How to Switch Website Vendors

The first thing to check when switching website vendors is who each asset is registered to: the domain, the server, the WordPress admin account, and the analytics and business accounts. If these are in your company's name, switching is usually straightforward. If they are in the vendor's name, you need to move the ownership first. The basic order is to obtain the data, build the new environment, switch the DNS, and only then cancel the old contracts. Giving notice too early can take down the site or the email. This article lays out typical situations, ownership checks, a handover checklist, the steps, rough costs, and common problems from a neutral standpoint.

The reasons for wanting to change website vendors are fairly consistent. None of them is unusual, and they tend to arise naturally as a business changes or staff turn over.

- Hard to reach: replies are slow, the contact person left, or the contact details are no longer valid
- High or opaque maintenance fees: you pay every month but cannot tell what is being done
- Slow updates: swapping text or a photo takes weeks, and even small edits need a new quote
- An outdated site: not mobile-friendly, or WordPress and plugins have gone without updates for a long time
- Changing needs: you now need booking, hiring pages, e-commerce, or multiple languages that the current vendor does not handle well

Switching does not have to mean cutting off the relationship abruptly. Some companies first explain their concerns and see whether things can improve. Even so, it is wise to find out early what you actually hold in case you do move.

A website is not just its visual design. It is a combination of a domain, a server, a CMS such as WordPress, analytics tools, and email, and each has its own contract holder or administrator. How hard a switch will be depends largely on who that is.

The domain is the address of your site, such as example.com. What matters is not who gets the invoice but who is listed as the registrant. When a vendor registers a domain on your behalf, the registrant is sometimes the vendor or an individual staff member. In that case, whether the domain can be transferred or renewed depends on the vendor's cooperation. You can check this through a WHOIS lookup suited to your domain type, or by logging in to the registrar's control panel. For how to read domain and server contracts, including costs, see Domain and Server Costs and Contract Ownership.

The server is where your site's data lives. In some cases the vendor runs its own server and hosts several clients' sites together. Then your site has to be extracted and handed over, so you need to agree on how the data will be delivered. If you hold the hosting contract yourself, the question is whether you control the login details for the control panel.

If your site runs on WordPress, check whether your company has an account with administrator rights. It is not unusual for the vendor to hold the only administrator account while the client has only an editor role. Without administrator rights you cannot export data or review plugins, which hampers the handover. For WordPress-specific risks, see The Risks of Neglecting WordPress Maintenance.

Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Business Profile, and advertising accounts are sometimes created under the vendor's Google account. These hold accumulated visitor data and search history, so it is better to hold ownership yourself, not just view-only access, before you move. You should also check where your custom-domain email (such as info@example.com) runs. If it depends on the old server, mail may stop arriving when the DNS is switched.

The table below lists what to confirm when switching. Filling in whether each item is in your name and what you need to request gives you a clear overall picture.

The basic flow is as follows. The key points are to finish the new environment before you shut down the old one, and to keep the old one around for a while after the switch.

Start by reading the production contract, the maintenance contract, and any quotes. There are three main things to look for. The first is the cancellation terms: how many months in advance notice is required, and whether it must be in writing. The second is the minimum contract period: whether leaving early triggers a penalty or payment for the remaining term. The third is copyright ownership: whether the deliverables belong to you or stay with the vendor. If you cannot find the contract, ask the vendor for a copy rather than guessing from old emails and invoices. How contract terms are interpreted, and whether a penalty is enforceable, depends on the circumstances, so consult a lawyer or other professional if it is unclear.

Before engaging a new vendor, share the situation you organized in the checklist and ask for a quote covering the handover work. Comparing several companies makes differences in scope and price easier to see. For switching on the system development side, see A Guide to Switching Development Vendors, which is useful if you also run business systems besides the website.

The timing of the cancellation notice needs care. You want to avoid a situation where the relationship sours after notice and the data is delayed. As a guide, work backward from the notice deadline in the contract, and give formal notice after the data request and schedule have been agreed. If the deadline is close, you can state your intention to cancel in writing first, so the contract does not renew automatically, and ask for handover cooperation separately.

Collect the site files and database, the original images, and for WordPress, information on the theme and plugins. You can ask the vendor, or, if you have administrator rights, take a backup yourself with a plugin. Also record the list of current URLs and the page structure, because you will need it later for 301 redirects.

Recreate the site on the new server and check it in a test environment before it goes live at the real URL. Verify the layout, form submissions, phone links, tracking tags, and images. If you are moving email too, create the mailboxes on the new environment at this stage.

The DNS switch changes where your site is displayed from and where email is delivered. Shortening the DNS TTL (roughly how long the old information is cached) beforehand makes the change propagate faster. List in advance which records will change, such as the site records and the MX records for email, and which will stay. Many companies choose a night or a holiday when inquiries are fewer.

After the switch, check that the site displays correctly, forms work, email is sent and received, Google Analytics is recording, and Search Console looks normal. If everything is fine, cancel the old server and maintenance contract. Canceling immediately leaves no way back if you missed something, so keeping the old environment for about a month is a safer approach. If the server's renewal date is near, plan backward so that it does not overlap.

Switching costs vary widely with the size of the site, how well the current situation is documented, and the scope you request. The figures below are general market ranges, not guarantees, and you should confirm the actual amounts in a quote.

Moving a site as it is generally costs less than rebuilding it. The comparison is not clear-cut, though. A new corporate site for a small business commonly runs from several hundred thousand yen to somewhat over a million yen. If the current site is built on an outdated structure that is painful to modify, redesigning the design and CMS at the same time can make more sense in the long run. For maintenance pricing, see Website Maintenance Costs.

This is one of the most common problems. If the vendor is the registrant, first ask the vendor to change the registrant or help with a transfer. Requirements differ by domain type, including how the authorization code is obtained, how a registrant change is approved, and restrictions on transfers for a period after registration. Confirm with the registrar early. If talks go nowhere or the vendor is unreachable, options include consulting a lawyer or using the dispute resolution body for your domain type.

In subscription-style website plans with low upfront costs, the contract may leave the rights to the design and data with the vendor, so you may not be able to take the site with you when you cancel. In that case, moving usually means rebuilding the site from scratch. Rights to materials you supplied yourself, such as photos and text, can sometimes be handled separately. Check what the contract says and understand how much you can take with you in advance. This is covered in more detail in The Contract Trap in Subscription Websites.

If the MX records that control email delivery are not carried over when the DNS is switched, inquiries stop arriving, and it can take a while to notice, which may cost business. Build the new email setup before the switch, and always test sending and receiving afterward. Let staff know in advance if their mail client settings will need to change.

If URLs change when the site is rebuilt, pages that used to appear in search results may no longer be found, and rankings and traffic can fall. The standard countermeasure is to set up 301 redirects that permanently forward old URLs to new ones. Also submit the new sitemap in Search Console and keep watching search performance after the switch. Moving a site without changing URLs reduces this effect. Ranking changes have many causes, however, and redirects alone do not guarantee that rankings are preserved.

Even without technical knowledge, working through the items below shows how ready you are to switch.

- I confirmed that the domain registrant is our company or its representative
- I checked the cancellation terms and minimum contract period
- I confirmed in the contract who owns the copyright to the site
- I checked who holds the server contract and when it renews
- We have our own administrator account for WordPress or the CMS
- I checked who owns Google Analytics, Search Console, and Business Profile
- I confirmed where our custom-domain email is hosted
- I shared the current situation and our wishes with the new vendor in writing
- I set a date for the data backup to be provided
- I set the notice deadline and the date we will give notice
- I planned to keep the old environment for about a month after the switch
- I decided who inside the company will confirm that inquiry emails still arrive

Three points help you avoid major trouble when switching vendors: confirm ownership, read the contracts, and switch only after the new environment is complete while keeping the old one for a while. Even if some domains or accounts are not in your name, checking early leaves you with options. A good place to start is to use the checklist to take stock of who holds what and what the contracts say.