We’ll help recover your website or account when vendors disappear, employees leave, or access is lost.
Locked out of your website, domain, or marketing accounts? You’re not alone. We’ve helped dozens of businesses across industries regain control of their digital assets—even in the most complex lockout situations.
Emergency Assessment
We quickly audit your situation to understand what’s locked, who controls it, and what recovery options exist. Simple recoveries can take as little as a few hours, while complex situations may require 40+ hours across several weeks.
Recovery Strategy
We determine the best path forward. Creating new accounts and systems when recovery isn’t possible or practical or regaining access through proper ownership channels, vendor outreach, and platform escalation
Execution & Documentation
We execute the recovery plan with frequent communication, providing you with complete documentation and shared access credentials to prevent future lockouts.
Are You at Risk?
Take a Quick Self-Assessment, if you answer yes to any of these, you may be vulnerable to lockout
- Only one person knows your website passwords for admin access
- Your developer uses personal accounts for your business assets
- You can’t access your hosting or domain control panel independently
- Your contracts don’t specify who owns custom code or digital assets
- You haven’t logged into your Google Analytics or Google Ads in months
- Your website knowledge walked out the door when employees left
Why Vendor Lock-Out Happens
Vendor lockout isn’t just bad luck—it’s often the result of poor planning, communication breakdowns, or business relationships gone wrong. Common scenarios include:
- Developer disputes over payment or project scope, sometimes called “website held hostage” situations
- Key employees leaving with passwords and technical knowledge that only they possessed
- Vendor disappearance through business closure, non-responsiveness, or “can’t access my website admin” scenarios
- Technical complexity that only one person understood, creating single points of failure
- Proprietary systems that can’t be transferred or maintained by other developers
The good news? Most lockouts are recoverable with the right expertise and approach.
Preventing Vendor Lock-Out Best Practices
Maintain Clear Ownership
The foundation of preventing vendor lockout is establishing clear ownership from day one.
Use shared corporate accounts for all digital services rather than personal accounts that can disappear when employees leave.
Your contracts should explicitly specify who owns custom code, licenses, and digital assets, and these ownership terms should be legally enforceable.
Avoid any situation where personal accounts control your business-critical digital infrastructure.
Choose Portable Technologies
Technology choices directly impact your freedom to switch providers.
Prioritize open-source solutions over proprietary systems whenever possible, as they reduce dependency on any single vendor.
Work with established hosting providers that use standard technologies, ensuring your website and code can be moved to new developers without major reconstruction.
Portable infrastructure gives you negotiating power and exit options.
Establish Professional Relationships
Professional relationships are just as important as technical architecture.
Work with established developers who document their work thoroughly and are transparent about their processes.
Maintain timely payment schedules and clear communication about project scope and expectations.
Avoid long-term contracts without clear exit strategies, and consider it a red flag when developers resist discussing ownership, code audits, or technology choices.
Document Everything
Documentation and knowledge management systems must survive personnel changes. Keep detailed inventories of all digital assets, access credentials, and vendor relationships that your team can reference and update.
Use password managers to ensure shared team access rather than relying on individual knowledge that walks out the door.
Maintain technical documentation that allows new team members or developers to understand and maintain your systems without starting from scratch.
Recovery Services
Whether you’re facing an emergency lockout where your website is down and you can’t reach your developer, or you’re planning a transition away from a current vendor, we have the expertise to help.
Emergency situations like expired domains, lost Google Analytics access, or uncooperative former employees require immediate action. Planned transitions, risk assessments, and vendor switches can be handled more strategically. Here’s how we can help restore your digital independence:
Domain and DNS recovery
Regain control of your domain registration and DNS settings, even when registrars are unresponsive or ownership is disputed.
Website & CMS Recovery
Restore access to WordPress, CraftCMS, and other content management systems. We can recover admin access or rebuild your entire site if necessary.
Hosting Account Recovery
Regain control of hosting panels, server access, and deployment systems across all major hosting providers.
Google Workspace & Analytics Recovery
Restore access to Gmail, Google Analytics, Google Ads, and other Google services through proper ownership verification processes.
License & Integration Recovery
Resolve issues with third-party licenses, APIs, and custom integrations that may have expired or been revoked.
Complete Website Rebuilding
When recovery isn’t possible, we use professional-grade tools to scrape, archive, and rebuild even complex websites on platforms you fully control.
Lockout Risk Assessment
Don’t wait for a lockout to happen. A standalone risk assessment identifies vulnerabilities in your current digital setup before they become problems.
What We Audit
Access Control: Who has passwords, admin rights, and technical knowledge?
Vendor Relationships: Are contracts clear about ownership and exit procedures?
Technical Dependencies: Are you locked into proprietary systems or single points of failure?
Documentation: Can your team maintain and transfer systems if needed?
Deliverables
- Comprehensive risk report with severity ratings
- Actionable recommendations to reduce lockout risk
- Contract review and ownership recommendations
- Code review and technology portability assessment
- Vendor relationship evaluation and risk scoringPassword management and shared credential setup
We’ve helped dozens of businesses across industries prevent and recover from vendor lockouts of varying severity. Your situation is likely more recoverable than you think.
FAQs About Vendor Lockout
Vendor lockout situations are stressful and time-sensitive. Here are answers to the most urgent questions we hear from business owners facing these challenges:
Vendor lockout happens when you lose access to your digital assets due to a third-party vendor’s absence, uncooperative behavior, or technical complexity. It’s different from vendor lock-in, where switching costs are high but you still have access.
Domain registrations, WordPress admin access, hosting control panels, DNS management, Google Workspace accounts, and custom CMS platforms. We also handle complex situations involving proprietary code or custom integrations.
Absolutely. We can track down domain ownership, hosting providers, and other digital assets even when the trail has gone cold or documentation is missing.
e work around uncooperative vendors by escalating through proper ownership channels with registrars, hosting companies, and platform providers. We can also coordinate with your legal team when necessary.
It varies by situation. In many cases we can preserve 100% of content and functionality. We’re always upfront about what can and cannot be recovered before beginning work.
Yes. We use professional scraping tools to capture publicly accessible content and rebuild sites on platforms where you maintain full control. This includes recreating complex functionality and modern development workflows.
Simple access restoration can happen within hours or days. Complex recoveries involving multiple systems or complete rebuilds typically take 2-4 weeks. We provide realistic timelines upfront and communicate progress throughout.
We work on an hourly basis after providing an initial assessment and scope. Simple recoveries might require 8 hours of work, while complex situations can require 40+ hours. We’re transparent about costs and get approval before proceeding.
We provide complete documentation, set up shared credential systems, and recommend governance procedures to maintain clear ownership. Many clients also schedule periodic risk assessments to stay ahead of potential issues.
We take precautions to minimize SEO impact, including proper redirects, asset preservation, and minimal downtime. When rebuilding is necessary, we follow best practices to maintain search rankings.
es. We regularly coordinate with internal teams and legal counsel to validate ownership claims and ensure smooth handoffs of recovered assets.
We provide documentation and training to help you maintain control going forward. We also offer ongoing risk assessments and can serve as your technical backup team to prevent future lockouts.
“Lock‑in” means you’re stuck on a system because switching costs are too high. Lockout means you’re completely cut off—unable to move, update, or regain access.
The legal ownership depends on your contract terms and who paid for development. However, if you own the domain and hosting, you typically have rights to your website content. We can help regain access through proper channels even when developers are uncooperative.
Employee password ownership is complex, but if they were using company devices or accounts for business purposes, you likely have rights to that access. We can help establish proper ownership channels and recover access through legitimate means.
We can trace your domain registration, hosting provider, and other digital assets even when documentation is missing. Using DNS lookup tools and registrar databases, we can map your entire digital infrastructure.
While payment disputes are common, completely withholding access may violate terms of service with hosting providers. We can help establish your ownership rights and work toward resolution through proper channels.
Proprietary code creates vendor lock-in, making it difficult to switch developers. We can audit the situation and either help you obtain rights to the code or rebuild using open-source alternatives you fully control.
Recovery depends on proving ownership of the business and website content. We work with hosting providers’ ownership verification processes and can coordinate with legal teams when necessary to establish rightful control.
Get in touch
Have a project in mind? Let’s talk about what we can build together. Share your details and we’ll get back to you within two business days.