, how large they are, the source system and how quickly DNS access can be sorted out. A handful of small mailboxes is very different from a hundred mailboxes holding years of attachments. We give you a timeline after we have assessed your mailboxes and DNS, rather than guessing beforehand. During the copy, staff keep working on the old system, so the only visible change is the cut-over itself.
How we handle your move
We take you through every step above with you: the audit, recovering DNS access, choosing the right mix of plans, setting up the tenant and security, copying mail with IMAP migration or MigrationWiz, the cut-over and the Monday morning device set-up. After the move we stay on hand for training and support, so your team gets full value from Microsoft 365 rather than just a new inbox. Read more on our Microsoft 365 migration page.
Email migration questions
How long does it take to move our email from cPanel to Microsoft 365?
It depends on the number and size of your mailboxes and on DNS access, so we confirm the timeline after assessing them.
Staff keep working on the old system while mail is copied, so disruption is limited to the cut-over. Microsoft 365 migration.
Will we lose emails when we move to Microsoft 365?
No, when the migration is planned properly, existing email is copied first and a final pass after the MX change collects anything that arrived during the switch.
Mail stored only on laptops through old POP setups needs a separate import. How migration works.
Can we keep our .co.ke email address?
Yes, you keep the same addresses; Microsoft 365 uses your existing domain once it is verified.
You need login access to the domain’s DNS at your registrar or host to add the records. Microsoft 365 Business Basic.
Does IMAP migration move calendars and contacts?
No, IMAP migration moves email folders only; calendars and contacts need a migration tool such as MigrationWiz or a manual export.
We choose the method after the mailbox audit. Microsoft 365 migration.
Will our website go down when we move email?
No, not if only the email records change; the website’s records stay where they are.
If DNS hosting itself moves, every existing record must be copied first. Keep your web hosting until the website has moved too.
How do I migrate email to Microsoft 365?
Audit your mailboxes, confirm you control your domain’s DNS, set up Microsoft 365 and verify the domain, create users, copy the mail across, then switch the MX record and reconnect devices.
Staff keep using the old system while the mail copies, so only the cut-over is visible. The nine steps are set out in full in the guide above, and we run the whole move as part of our Microsoft 365 migration service.
How do I migrate email away from GoDaddy?
First check which kind of GoDaddy email you have: GoDaddy’s own IMAP-based email is copied into Microsoft 365 with IMAP migration or a migration tool, while Microsoft 365 bought from GoDaddy is moved by taking over the tenant or migrating to a new one.
In both cases, make sure you can log in to your domain’s DNS before you start, and keep the GoDaddy plan until mail is flowing in Microsoft 365.
How do I add my GoDaddy email to Outlook?
If your GoDaddy email is a Microsoft 365 mailbox, add it in Outlook like any work account by entering your address and password; if it is GoDaddy’s own email, add it as an IMAP account with the server settings GoDaddy gives you.
Adding an account to Outlook only lets you read it there. It does not move your mail into your own Microsoft 365 tenant; that needs a migration. For phones, see setting up Microsoft 365 email on Android and iPhone.
Which Microsoft 365 plan do we need for email?
Business Basic is enough for email, Teams and web apps; choose Business Standard if staff need desktop Word, Excel and Outlook.
Both give each user a 100 GB mailbox and 1 TB of storage, and you can mix plans. Microsoft 365 Business Standard.
Does GoDaddy email come with Microsoft 365?
Some GoDaddy email plans are Microsoft 365 mailboxes that GoDaddy sells and administers, and others are GoDaddy’s own email, so it depends on the plan you bought.
If you sign in through a GoDaddy page but use Outlook and Teams, you are probably on Microsoft 365 already. Either way, buying Microsoft 365 through a partner puts the tenant in your own organisation’s control. See Microsoft 365 prices in KES.