Your web developer has gone quiet.

21 October 2026

The short answer

Work out what you can already reach, then take back three things in order: the domain, the hosting, and the site itself. The domain matters most, because it carries your email as well as your website. Keep everything in writing, stay polite, and do not cancel anything until you have a copy of it.

First, do not break anything

Resist the urge to stop paying for things or cancel a card. If the hosting lapses before you have a copy, the site may simply vanish. If the domain lapses, so does your email. Keep the lights on while you sort out the keys.

Find out what you have

• Search your email for the developer's name and for words like invoice, renewal, hosting, domain, login and password. Old setup emails often hold more than you expect.
• Check your bank statements for regular payments to hosting or domain companies. If you pay a company directly, you probably have an account with them.
• Look up your domain with a free lookup tool to see which company it is registered with. That tells you where to start.
• Check your site for the system it runs on. Many sites show it in the page footer or at an address like /wp-admin.

Ask, in writing

Send a short, friendly message by every route you have: email, phone, any business social media. Ask for the domain to be confirmed in your name, the hosting login, and a full copy of the site and its database. Give a date. People who have gone quiet are often embarrassed rather than hostile, and a clear list makes it easy for them to help.

If they trade as a limited company, the public register at Companies House will show whether it is still active, and its registered address.

Taking back each piece

The domain. If it is registered in your name, the registrar can usually help you into the account after checking who you are. If it is in the developer's name, they need to transfer it to you. If they cannot be reached at all, registrars and registries have dispute and recovery processes, which take proof that the name is used by your business, such as invoices, letterheads and company records.

The hosting. If the account is yours, the host can reset access. If it is the developer's, you cannot take the account, but you can ask the host to help you get a copy of your site, and set up new hosting to move it to.

The site. Without access to the server, a copy of the pages can still be made from the live site, though forms, shops and anything with a login will need rebuilding. The longer a site stays online without updates, the bigger the risk, so this is worth doing in weeks, not months.

So it does not happen again

Once you are back in, put every account in your business's name with your email on it, write down where everything is, and have a backup you can reach yourself.

Picking up sites like this is a large part of our care and maintenance work: getting the access back, making a copy, checking what state it is in, and keeping it updated from then on.

Where this comes from

• Finding where a domain is registered: ICANN Lookup.
• Checking a company is still trading: Companies House, find and update company information.
• Disputes over .uk domains: .uk domain disputes, Nominet.