Developer went quiet
This happens more than anyone admits. The site usually keeps working for a while, which is why people wait too long to act. The moment to sort it out is now, while everything is still paid up and still running.
Do these four things this week
You cannot recover what you have not identified. Work through the list and write down, for each item, who holds it and whether you can get in today.
This is the one that matters most, because whoever controls it controls where the website and the email go. Look the domain up at lookup.icann.org to see the registrar and the expiry date. If the account is in your developer name, ask them to push it to an account in yours, or to send you the transfer authorization code. Ask in writing and keep the reply.
Look up the nameservers for your domain. They tell you whether DNS is at the registrar, at the host, or at a third service your developer set up in their own account. Control of the domain lets you move DNS whenever you want, so this is a second-order problem, but copy every existing record before you touch it.
Find who hosts the site by looking up the IP address behind the domain, and cross-check it against your card statements. Two situations: the account is in your name and you need a password reset, or the account is in theirs and you need a migration rather than a recovery. Hosts will not hand over an account belonging to someone else, however unfair that feels.
A WordPress site is files plus a database. You need both to move it intact. If you have hosting access you can export both. If you do not, and cannot get it, the site can still be rebuilt from what is publicly visible plus whatever content you have, which is a real cost but a known one.
Look up the MX records to see who runs your mail. Business email is often the thing people forget until it breaks during a migration. Note who the administrator is, because it is often the developer.
Google Business Profile, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, the Meta business page, any booking or review platform. These are commonly created by the developer under their own login, and they are the ones you actually cannot rebuild, because the reviews and the history live in them.
If your developer is being billed for hosting and passing the cost to you, get billed directly instead. If your card is on file in their account, you have something to negotiate with, and it is worth raising politely: nobody wants to keep paying for a service they cannot get into.
The right move depends on which of these it is. They look identical from the outside for the first month.
Most common
How to check: Slow replies rather than none. Work half finished. A phone number that still connects. Often a one-person business that took on too much.
The fix: One clear written message asking for exactly three things: the domain transfer code, the hosting login or a confirmation to migrate, and an admin account on the site. Specific asks get answered far more often than a general complaint does.
Common
How to check: Website gone, email bouncing, phone disconnected. The hosting still runs because it is on autopay against a card that still works.
The fix: Go straight to the companies rather than the person. The registrar and the host both have processes for this, and both hinge on documenting that you paid. Start with the registrar.
Less common
How to check: They are reachable but will not hand anything over until something is settled. Sometimes the invoice really is unpaid and nobody noticed.
The fix: Settle the money question first if there is one. If there is not, the registrar dispute process exists for exactly this, and it turns on who is the registrant of record and who has proof of payment. Keep everything in writing from here on.
Happier than it looks
How to check: The domain and hosting turn out to be in your own name, opened years ago, and only the CMS password is missing.
The fix: This is a one-hour fix. Hosting access lets you reset the site admin password directly. Check before assuming the worst, because it happens often.
Recovery is not always cheaper than rebuilding. Here is roughly where each side lands, so you can pick with your eyes open.
Website rescue
The service version of this page: inventory, recover, migrate, and hand you back documented control.
OpenI lost access to my website
The layer-by-layer detail on registrar, DNS, hosting and CMS, and what proof each one wants.
OpenWordPress migration
Moving the site to hosting in your own name, with the DNS cutover planned so email keeps working.
OpenDNS help
Nameservers, MX records, and how to move a site without taking the mail down with it.
OpenWebsite maintenance plans
The reason this happened is that nobody was responsible for the site. Here is what being responsible looks like.
OpenFree IT checkup
A one-page picture of what is publicly visible about your domain, site, and email right now.
OpenThree public lookups tell you most of it. The ICANN lookup names your registrar. A nameserver lookup names your DNS provider. Looking up the IP address behind your domain usually names your host. None of them require a password. Then check your card statements for the recurring charges.
They can make it difficult, but registrars have a dispute process and it turns on who is listed as the registrant and who can document paying for it. Keep the invoices and the email threads. Meanwhile, make sure the domain does not expire while the argument is going on.
Often, yes, if you still control the domain. A rebuild has a fixed price and a launch date. Chasing an unresponsive person has neither. The calculation changes completely if the domain itself is at risk, because a domain is the one thing you cannot replace without losing your search history and every existing link.
Treat that as the emergency. Missing inbound email costs a business more than a dark website does. Getting mail onto a provider in your own name is usually the first migration to do, ahead of the website.
Yes, that is most of this work. I start by writing down who holds the domain, DNS, hosting, email and the accounts around them, and telling you which of those you actually control today. That inventory is useful to you whether or not you hire me for the rest.
Own the domain in an account in your business name, with your billing on it. Own the hosting account the same way, and give your developer a user on it rather than the account itself. Everything else can be granted and revoked. Those two cannot.
Send the domain name and whatever you know. You get back a plain list of what exists, who holds it, and what each one would take to recover.
