Ask for these nine items while the balance is still unpaid — that’s the only point in the project when they take one message instead of one month. Buyers who collect them keep control of the site permanently; buyers who don’t often discover the gap a year later.
Complaint records include exactly this failure: full payment made, then support withheld, and in one case business email details never provided at all.
The moment it happens
The only website handover checklist you need exists because handover usually isn’t an event. The site goes live, everyone is pleased, the balance is paid, and the project simply ends. Nothing is transferred, because nobody framed it as something to transfer.
The nine items
Send this as one message before the final payment:
- Domain registrar name + login (or the authorisation/EPP code so you can move it to your own account)
- Hosting provider name + login, with your name as account owner
- Site admin login (the CMS), with an admin-level user in your name
- A copy of the site files — a zip, or a backup export
- Database backup, if the site runs on a CMS
- Business email admin access, if email runs on your domain
- Google Search Console and Analytics access, if they were set up
- A list of any third-party accounts used — payment gateway, form service, chat widget — and whose name each is in
- Renewal dates for the domain and hosting, in writing
Items 1–4 are the essential set. If you get nothing else, get those.
| Item | Why it matters later |
|---|---|
| Domain access | Your business name; renewals; where the site points |
| Hosting access | Restores, outages, moving providers |
| Admin login | Every future text and price change |
| Site files + database | Lets any developer take over, or rebuild fast |
| Email admin | Adding staff addresses; recovering the mailbox |
| Search Console/Analytics | Whether anyone visits, and indexing status |
| Third-party account list | Payment gateway locked to a vendor’s account is a real problem |
| Renewal dates | The most common cause of a site suddenly disappearing |
Test each item rather than filing it
Received credentials are not the same as working credentials. Spend fifteen minutes:
- Log in to the registrar and confirm the domain is listed in that account.
- Log in to hosting; look for the backup section.
- Log in to admin and make one tiny edit — change a word, then change it back. If you can’t, the account isn’t admin-level.
- Open the downloaded files and confirm they’re not empty.
- Send yourself a message through the site’s contact form and confirm it arrives.
Anything that doesn’t work is far easier to fix this week than next year.
The negotiating point
Handover items are the natural companion to the final payment. A reasonable message:
Ready to release the balance on go-live. Could you send the handover items — domain access or EPP code, hosting login, admin login, site files and backup, plus renewal dates — and I’ll transfer the same day.
This isn’t hostile; it’s the standard sequence in most professional work. Vendors who work this way already have the list ready.
If a vendor refuses to hand over access while insisting on payment, that’s information worth acting on before, not after, the money moves.
What to do this week
- Send the nine-item request today if your project is near completion.
- If your site is already live and you have none of it, send the same request as records-keeping.
- Test each credential rather than filing it.
- Put the renewal dates in your own calendar with a month’s warning.
- Store everything in one folder alongside your logo file and content.
If you want it done the certain way
We hand over all nine items in writing at go-live — domain and logins in your name, files, backups and renewal dates — because a website you can’t access isn’t finished. If you’re mid-project with someone else, use the list; it’s yours to use. WhatsApp us; we reply in about five minutes between 9am and 7pm.
Related reading
- You don’t have a single password to your own website
- Whose name is your domain registered in?
- The final payment standoff
- Why is your company email still a Gmail address?
FAQ
What should I receive when my website is completed?
Domain access or transfer code, hosting login, admin login, site files and database backup, email admin access, analytics access, a list of third-party accounts, and the renewal dates — ideally before the final payment clears.
Should I pay the final amount before getting website access?
Better to run them together: confirm you’ll release the balance on go-live alongside the handover items. Paying in full first removes the leverage that makes the request straightforward.
What if my website is already live and I have no access?
Send the same list as a records-keeping request. If it’s refused, approach the registrar and hosting provider directly — both have ownership processes — and ask for a copy of the files regardless.
