Getting access to your own website when somebody else holds it
Whether you get your site back comes down to one fact: whose name the domain is registered in. Finding that out takes a lookup and, often, a call to the registrar. Everything else follows from the answer.
This page is published by Vicou Studio, a website design studio. Vicou Studio presents its own offer here, alongside other solutions. This is a commercial communication.
The short answer
Four accounts decide whether a website is yours: the registrar, the hosting, the site's own admin, and the DNS. Start by looking up whose name the domain is in, because if it is yours you can take back control without anyone's permission. If it is not, the routes get slower and more expensive. For most people the person holding it eventually answers, and nobody needs to buy anything. Rebuilding elsewhere costs EUR 1,190, with the domain in your name from day one.
How this comparison was made
What is compared
A US business owner who cannot get into their own website, or cannot get the person holding it to hand it over. Five routes, including waiting and renegotiating, which is the one most readers will end up taking.
The criteria used
What each route costs, how long it takes, who has to cooperate for it to work, what you lose along the way, and whether it leaves you dependent on anybody afterward.
When the prices were checked
No hourly rate for recovery work is shown, because none was recorded from a US provider at a stated date. The Vicou Studio amounts are the contract's. The four accounts named here come from how WordPress and domain registration actually work, not from any one vendor's documentation.
What is left out
The legal side: transfer rules between registrars, who owns the copyright in the files when there is no written contract, and how a dispute proceeds. That is a US lawyer's work, not a web builder's, and this page does not pretend otherwise.
Which one is you?
Four questions, and you will know which route is open to you.
Every possible answer
Take it back yourself
The domain is registered in your name, which is the strongest position on this page. The next question is whether the registrar account it sits in is yours too: being the named registrant and holding the login are two different things, and a password reset goes to the email address on the account, not to the registrant. If that address is yours, reset it and point the domain where you want. If it is not, your registrar's recovery process is the route, and it is worth calling them before you write to anybody else.
This route is free and it needs nobody. It is the best outcome on this page, and it does not lead to me.
Stay where you are, on better terms
They are still answering, and the relationship is repairable. Ask in writing for the four accounts named on this page, one message, no ultimatum. Most people who reach this page end up here, and nothing needs to be bought.
Put the request in writing even if the conversation is friendly. It costs nothing and it changes what happens if things sour later.
Pay somebody by the hour to recover it
You want the existing site back rather than a new one, and you need somebody technical to deal with the accounts and move it somewhere you control. This is recovery work, billed by the hour, and it is the right answer when the site itself is worth saving.
No rate is shown here because I have not recorded one from a US provider at a stated date.
Start again on a new address
The old address is not worth the fight, or it cannot be recovered at all. You register a new domain in your own name and build somewhere you control. You lose the search history attached to the old address, and you stop waiting on anybody.
Losing the old address has a real cost in search results. Weigh it before choosing this, not after.
Keep the domain and have it rebuilt
You want out of the dependence, not just out of the login screen. I build the new site, and the domain and hosting are opened in your name on your own accounts from the first day. If you ever leave me, I hand over everything else within five business days once the work is paid in full, and there is no exit fee.
The honest caveat: I am also one person. What is different is written into how the accounts are set up, not into a promise about how responsive I am.
See the three packages in detailFive ways to get back in, and who has to cooperate
The blank price is one I have not recorded. Note the column that matters most here: who has to cooperate for the route to work at all.
The table slides to the right.
| The solution | Real cost, first year | Hours it takes you | Who does the work | What breaks at six months | Who fixes it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Take back control yourself, through the registrar | Nothing | An afternoon, plus whatever the registrar's recovery process takes | You, and nobody else has to agree | Nothing. It only works if you are the registered owner | Not applicable. This is the route that leaves you dependent on nobody |
| Stay where you are and renegotiate | Whatever you already pay | As long as they take to answer | Them, if they choose to | Nothing changes, including the dependence | Them. That is the whole problem, and also the whole solution |
| Pay somebody by the hour to recover it | — | Not recorded. It depends entirely on what they find | A technical provider you hire | Whatever was already fragile stays fragile | Them, on the terms you agree |
| Keep the domain, rebuild on WordPress with Vicou Studio | EUR 1,190 once, plus hosting in your name | Gathering your text and photos, then reviewing | Me for the site, you for the content, and whoever registered the domain if it is not in your name: your address only moves when they release it or when your registrar's recovery process hands it back | WordPress updates continuously, and nobody runs them for you | You, or somebody you pay. Six months of questions by email from me |
| Start again on a new domain | A new domain, plus whatever the new site costs | The same as any new site | You, or whoever you hire | The search history attached to the old address does not come with you | Nobody can restore it. That loss is the price of this route |
Choose the one that matches your situation
The six criteria that decide
- The one fact that decides everythingWhose name is on the domain registration. If it is yours, you can point the address wherever you like without waiting on anybody, and the conversation changes tone immediately. What owning the domain does not hand you is the site itself: the files and the database sit in the hosting account, and that is a separate thing to ask for. If it is not yours, every route on this page gets slower. A public lookup takes two minutes and tells you which registrar to ask; the name itself often comes from the account and the renewal receipts instead.
- The four accounts to ask for, by nameAsking for the site back is vague and easy to deflect. Asking for four named things is not. The registrar account, where the domain is registered. The hosting account, where the files live. The site's own administrator login. And the DNS, which decides where the address points. Request those four in one written message. Whoever holds them will understand immediately that you know what you are asking for.
- Most of the time, nobody needs to buy anythingThis is the part a page like this has an incentive to leave out, so it goes near the top instead. In most cases the person holding your site eventually answers, or the domain turns out to have been in your name all along and your registrar has an account recovery process you can start yourself. Registrars run those processes on their own terms and on their own evidence; they do not decide who is entitled to what. You wait, you write, and it resolves. That outcome costs nothing, and it is more common than the one where you start again.
- Where the legal line is, and why this page stops at itTransfer rules between registrars, who owns the copyright in the files when there was never a written contract, and how a dispute actually proceeds: none of that is on this page. It is a US lawyer's work, and a web builder writing about it would be guessing in a place where guessing is expensive. If somebody is refusing outright and money is at stake, that is the call to make.
- Why this pitch is a hard one, and I would rather say soIf you are reading this because one person locked you out, being asked to hire another single person is not obviously an improvement, and the argument that the one who builds it is the one who picks up the phone is probably what your last provider told you. What is actually different is not a promise about responsiveness. It is that the domain and the hosting are opened in your name from day one, on your own accounts, with your card. I never hold them, so there is nothing for me to withhold and no exit fee to pay. The files and the access I do hold are handed over within five business days once the work is paid in full, on the terms written into the contract. The first half of that is checkable in your own account today rather than taken on trust.
The concrete case: Vicou Studio
Who it is for
Somebody who wants out of the dependence rather than just out of the login screen, and who would rather start clean than fight for an old site. If the domain is already yours and the site is worth keeping, the free route above is the better answer.
What it costs
EUR 1,190, paid in two parts: EUR 357 on order and EUR 833 when the site goes live. Hosting and the domain are opened in your name, on your accounts, with your card.
The timeline
15 business days, counted on the French working calendar, about three calendar weeks, from the start date I confirm in writing once the deposit has cleared and your content is complete. The clock pauses by dated email whenever I am waiting on you.
What is not included
Recovering anything from the old site: its content, its addresses and its search history are not part of this. Any dealings with whoever currently holds your accounts. On a Shopify store the account transfers to you, but the store stays on Shopify because a Shopify theme cannot be moved.
When I am not the right answer
The questions people ask me
How do I find out who owns my domain name?
Start with a public domain lookup. It reliably shows which registrar the domain sits at and when it expires. It often will not show a name: most registrars now redact the registrant's contact details by default, not only when a privacy service was bought.
So the lookup usually tells you where to ask rather than who owns it. The name itself comes from the registrar account, the renewal receipts, or the card those renewals are billed to. If none of those are yours, treat that as your working answer for now and ask the registrar directly what it is able to confirm to you.
What exactly should I ask for?
Four things, by name, in one written message: the registrar account, the hosting account, the site's administrator login, and control of the DNS.
Asking for the site back is easy to deflect. Asking for four named accounts is not, and it makes clear you know what you are asking for.
Can they legally refuse to hand over my website?
That depends on what you agreed and what was written down, and it is genuinely a question for a lawyer rather than for me. What I can tell you is the practical side: if the domain is in your name, you can move the address regardless, and that is usually the fastest thing to establish.
Should I just start over with a new domain?
Sometimes, but not lightly. You lose the search history attached to the old address, which can be worth more than the fight. It is the right answer when the old address was never really yours or when recovering it would take longer than the business can wait.
Victor Rouvreau
Founder of Vicou Studio. I build brochure sites for small businesses and freelancers, delivered with the video that shows how to change them yourself.
Who I am, in three minutesSources and date checked
- The Vicou Studio prices, timescale, handover and exit terms — The packages page, which is the contract
- Why the domain should be in your name from the start — The blog, how long it takes to build a website
- What ownership actually changes, costed — The blog, what a small business website costs
Prices checked on August 30, 2026.
Page updated on August 31, 2026. It is reviewed at least once a quarter. If something here looks wrong or out of date, write to contact@vicou.studio: the page is corrected, or the claim comes out.
The other guides
Same method, different question. See the whole section