Most companies stay with an underperforming web agency far longer than they should, not because they're happy, but because switching feels risky. Who has the passwords? Will the site go down? What if the new team can't understand the code? Those risks are real, but they're manageable with the right order of steps. Here's the process we use when we take over a WordPress or WooCommerce site from another agency.
Signs It's Time to Switch
- Simple changes take weeks, or come back with surprise invoices
- Updates are months behind, and nobody can tell you why
- The site has been hacked, gone down, or slowed noticeably, and the explanation was vague
- You don't have admin access to your own site, hosting or domain
- Your team works around the site instead of with it
- The person who built it has left the agency
Step 1: Secure Your Access First
Before you tell your current agency anything, check you can personally log in to:
- Domain registrar (the most important; whoever controls the domain controls the site)
- DNS provider, if separate from the registrar
- Hosting account, ideally in your company's name and paid by you
- WordPress admin, with an administrator account of your own
- Code repository, if one exists
- Analytics, Search Console, tag manager and ad accounts
- Premium plugin and theme licences
If any of these are in the agency's name, ask for them to be transferred now, while the relationship is still cordial.
Step 2: Get a Full Backup You Control
Take a complete backup of files and database and store it somewhere you own. Hosting backups aren't enough if the hosting account belongs to the agency.
Step 3: Have the New Team Audit Before Committing
A good incoming agency reviews the site before quoting a retainer: code quality, plugin and theme health, custom functionality, hosting setup, security and performance. You should get a written list of risks and an honest view of whether the site can be maintained as is or needs work.
Step 4: Plan the Handover
- Ask the outgoing agency for documentation of custom code, integrations and anything unusual
- Agree a handover date, and make sure contract notice periods are respected
- Move hosting if needed, during a low-traffic window, with the new team testing on staging first
- Rotate every password and API key once the handover is complete
- Remove the old agency's user accounts
Step 5: Stabilise in the First 30 Days
The new team's first month should focus on safety, not new features: bring plugins and core up to date, fix security issues, set up monitoring and backups, and measure performance. Our WordPress security guide covers what "secure" should mean.
Protect your rankings: if the new team rebuilds or changes URLs later, insist on full redirect mapping and ranking monitoring. A handover itself shouldn't change any URLs at all.
What It Costs
Handover work is usually a small, fixed piece of work at the start of a retainer: the audit, the move and the stabilisation. After that, ongoing support moves to a monthly retainer; see our guide to WordPress maintenance retainer costs.
How to Choose the Next Agency
Ask how they handle takeovers specifically, how fast they respond to urgent issues, and who will actually work on your site. Our guide to choosing a WordPress agency for B2B lists the questions that matter.
We take over WordPress and WooCommerce sites regularly, and our maintenance and support retainers start with a handover assessment. Book a call to plan yours.
FAQ
How do I switch WordPress agencies without losing my site?
Secure your own access to the domain, DNS, hosting, WordPress admin and analytics first, take a full backup you control, have the new agency audit the site, then plan a handover with documentation, a staging test, and password rotation once complete.
What access do I need before changing web agencies?
Your own logins to the domain registrar, DNS, hosting, WordPress administrator account, code repository if any, analytics, Search Console, tag manager, ad accounts, and premium plugin and theme licences, ideally all in your company's name.
Will switching WordPress agencies affect my SEO?
A handover on its own shouldn't change any URLs or content, so rankings should be unaffected. Risk only arises if the site is later rebuilt or URLs change, which requires full redirect mapping and ranking monitoring.
What should a new WordPress agency do in the first month?
Focus on stability: update WordPress core, plugins and theme safely, fix security issues, set up backups and uptime monitoring, measure performance, and document the setup before starting new feature work.
Written by
Priya Sharma · Head of Engineering
Priya leads the development team with 10 years of Shopify and React experience. She's shipped headless commerce projects for 15+ enterprise brands.
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