It is more common than anyone admits, and it is rarely dramatic. Replies get slower, then stop. The site keeps working, which is why it is easy to put off — until something breaks, or a renewal fails.
The urgent problem usually is not the website. It is that the domain, the hosting account or the code may be registered to somebody who is no longer answering. A site with no support is an inconvenience; a domain you cannot renew is an emergency, and the deadline is set by a date you may not know.
So the first thing to establish is what you actually control. Who is the registrant of the domain, whose card renews the hosting, and where does the code live. Often the answer is better than feared — many developers register things in the client’s name as a matter of course — but it needs checking rather than assuming.
Where access genuinely is lost, there are usually routes: registrars have dispute processes, hosts have account recovery, and a site can be rebuilt from what is publicly served if it truly comes to that. None of them are quick, which is the argument for starting now rather than at renewal.
What we do
Working UK-wide — directly with businesses, and white label behind design and marketing agencies.
Discuss a projectYou can check most of these yourself in an afternoon, and they are worth knowing whoever you end up working with.
A public WHOIS lookup shows the registrar. The registrant is often hidden, but your registrar can tell you whether the account is in your name and what email controls it.
Also in WHOIS. If the expiry date is close and the renewal card belongs to somebody unreachable, this is the thing to deal with first.
Often a different company from the domain. Look for invoices, or ask us — the host can usually be identified from the site itself.
A repository you can be added to, or only on the server. The second is workable but means no history of what changed or why.
Separately from the server. A backup on the same machine protects you from mistakes, not from losing the account.
Which platform and roughly how old. This decides whether the site can be supported as it stands or genuinely needs replacing.
We look at what is actually there before committing to a price. Inherited code is the one situation where a confident fixed quote up front should make you nervous.
The review tells you what you have, what state it is in and what it would take to support — and that is yours to use whoever you choose afterwards.
Plenty of inherited sites are structurally fine and simply need looking after. We would rather tell you that than sell you a rebuild you do not need.
A lot of our work is delivered white label or under agreement, so these describe the problem and the approach rather than naming the client.
Ten brand websites across one instruments group. Several we built, the rest we inherited — and all ten are hosted, maintained and supported by the same team.
Migration · DevelopmentFive separate legacy CMS sites, five databases and five themes, consolidated into a single multilingual multisite CMS platform.
No obligation and no charge for the initial look. We will tell you what you have, what state it is in, and what would need to happen — including when the honest answer is that it is fine and just needs looking after.