Your developer went dark. We'll take it from here.
IG Digital Lab takes over websites and web apps that somebody else built and then stopped answering for. We find out what you still control, recover the accounts that are legally yours, and then either fix what is there or replace it. Based in Sacramento, working nationwide.
What should you do in the first 24 hours after your web developer disappears?
Confirm you still control the four things that matter: the domain registrar, the DNS, the hosting account and the business mailbox. Everything else can be rebuilt. IG Digital Lab walks Sacramento business owners through this list on the first call, and most of it you can do yourself in about an hour.
-
Look up who owns the domain
Run a WHOIS lookup at lookup.icann.org and search your inbox for renewal notices. The registrant and admin contact show whether the domain sits in your name, your company name, or the developer's. Note the registrar and the expiration date.
-
Check where the DNS is pointed
The same lookup shows your nameservers. They tell you which company actually answers for the domain: the registrar, a hosting company, Cloudflare, or something the developer set up personally. That is where both website and email routing live.
-
Get into the hosting account
Search your bank and card statements for a recurring charge to a hosting company. The billing email on that account is usually the password reset path. If the hosting was billed to the developer instead of the business, write that down, it changes the plan.
-
Try the CMS admin
For WordPress, open the /wp-admin address and use the password reset. If the reset email goes to an address you do not control, stop there and note it. Do not sit and guess passwords, lockouts and security plugins make recovery slower.
-
Find the code repository
Look for a GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket link in old emails and check whether your company owns the organization it lives in. If nobody knows where the code is, the running site is still recoverable, it just costs more to work with.
-
Claim analytics and Search Console
Confirm you are listed as an owner in Google Analytics, Google Search Console and your Google Business Profile. These are the accounts everyone forgets, and they are the hardest to replace because they hold history you cannot recreate.
-
Secure the business mailbox
If company email runs on the same domain, confirm you are an administrator in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Losing the mailbox is worse than losing the website, because every other password in the business resets through it.
-
Write down what you have, and let nothing expire
Make one list: what you can log into, what you cannot, and what renews in the next 60 days. Renew anything close to expiring even if you plan to move it later. Do not cancel services to punish the developer, that takes your site down too.
What do you actually own, and how do you get it back?
You own the domain, the content, the customer data and, in almost every contract, the code you paid for. IG Digital Lab recovers access through the registrar and the hosting company as the legal owner of the business, not by breaking into anything. Where ownership is genuinely disputed, that becomes a conversation with the provider.
Domain
The registrar deals with the registrant on file. If that is you or your company, a password reset plus an ID check usually settles it. If it is not, see the transfer question in the FAQ below.
DNS
Nameservers can be moved once you hold the registrar login. We copy every record first and stage the change so the live site and company email keep working through the switch.
Hosting
Most hosts will reassign an account to the business paying for it, given proof of billing. If they will not, we copy the site onto hosting in your name and point DNS at it once it is verified.
Repository
If the code sits in a developer's personal account, we request a transfer into your organization. If that fails, we reconstruct a deployable copy from the running site and put it under your control.
Analytics
Google properties are recovered through the current owner, or through a claim process for a Business Profile. We reconnect tracking so years of history do not end up orphaned in an account nobody can open.
Mailbox
Email is the account of last resort. We verify admin access, add a second administrator inside your company, and switch recovery options to people who will still be there next year.
What does a website takeover audit cover, and what does it cost?
The takeover audit is a fixed, small engagement, typically $500-1,500 depending on the size of the site, and we credit it toward the work if you continue with IG Digital Lab. The first 30-minute call is free and is often enough to tell you whether the audit is worth buying at all.
- Access inventory. Every account behind the site, who holds it today, and which ones are missing or in the wrong name.
- Stack and hosting review. What the site is built on, where it runs, what it costs to run, and whether that platform is still supported.
- Security and update status. Exposed admin paths, out-of-date plugins and libraries, expired certificates, and any sign the site has already been compromised.
- Backup and recovery check. Whether a working backup exists and can actually be restored. If none exists, we take one before touching anything.
- A written verdict. Fix, refactor or rebuild, with a scoped price for each path so the decision is yours and not a mystery.
After the audit, work is priced by scope. Repairs and a straightforward rebuild of a small business site normally land in the $2,500-6,000 band; a site with portals, integrations or custom applications behind it moves into $6,000-15,000. One-off work that does not need a project runs $150-200 per hour. Full numbers are on our pricing page, and the build side of the work is described under web design and development.
Which takeover situations do we see most often?
Five, over and over: a WordPress site with no admin login, a site on a platform we cannot get into, a redesign abandoned half-finished, hosting that already expired, and a site nobody at the company can identify. Each one has a standard first move.
WordPress with no admin
If you control the hosting, a new administrator can be created from the database or the file system in minutes. If you control neither hosting nor admin, we start at the registrar and work down.
A platform we cannot access
Some site builders and proprietary systems keep everything locked to the original account. We preserve the content and the URLs, then rebuild on a stack you own so this cannot happen again.
A half-finished redesign
We assess the unfinished work honestly. Sometimes finishing it is cheapest. More often the right move is to stabilize the live site first and decide about the redesign with a clear head.
Expired hosting
If the site is already down, this is an emergency and speed matters. Recovery usually runs through the host's grace period, an old backup, or a public archive copy of the pages.
Nobody knows who built it
We work backwards from WHOIS, DNS, server headers and old invoices. In most cases we can name the host, the platform and often the original builder within a day.
It is an app, not a website
An abandoned internal tool or customer portal is a different job with the same shape. That path is software project rescue.
What happens after we take the site over?
Once access is recovered and the site is stable, somebody has to keep it that way, which is how most owners ended up here in the first place. IG Digital Lab moves takeover clients onto a monthly plan: monitoring, backups, updates, and a person who answers. Care is $300-500 per month, Active is $750-1,500 when the site keeps changing.
What is in each plan is spelled out under servers and support. We work from 3550 Watt Ave, Suite 408, Sacramento, CA 95821, and serve Carmichael, Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, Arden-Arcade, Roseville, Folsom, Elk Grove and Davis on site, with takeover and development work delivered remotely nationwide. Local businesses can also read our Sacramento web design and Sacramento IT support pages, or meet the team behind this work on the about page.
You already paid for this site once
The audit is a fixed fee and it comes off the price of the work if we continue.
No retainer, no long contract to find out what you still own.
Frequently asked questions
The five questions every owner asks in the first conversation.
Can you get my site back if I don't have the password?
Usually yes. Access is recovered through ownership, not through passwords. Registrars deal with the registrant on file, hosting companies reassign accounts to the business that pays the invoices, and a WordPress administrator can be recreated from the hosting side when you control the server. When no path exists, we rebuild on infrastructure in your name and move the domain to it.
What if my developer owns the domain?
This is the hard case and we will tell you straight. If the domain is registered in the developer's name, the normal route is a standard ICANN transfer: they unlock the domain and give you the authorization code. If they refuse, the options are a complaint through the registrar, a UDRP filing when the domain matches your trademark, or moving to a new domain and redirecting what you can. We are not attorneys and this is not legal advice, but we will lay out what each path costs in time and traffic.
Do I have to rebuild the site?
Often no. If the site works and the platform is still maintained, keeping it is cheaper and the audit says so plainly. We recommend a rebuild when the platform has been abandoned, when the code cannot be deployed anywhere, or when security cannot be brought current without touching everything.
How fast can you start?
Same day triage if the site is down, and the audit normally starts within two business days. Access recovery moves at the speed of the registrar and the hosting company, which is usually 24 to 72 hours once the paperwork is in.
What does a takeover cost?
The takeover audit is a fixed fee, typically $500-1,500 depending on the size of the site, and it is credited toward the work if you continue with us. Keeping the site running afterward is $300-500 per month on our Care plan. Anything we rebuild is quoted after the audit, normally starting in the $2,500-6,000 band.
Tell us what you still have access to.
Book a free 30-minute call, bring the list from the first section, and we will tell you what is recoverable, what is not, and what each path costs.
Or call (916) 618-0502. No commitment, no sales pitch.