Business guide
Changing website providers: keep control of your domain, email and enquiries
A practical plan for switching website providers: identify accounts, agree the handover, protect business email and test the new site before cancelling anything.
Changing designer does not mean moving every account
You can hire a different website designer without automatically transferring your domain registration or changing your business email. These are separate services, even when one agency sends a single invoice for them. Start by naming the problem you want to solve: an outdated site, slow changes, unclear costs or difficulty getting access. Then decide which parts actually need replacing.
Write down who currently provides the domain, DNS, website hosting and email. The domain is the address; DNS directs its services; hosting runs the site; email runs the mailboxes. An agency may manage all four, but that does not mean they must move together. Keeping a working email arrangement can simplify a website-only change.
Changing hosts without rebuilding can be possible when the existing platform, files and licences permit it. Ask the incoming provider to assess that option before quoting a replacement. Some managed builders cannot simply be installed elsewhere, so distinguish a portable hosting move from a rebuild that recreates the site.
Find the accounts before agreeing the launch
Confirm which business or person is listed as the domain registrant, who can renew it and who can edit DNS. Ask the current provider for an account inventory rather than a bundle of passwords. Use named invitations or delegated access where the provider supports them, and keep the business responsible for recovery information.
Check the website platform too. Some sites can be exported with their content and assets; others need rebuilding on a different platform. Ask what the contract permits you to take, including photographs, copy, design files and paid licences. A preview that looks identical does not establish that you have received the necessary rights or editable source.
Agree a written handover instead of a sudden cancellation
Give the outgoing and incoming providers the same short plan: what will be supplied, who changes DNS, what stays active and how you will confirm completion. Clarify any notice period, outstanding work and services charged together. If the email lives inside the old hosting package, identify a continuation or migration plan before cancelling that package.
Use the handover checklist to agree the deliverables and evidence of completion. If page addresses will change, decide that during planning rather than discovering broken links at launch. The redesign guide explains how to preserve useful search content and map changed URLs.
- Inventory
List domain, DNS, hosting, email and business accounts.
- Prepare
Build and test the replacement while services remain active.
- Switch
Make the agreed DNS or deployment changes.
- Confirm
Verify enquiries, email and old links before closing services.
Test the things customers actually use
Test the tasks that matter to this business on a phone and a computer: finding the right service, checking coverage and reaching the correct contact route. Use the migration checklist for the detailed launch test record, including notification receipt, old links and any booking integration.
Record what passed and who checked it. Keep a way to restore the previous configuration if the new site has a serious problem. DNS changes can be seen at different times by different visitors, so an initial successful check is useful evidence rather than a reason to immediately remove every fallback.
Finish with ownership and ongoing responsibilities clear
Collect the final account list, renewal responsibilities, approved content and support contact. Remove access that is no longer required after the handover is verified, while preserving any access the outgoing provider still needs for agreed remaining work. Confirm who can deploy changes and who investigates a failed enquiry.
My website design service can include planning the switch as part of a rebuild. Bring the current provider details and whatever access you already have; the first task is establishing the missing pieces. You do not need to understand every DNS record, but you should know who controls your website and how the business can keep it running.