The developer stopped answering, the agency closed, the employee who ran it left, or the nephew who built it moved on. It happens all the time, and it's fixable. Here's what to do, in order.
Secure your domain first. Whoever controls the domain controls where your website and email point. Look it up at lookup.icann.org to see which registrar holds it, then get that account into your business's name.
ULTRA Design Agency takes over websites in exactly this situation, from offices in Lutz, Florida and Solana Beach, California, for businesses across Tampa Bay, San Diego County and the rest of the US.
Any one of these is enough. Most owners who call us have two.
Calls and emails go nowhere, and changes you asked for months ago never happened.
Your domain, hosting or site admin sits in their account, and they won't hand it over.
The company that built your site went out of business or was sold.
The one person on staff who ran the website moved on, and the logins went with them.
The owner's nephew or a friend set it up years ago, and now they're busy, away or out of touch.
A domain or hosting renewal is coming due and you can't log in to pay it.
If the domain sits in your developer's account, the registrar can usually move it to the business that owns it. Expect to show some of these:
Once the domain is in your name, nothing else can hold your business hostage: the site can be moved or rebuilt, and your email keeps working.
Ask in writing, once, plainly and politely, for:
Keep a copy. If they refuse or don't answer, go to the registrar with your proof of ownership, and talk to an attorney about anything in your contract. You don't need their cooperation to rebuild: your content is yours.
Don't panic about the content. Hosting companies often keep backups even after an account lapses, and public archives such as the Wayback Machine at web.archive.org usually hold copies of your pages and images. Between the two, most sites can be brought back.
You don't need everything. The domain matters most.
Where the domain is registered: GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Squarespace or similar. The name on that account matters most.
Most important
Where the site lives. Often in the old developer's account, which is fine: we can move it.
A WordPress or site admin login, if you have one. Not essential; we can usually work around it.
Your Google Business Profile, Search Console and Analytics, if they exist. We help you claim the ones you can't get into.
Four steps, most of them on our side. Nothing gets switched until the copy is tested and working.
Your domain, who built the site, and any logins you still have. Gaps are normal.
What it's built on, where it's hosted, who holds the domain, and what shape it's in. No logins needed for this part.
We walk you through recovering the domain in your own name, then move or copy the site somewhere safe.
A fresh backup, updates and a security check, then the same monthly care as every site we run.
Website takeovers start at $5,000. We quote the exact price after a look at the site, because every takeover starts from a different place. What moves the price:
A recent takeover for a CPA firm had no files to recover at all. We rebuilt the site from the Wayback Machine's copies of its pages, then put it on hosting the firm controls.
Your domain, DNS, Google listing and content sit in accounts your business owns, so this never happens again. We host, back up, update and watch the site on one monthly plan: $225, $325 or $425 a month depending on how many edits you need.
A few of the sites we built and look after.
Secure your domain first: look it up at lookup.icann.org to see which registrar holds it, then contact that registrar to get the account into your business's name. Then gather what logins you still have and get a backup of the site. ULTRA Design Agency takes over websites in this situation for businesses in Tampa Bay, San Diego and across the US.
Treat it like a disappeared developer. Find out whose name the domain is registered in, change any passwords you can still reach, and ask the former employee in writing to hand over every login they held. If the domain or hosting was in their personal account, the registrar can move it to the business with proof of ownership.
Yes, it's one of the most common takeovers we see. Gather what you can, starting with the domain, and we'll take it from there whether or not they can help.
Ask in writing for the domain transfer code, hosting access or a full backup, and the site admin login. Keep it short, polite and dated. If they refuse, the domain registrar has a process for the business that owns a domain to prove it, and an attorney can advise on anything contractual. Most sites can be rebuilt or moved once the domain is in your hands.
Find the registrar with a lookup at lookup.icann.org, then ask the registrar how to recover or transfer it. They usually want proof the business is yours: invoices for the domain or website, bank or card statements, a business license, or email from an address on the domain.
Yes. We review it first, quote any cleanup or move separately, and the monthly plan starts once it's running on our hosting.
Website takeovers start at $5,000. The final price depends on whether the domain is reachable, whether the site's files can be recovered or it has to be rebuilt from archived copies, how many pages and forms it has, and what it's built on. After that, the site runs on a monthly plan of $225, $325 or $425 covering hosting, backups, updates and security.
It depends mostly on the domain. If you can get into the domain account, the rest usually moves quickly. If the registrar needs proof of ownership first, that step sets the pace.
You own your domain and your content: your name, logo, words, photos and customer data. Who owns the code depends on your agreement with the developer. Either way, a site can be rebuilt from your content if the code can't be recovered.
Your email is left alone unless you ask us to move it. Email usually runs through your domain's settings, which is one more reason to get the domain into your name first.
Not if old addresses keep working or are redirected to their new pages. We check every address before anything is switched over.
Start with the domain. With the domain back in your hands, everything else can be rebuilt or moved.
Sometimes. If the site is old, slow or hacked, a rebuild can cost less than fixing it. We'll tell you which after the review.
Tell us your domain and what you still have access to. We'll tell you the fastest way back in.
