The agency that built it has gone quiet
The build finished, the invoices stopped, and now replies take a fortnight. Your software still runs on their arrangements.
Does this sound familiar?
Agencies are built to deliver projects, not to operate them. When the project ends, maintenance becomes goodwill — and goodwill has a half-life.
- Support requests take days, and small changes get quoted as new work
- The hosting is on the agency’s account, billed through them
- You do not have access to the code, or you have a copy that may not be current
- Nobody has mentioned backups or updates since launch
What we do, in order
Roughly the first week. The sequence matters more than the speed.
We work out what is yours
Domain, code, data and hosting are often held in four different places under three different names. We establish what you own outright, what is under the agency’s account, and what needs to be formally transferred.
We take a full copy first
Before any migration conversation, we secure a complete copy of the application and its data. Handovers go wrong most often when the incumbent is unhelpful, so we stop depending on them early.
We migrate without downtime
The application moves to our infrastructure, DNS is cut over, certificates are issued in advance. Your site keeps serving throughout — the switch is a DNS change, not an outage window.
You keep the relationship you want
Plenty of businesses stay with their agency for development and move only the running to us. Those are different jobs, and they do not have to be the same supplier.
The failure mode to avoid
Businesses in this position usually wait until something breaks, which is the worst moment to attempt a handover — you need cooperation from a party who is slow to respond, while your site is down. Moving while everything works is dramatically easier.
Common questions
The agency hosts our website. Can we move it without their help?
Almost always. The application and its data can be copied, and DNS is controlled by whoever holds the domain. The one genuine blocker is the domain itself being registered under the agency, which needs a transfer they have to authorise.
Will moving hosting take our site offline?
It should not. The application is set up and tested on the new infrastructure first, certificates are issued in advance, and the final step is a DNS change. Visitors move across as DNS propagates, with both copies serving during the overlap.
Do we own the code the agency wrote?
That depends on your contract, and it is worth checking before starting a migration. Many agency agreements assign ownership on final payment; some license it instead. Either way, take a complete copy early.
Can we keep the agency for development and move only the hosting?
Yes, and it is a common arrangement. Building software and operating infrastructure are different jobs with different rhythms, and they do not have to be the same supplier.