Web designer holding your site hostage

Whoever is listed as the registrant holds the domain, and only the holder can move it to another registrar. ICANN's lookup tool names the registrar and, unless it is redacted, the registrant. If the agency is the holder, ask them in writing to change the registrant to you; the registrar confirms that change with the listed holder.

Without logins you cannot change a price, fix a broken page or see where visitors come from, and every small edit waits on someone else. Ask in writing for owner access to each account: the domain, the hosting, the site's admin and the analytics. Owner access, rather than a shared password, still works after the relationship ends. At handover, every account we set up is yours.

A monthly fee with no record of what was done leaves you no way to judge it, and that is a red flag in any marketing contract. Ask for the list of changes made each month and what they moved: calls, form sends, rankings for your services. If the answer is a traffic chart and nothing else, ask again. Each of our monthly services ends the month with a report.

Start with what you can check alone: the domain's registrar and holder, and which company hosts the site. If the domain is in your name, you can point it to a new host without the old developer, and a new site can go live there. If the hosting account is theirs, ask the host how a site owner can get a copy of the files.

Whoever holds the domain, the hosting account and the code, which depends on the contract and on whose name each one is in. A designer can build the site and still hold all three, so check each: the domain's registrant, the hosting account's owner, and what the contract says about the code. On every site we build, you hold all three.

ICANN's lookup tool, at lookup.icann.org, shows a domain's registrar and its dates, and the registrant's details unless they are redacted for privacy. If the holder is hidden, log in to the registrar account the domain should be in; if you cannot find it there, it likely sits in someone else's account. The holder listed is who can move the domain today.

Ask in writing for the domain in your name, owner access to the hosting, and a copy of the site's files. To move the domain to a registrar you choose, the holder needs a transfer code, which the current registrar must provide within five calendar days of a request. If the designer will not cooperate, a lawyer can advise on the contract; we can rebuild the site on a domain you control.

Often because the control panel belongs to their hosting account, with other clients' sites on it, so they cannot hand over the whole thing. Ask instead for your site moved to a hosting account in your name, or for a login limited to your site. A developer who refuses both keeps you dependent on them for every change, which is worth fixing now.

You can tell from what they show you: honest SEO work lists the pages it changed each month and what they now rank for. Warning signs are a promised first place in Google, links bought in bulk, reports with traffic but no calls or forms, and a contract you cannot leave. Ask for the list of changes and for access to your own Search Console.

First confirm it: look the domain up, and check whether the old developer is the listed holder or only has the account login. If the domain is in your name, contact the registrar about getting into the account. If it is in theirs, ask them in writing to change the holder to you. Keep every request in writing, and take the contract to a lawyer if they refuse.