Who can fix my website if my web designer has disappeared?

Who can take over the site

• Platform or host support. Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and your hosting company can all help with account access, billing, domains and platform faults. They will not usually repair custom code, a theme or a third-party plugin.
• A freelancer. A good choice for a single fix or for ongoing small jobs. Look for someone who works on your platform regularly.
• An agency. Suited to larger sites and businesses that want a long-term relationship. Many agencies have a minimum spend or only support sites on a monthly retainer.
• A fix service. These take on individual problems for a quoted price and do not require a contract. WebFixed is one of these.

Work out what you have access to

A website usually depends on three separate accounts, and your designer may have set up any of them in their own name.

• The domain name, for example yourbusiness.co.uk, which is held at a registrar such as 123 Reg, GoDaddy, Namecheap or 20i.
• The hosting or platform account, which is where the site itself lives. On Shopify, Wix, Squarespace and Webflow this is your account with that platform. For WordPress it is a hosting company.
• The admin login, which is the username you use to edit the site, for example the WordPress dashboard or the Shopify admin.

1. Search your email and bank statements for the designer’s invoices and for payments to registrars, hosts or platforms. Renewal emails are the quickest way to find out who holds what.
2. Look up your domain with a WHOIS lookup tool. For addresses ending in .uk, the lookup on the Nominet website shows which registrar manages the domain.
3. Try the login page for your platform with your own email address and use the password reset link.
4. Make a list of what you can log in to, what you cannot, and which company holds each one.

How to regain access to each part

Domain name. If the domain is registered in your name or your company’s name, contact the registrar, explain that you have lost access to the account and ask for their account recovery process. Expect to prove your identity and your connection to the business. If the domain is registered in the designer’s name, the registrar will normally only deal with them, so keep trying to reach the designer in writing. For .uk domains, Nominet runs a Dispute Resolution Service for cases where someone else holds a domain you have rights to.

Shopify, Wix, Squarespace and Webflow. Each site has one owner account. If that owner is you, reset the password and you are back in. If the designer is the owner, contact the platform’s support team, explain the situation and be ready to show proof that the business is yours, such as payment records for the subscription.

WordPress. If you have an administrator account, use the "Lost your password?" link on the login page. If you have no account at all but you can log in to the hosting control panel, a developer can create a new administrator for you through the database without needing the old designer. If the hosting is also in the designer’s account, contact the hosting company with proof that you own the domain and pay for the service.

Check the renewal dates for your domain and hosting as early as you can. If they are paid from the designer’s card and the payment lapses, the site and your email can go offline. A lapsed domain can be expensive or impossible to recover.

What to have ready for a new developer

• The website address and the platform it is built on, if you know it.
• A plain description of what is wrong or what you need changed, with screenshots and the address of the affected page.
• The list of accounts you can and cannot access.
• The name of any paid theme, plugins or apps, and who holds the licences. Licences bought by the designer may not renew.
• A recent backup if you have one. If you do not, ask the new developer to take one before they change anything.

How to stop it happening again

1. Move the domain into a registrar account that you own, registered to your business, with your own card on file.
2. Make sure you are the owner of the platform or hosting account, and that the developer has a separate staff, collaborator or contributor login.
3. Keep a record of every account connected to the site, including email, analytics, payment providers and paid plugins, and store the logins in a password manager.
4. Turn on two-step verification for the domain and owner accounts.

Related questions

Does my web designer own my website?

It depends on your contract and on whose accounts the site sits in. In practice, whoever controls the domain and the hosting or platform account controls the site, which is why both should be in your name.

Do I need to rebuild my website if my designer has gone?

Usually not. A rebuild is only necessary if you cannot regain access to the site at all, or if it was built on a private system that only the original designer can maintain.

What if my business email is tied to the designer’s hosting?

Treat email as a priority, because it often runs through the same hosting account as the site. Ask the hosting company or a developer to confirm where your email is hosted before changing any domain or DNS settings, since a wrong change can stop email arriving.