How Do I Change Web Designer Without Breaking My Website or Email?

To change web designer safely, list every account your website depends on and make sure you can log in to each one before you tell anyone you are leaving. Then keep your domain where it is, have the new website built at a temporary address, and switch over only when it is ready, copying your email settings across at the same moment. Done in that order, a change of web designer does not need to take your website or email offline.

This article assumes your current web designer is still reachable and willing to help. If they have stopped replying altogether, recovering access to your accounts comes first, and the steps are different.

What do I need before I tell my web designer I am leaving?

Before you give notice, list the accounts behind your website: the domain registrar, wherever your domain's settings are managed, the hosting, the website's admin login, your business email, Google Search Console, Google Analytics and your Google Business Profile. Check that you can log in to each one yourself, using an email address your business controls.

Any account you cannot open is one to raise with your web designer while the relationship is still friendly. Sorting out access before a notice period starts is far easier than sorting it out after the notice period ends.

Should I transfer my domain or just change where it points?

Changing web designer rarely requires moving your domain. A domain can stay with its current registrar while its settings are changed to point at new hosting, which is quicker and carries less risk than a transfer between registrars. Check the renewal date while you are there, so the domain cannot lapse in the middle of the change.

A full domain transfer is worth doing when the domain sits in your web designer's account rather than your own. In that case, moving the domain into an account in your business's name is the priority, ideally before any other part of the change begins.

Does my hosting have to move when I change web designer?

Your hosting does not always have to move when you change web designer. Web designers can often work with hosting you already pay for, provided the account is in your name and you can give them access. For our own website builds, hosting is optional: you can "bring your own and we’ll deploy to whatever you’re using".

If your current hosting is in your old web designer's account, it will need to move. In that case, set up new hosting in your business's name and keep the old hosting running until the new website has been checked.

Why does email stop working when a website moves?

Business email breaks during a website move more often than the website itself. A domain's settings hold separate records for the website and for email, and if those settings are moved or replaced without copying the email records, messages simply stop arriving.

Before anything changes, take a copy or screenshots of every record in your domain's settings, and ask whoever makes the change to confirm the email records are carried across unchanged. Straight after the switch, send test emails to and from an outside address to prove email still works in both directions.

How is a new website built without taking the old one offline?

A new website is normally built at a temporary address while your existing website stays live on your domain. You review the new website there, on your phone and on a computer, and nothing changes for your customers until you approve it.

The switch itself is a change to your domain's settings. Keeping the old hosting running for a short period afterwards gives you a fallback if anything was missed, so only cancel it once the new website, its forms and your email have all been checked. If the new website changes any page addresses, the old addresses need redirecting to the new ones, and our web design page sets out how our own builds are handled.

What should I ask my old web designer for?

Ask your outgoing web designer for admin access to anything held in their name that belongs to your business, and for a copy of the website's files or an export of its content where the platform allows one. Ask for the images, logos and design files they created for you, subject to what your agreement says about ownership.

Ask your old web designer to transfer ownership of your Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Google Business Profile to you, and to remove their own access once you confirm everything works. Put each request in writing with a reasonable deadline, so there is a clear record if anything is disputed later.

How do I choose the next web designer?

Choosing the next web designer is easier once you know exactly what went wrong with the last arrangement. If the problem was slow changes, ask how updates are handled and whether you can make them yourself. If the problem was access, ask up front who will own the domain, the hosting and every account before any work starts.

Our guide to choosing the right web designer covers the wider questions about scope, budget and agreements. Asking the ownership questions first, though, is what stops the next change of web designer being as difficult as this one.