How to leave a web agency and keep your domain and data

To leave a web agency safely, get your domain into your own name first. Then copy your DNS settings, files and data, take back your Google listing, and only then tell the agency.

The calls go unanswered, a small change takes three weeks, and the renewal bill keeps rising. The fear is always the same: what if they switch everything off? This order of work stops that happening.

Before you leave a web agency, list what you have

Don't send the "we're moving" email yet. While things are normal, simple requests like "Can you send our domain login?" usually get answered. Ask one thing at a time, in writing, and keep the replies.

Most small business sites are several separate pieces. Write down each one, who has the login, and whose name it's in.

Keep this list somewhere safe. It's the most useful page you'll make.

Get the domain into your name first

Everything else can be rebuilt. The domain can't, so it comes first.

1. Find it. Search your domain on ICANN Lookup. It shows the registrar and often the expiry date. The owner may be hidden for privacy, so also ask the agency.
2. Get it in your name. Aim for a registrar account in your business's name, with your own email and phone, and two-step sign-in on. If the agency registered it in their name, ask them to change the registrant to you.
3. Check the expiry date. Renew it if it's close, even if you pay yourself. A lapsed domain can be lost for good.
4. Move it only if you want to. Ask for the domain's transfer lock to be removed and for its transfer code (also called an EPP or authorisation code).

For domains like .com, ICANN says your registrar must give you the code within five calendar days of asking. It also says a transfer can be refused within 60 days of registration or a previous transfer (ICANN, as of November 2026). ICANN has been updating these rules, so check your registrar's help page for current timings.

A .in domain also moves with a code from your current registrar. You don't have to move registrars at all. Having the domain in your name and account is what matters.

Copy DNS and email settings, then back up

Before anyone changes anything, save every DNS record as screenshots or an export. The MX records decide where your email goes. The SPF and DKIM records help your email avoid spam folders.

Lose these during a move and your email stops arriving. Copy first, change later. Our page on email on your own domain explains these records.

Then ask for, or download yourself:

• A full copy of the website files and the database.
• Your images, documents and other uploads.
• Customer, booking and enquiry records as spreadsheets or CSV files.

What you're owed depends on your contract. Content you supplied and paid for is usually yours. Some themes, plugins or agency tools are licensed to the agency, not you.

Be careful with old backups. A badly kept site may hide spam or malicious code in its files. Have a backup checked before restoring it, and often just keep the text and images.

Take back your Google listing and other accounts

Your Google Business Profile should have you as the owner, with the agency as a manager at most. Check this in the profile's settings.

If the agency owns it and won't hand it over, request ownership through Google. The current owner gets three days to respond.

If they don't, you may be able to claim it. Google says that option isn't always available (Google Business Profile Help, as of November 2026).

Do the same for Google Search Console, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. You should be an owner with your own account on each. Our Google Maps listing guide covers setting the profile up well.

Move without going offline, then lock the doors

Build the new site on a temporary address first, and check every page on your phone. Then:

1. A day ahead, lower the DNS "TTL" if you can, so the switch spreads faster.
2. Add the new site's DNS records, keeping every email record exactly as it was.
3. Make old page addresses redirect (a "301 redirect") to the matching new pages.
4. Send a test email to your business address and check it arrives.
5. Only then cancel the old hosting.

Afterwards, change every password on your list, remove the agency's users and turn on two-step sign-in. Check that each account's recovery email and phone are yours.

What to ask your agency

Send these in writing, politely, with a reasonable date.

1. Whose name is our domain registered in, and which account holds it?
2. Please remove the domain's transfer lock and send its transfer code.
3. Please send a full backup of the site files and database.
4. Please export our customer, booking and enquiry records.
5. Please make us primary owner of our Google Business Profile.
6. Which accounts have our recovery email or phone set to yours?
7. Which parts of the site are licensed to you, and which are ours?

If a registrar won't give the transfer code to you as the domain's owner, contact their support directly. For many domains, ICANN also takes complaints about registrars that break its transfer rules. Most handovers never get that far.

If you'd like help

With Pixelvile, your domain is in your name from day one, and if you leave you keep it, your content and a data export. We can make the list above with you and plan the move. Ask for a free audit of your current setup, or WhatsApp us on +91 62918 31815.