Guides · ownership
Your web designer disappeared. Here is how to get your site back.
No blame, no jargon. A checklist that works even if you never saw a password. Most sites are recoverable in an afternoon.
A website has three parts you can lose separately: the domain (your name, at a registrar), the hosting (the computer serving the pages) and the files. Check who controls each, in that order. Only the domain is hard to replace.
Step 1: find out who controls your domain
Run a public WHOIS lookup on yourbusiness.ca. Three outcomes:
- It is registered to you or your email. Reset the password at the registrar in the record and you hold the keys.
- It is registered to the designer. Ask them for a transfer in writing. If they go silent, .ca disputes go through CIRA’s dispute process.
- It is privacy-masked. Contact the registrar shown and prove the business connection. Invoices naming the domain help.
The lesson is permanent: the domain is registered in your name or it is not yours.
Step 2: rescue your files before the hosting lapses
If the site is still online, copy it today with a site-download tool or a technical friend. Forms will not come along; your text, images and design will.
If it is already offline, type your address into the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. There is a good chance it holds snapshots of your pages.
Step 3: hosting is the part not worth fighting for
A hosting account in a vanished designer’s name is rarely worth recovering. Any competent replacement can host your rescued files within a day and point your domain at them.
One exception: if your email ([email protected]) runs through that account, say so before anything is cancelled, so mail moves first.
How to make this impossible next time
Put these four lines in any future agreement, and walk away from anyone who resists them:
- The domain is registered in my name, at a registrar account I control.
- I get a copy of the complete site files after launch and after any major change.
- Every account made for my business lists my email as owner or recovery address.
- If we part ways, handover is included, not billed.
How we work, as a checkable fact: every Droom client gets the repository itself, the complete versioned site, and the domain never leaves the client’s name. The pricing page says so in writing, and our website service starts with the rescue steps above, done for you.
Questions people ask before they hire
My designer owned the domain and will not respond. Is my business name gone?
Usually not. CIRA has a formal dispute process for .ca domains. Gather proof the domain is your business (invoices, signage, incorporation papers) first.
The site is gone and I have no files. Is it a total loss?
Rarely. The Wayback Machine at web.archive.org keeps snapshots of most public websites, so your text and images can usually be recovered.
How do I check what I actually own right now, in five minutes?
Run a WHOIS lookup, try logging in to your registrar, and check whether you have a copy of your site files. That is your whole ownership position.
Does Droom take over stranded websites?
Yes. The rescue steps above are day one, the rebuild is quoted at the normal fixed prices, and the domain goes in your name first.
Want the ownership check done for you?
The free audit includes it: who holds your domain, hosting and files, and what to fix first if the answer is "not you".
The free Field Test: your site tested the way a customer uses it, back within 24 hours with a fixed price. Five fields, no call.
Last updated 2026-08-31