Your developer disappeared. Here's how to get your website back.

It happens more than you'd think. A freelancer takes a full-time job, an agency closes, a developer stops answering email, or the relative who "did the website" moves on with their life. Then something breaks, or a renewal notice arrives, and nobody knows where anything is.

Don't panic, and don't start changing things at random. Work through this in order.

First hour: check what's about to expire

Some problems are on a clock. Look at these before anything else:

• The domain. Check its expiry date at ICANN Lookup. If it runs out in the next few weeks and you can't get into the registrar account, contact the registrar today.
• Hosting. Is the site still up? If the hosting bill was on the developer's card and that card expired, the host may suspend the account. Most hosts send warnings first, but they go to whoever's email is on the account.
• The SSL certificate. If browsers suddenly show a security warning on your site, the certificate may have lapsed. On most modern hosting it renews automatically, as long as the account itself is active.

Write down what you already know

Open a document and note everything you can find. Old invoices and emails are gold here. Search your inbox for the developer's name and for words like "hosting," "domain," "login," "GitHub" and "invoice." You're looking for:

• The domain registrar.
• The hosting company, and whose name the account is in.
• Where the code lives: GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or only on the server.
• The platform: WordPress, a site builder, or a custom application.
• Outside services the site depends on, like a payment processor, an email sending service, a booking tool or a maps account.
• App store accounts, if there's a mobile app.

Get access back, one account at a time

Start with whatever you're closest to controlling, which is usually anything billed to your own card.

If you're paying for it, you have leverage. A host or registrar that bills your business card will usually help you recover the account if you can prove who you are. Contact their support, explain what's happened, and have your business documents and payment records ready.

If it's in the developer's name, try a short, friendly message first, even if they've gone quiet: "Could you move the domain into our account and add us as an owner on the hosting? That's all we need." People who've moved on often just want it off their plate. Our domain ownership guide has a message you can adapt.

For WordPress sites, if you can get into the hosting account but not the WordPress admin, most hosts offer a way in, such as a one-click admin login in their control panel or access to the database where a new admin user can be created. Ask the host's support team to walk you through it rather than guessing.

For the code, if it's in a GitHub or GitLab account the developer owns, ask them to transfer the repository to an account or organization you own. If there's no repository at all, the copy on the server may be the only one, which makes the next step urgent.

Back everything up before anyone touches anything

As soon as you have access, make a complete backup and store it somewhere separate from the hosting, like your own cloud storage:

• All the website files.
• The database, if there is one. For WordPress, the database holds all your pages and settings, so the files alone aren't enough.
• Any settings that live outside the code, such as keys and environment settings in the hosting control panel.

Then check that the backup actually works. A backup nobody has ever tried to restore is a hope, not a backup.

Bring in someone new, carefully

When a new developer takes over, expect them to spend some paid time looking around before they fix anything. Taking over someone else's work means learning how it fits together first. Anyone who promises to fix everything in an hour without looking is guessing.

Give them their own user account on each service rather than your login. And ask for a short written summary at the end: what they found, what they changed and what's still risky. That document is what saves you next time.

Then make sure it can't happen again

Once things are stable, set the business up so any developer can leave without taking your website with them:

1. Every account in the business's name, using an email the business controls, like admin@yourbusiness.com, not someone's personal address.
2. Developers added as users, not set up as owners. When they leave, you remove them.
3. Code in a repository the business owns. GitHub's free plan works fine for a small business.
4. Passwords in a shared password manager, with two-step verification turned on for the important accounts.
5. Auto-renew on the domain, a card on file that won't expire soon, and a calendar reminder a month before renewal anyway.
6. A one-page list of every account: what it's for, who has access and when it renews.
7. A backup you actually test, once or twice a year.

None of this needs you to understand code. It's the same idea as keeping a spare key to your own building.