If your web developer has disappeared, take your WordPress site back in this order: find out who holds the domain, hosting, DNS and email, recover the registrar account first, then the hosting account, then the WordPress admin. Take a full backup before you change anything, audit users and plugins, and finish by moving every account into your own name. The domain comes first because whoever controls it controls both the website and the email. I am a freelance WordPress developer in Gurugram, and when I move a client's site, the aim is always the same: every account ends up in the client's own name.
What should you do first?
Do not panic, and do not cancel anything yet. Two things can turn an inconvenience into a crisis:
- The domain expiring. If the renewal is on your developer's card and that card stops working, the domain can lapse. Check the expiry date first.
- The hosting being cancelled. If the hosting bill goes to the developer, the site can be switched off with no warning to you.
Check the renewal dates today
Look up when the domain and hosting expire before you do anything else. A lapsed domain takes the website and the email with it.
Who holds your domain, hosting, DNS and email?
A website is four separate services, often with four different companies. You need to know who holds each one.
| Piece | How to find out | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Domain registrar | Search your domain on ICANN Lookup. It shows the registrar and the nameservers | Controls the domain, its renewal and its DNS settings |
| DNS | The nameservers in the same lookup tell you which company runs DNS | Points the domain at the website and the email |
| Hosting | Look for hosting invoices on old bank or card statements, or ask whoever paid the developer | Holds the files, the database and the backups |
| The MX records in your DNS name the mail provider, such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace | Your business inbox, often the most urgent thing to protect |
Also search your inbox for welcome emails from registrars and hosts. Accounts are sometimes opened in your company's name with your email address, and you only need a password reset.
How do you get back into the registrar and hosting accounts?
It depends on whose name the account is in.
- Your name or your email address. Use the provider's password reset. This is the easy case.
- The developer's name. Contact the provider's support. Each one has its own recovery process, and you should expect to prove who you are and that the business owns the domain or pays for the hosting. It is slower than a password reset, so start now.
- A reseller account. Some developers host many clients under one reseller account. The host may not let you into that account, but they can often help move your site to a new account of your own.
Get the registrar back before anything else. With the domain under your control, you can point it at a new host even if the old hosting account is lost for good.
How do you get into the WordPress admin without the developer?
Try the "Lost your password?" link on the login page first. If the reset email goes to the developer's address, you can change it from your hosting account instead:
- Log in to the hosting control panel and open phpMyAdmin, the database tool most hosts include.
- Open the WordPress database and the
wp_userstable (the prefix may differ fromwp_). - Edit your user, type a new password in
user_pass, choose MD5 from the function dropdown, and save. WordPress documents this exact method in its reset your password guide. - Change
user_emailon the same row to an address you control.
Once you are in, go to Settings > General and change the Administration Email Address to yours. WordPress sends a confirmation link to the new address. This matters because security notices and the recovery email WordPress sends when the site crashes all go to that address.
If any of this feels risky, stop and ask a developer. A wrong edit in the database can break the site.
Why take a full backup before changing anything?
Because it is your way back if anything goes wrong, and your insurance if the old hosting account disappears. Take both the files and the database, and store the backup off the server, for example on your own Google Drive.
Many hosts have a backup or export button in the control panel. A plugin such as UpdraftPlus also works once you are in the admin. For Samko Holdings, I produced a full site backup and export for the client in May 2025, which they can hand to any future developer.
What should you check once you are in?
Run a quick audit before you change hosting or make edits.
- Users. Remove admin accounts for people who no longer work on the site. When you delete a user, WordPress asks what to do with their content: choose to attribute it to your own account.
- Two-factor login for every remaining admin.
- Plugins and themes. Delete what is not used and update the rest, with the backup taken first.
- Premium licences. Plugins such as page builders may be licensed to the developer's account. Without your own licence, they stop getting updates.
- Where backups go. Scheduled backups may still be sending to the developer's storage. Point them at yours.
- The PHP version, which should be a supported one.
My WordPress security checklist covers each of these in more detail.
If the audit turns up malware or signs of a hack, cleanup is a separate job. Typical market ranges that Indian freelancers and small agencies publish are about ₹8,000 (£65) for a standard 24 to 48 hour cleanup and ₹13,000 (£100) for same-day emergency work, per tnxn.agency. wordpressrecovery.in starts emergency containment at about ₹5,000 (£40) and a full forensic cleanup at about ₹15,000 (£120), before GST. Pounds are converted at October 2026 exchange rates (£1 = ₹127.2).
How do you move everything into your name?
- 1
Domain
Move it into a registrar account in your name, either by an account change at the same registrar or a transfer to one you choose.
- 2
DNS
Write down every record, especially MX and the other email records, before you change nameservers or the zone.
- 3
Hosting
Open a hosting account in your name with your card, and move the site into it.
- 4
Email
Make sure the mail provider account is also yours, then test sending and receiving.
- 5
Passwords
Store every login in a password manager the business owns, and switch on two-factor login everywhere.
- 6
Future developers
Give each one their own user account, never your login, so you can remove access in one click.
Moving hosting is the step most likely to cause downtime or lost email. I describe the full method in how to move a WordPress site to a new host without downtime. In 2025 I moved five UK client sites between hosts that way, and afterwards each client ran on hosting they control, with DNS and mail they understand.
What does a good handover look like?
It is what you should have had in the first place, and what you should ask for from the next developer.
| Item | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Accounts in your name | You are never locked out again |
| A full backup or export | Any developer can pick the site up |
| Written documentation | Your team can do routine edits alone |
| A list of DNS records | Email survives the next hosting change |
For Samko Holdings, the handover documents the design system and how to edit templates, pages, services, redirects and form leads, alongside that full backup and export.
Who looks after the site from here?
Getting the site back is the urgent part. Keeping it updated, backed up and safe is the ongoing part, and it is where a disappearing developer usually leaves the biggest gap. I can take over a site like this through my hosting migrations, DNS and maintenance retainers service, with everything kept in your name. My post on what a WordPress maintenance retainer covers explains what that includes.
For a business site, typical market ranges that Indian freelancers and small agencies publish for a maintenance retainer are ₹5,000–₹10,000 a month (£40–£80), with freelancers at ₹3,000–₹8,000, per upgrowth.in and pegasusdigital.co.in. These ranges are not my prices. My own quote comes from a written scope, and the free Project Scope Generator helps you write one.
Send me your domain and what access you still have, and I will reply with the order I would tackle it in. You can also book a call.
