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THE WEBSITE HANDOVER CHECKLIST
Changing developer or agency? Collect everything on this list before the relationship ends, not after.
Access, code, backups, DNS, licences, fonts, analytics and documentation. The gap between a clean handover and a hostage situation is usually this checklist, run early.
If you would rather have this done with you than to you, this is the work I do. See services
Collect it before the relationship ends
Every item on this list is easy to get while a developer or agency still wants your next invoice, and hard afterwards. Domain and registrar access, hosting, DNS, CMS admin, source code, design files, plugin licences, analytics and the deployment process, all of which belong on your asset register. The list exists because the request always gets made a week too late, usually as an agency relationship ends.
Test the access, do not simply receive it
A handover is only complete when someone on your side has logged in, changed something small, and published it. Access that has never been used is a reasonable assumption rather than a fact.
COMMON QUESTIONS
What should I get in a website handover?
Domain and registrar access, hosting and DNS, CMS admin accounts, source code and repository access, design files, plugin or theme licences, analytics ownership, and written deployment steps.
When should I ask for handover items?
Before you give notice, ideally at the start of the relationship. Requests made after a decision to leave are slower and occasionally contested, and by then you have nothing left to trade with.
What if the agency owns the licences?
Find out early which are transferable and which are the agency's own. Some plugin and theme licences cannot move, so the choice is buying your own or replacing them, and either is cheaper to plan than to discover mid-migration.