Firing your web agency? The digital handover checklist.

Before anything: the quiet audit

While the relationship is still normal, spend an hour establishing what the agency holds. None of this requires asking them: run a registration lookup on your domain (who's the registrant, which registrar?), check your Facebook Page's access list and your Google Business Profile's owners, open the user lists in your analytics, ad accounts and email tools. Note everything where the agency — or an individual at the agency — is the owner rather than a guest.

The checklist, in priority order

1. 1
   1. Domain & registrar account

   The master asset — email and website both hang off it. If it's registered in the agency's account or name, start the transfer to a company-owned registrar account now (see our domain-transfer guide). Do this first; transfers take days and can hit locks.
2. 2
   2. DNS

   Get a copy of the zone records (or screenshot every record) before anything changes, so mail and subdomains survive the move. Repoint nameservers to an account you own.
3. 3
   3. Website & hosting

   Either take over the hosting account, or take a full copy — files and database — and stand it up on hosting you control. Confirm you hold a CMS admin login that isn't shared with the agency.
4. 4
   4. Google Business Profile

   Primary ownership moves to a company Google account; the agency drops to manager or is removed. Mind the 7-day rule for newly added owners.
5. 5
   5. Social accounts

   Facebook Page and Instagram move into a company-controlled Meta Business portfolio; agency access becomes partner access you can revoke. Same review for LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube.
6. 6
   6. Ads accounts

   Google Ads and Meta ad accounts should be owned by your business with the agency as a partner — if campaigns run in the agency's own account, you lose the history and the pixel data when you part. Ask for admin transfer or export before the end date.
7. 7
   7. Analytics & tags

   GA4 property and Google Tag Manager container: a company account holds admin. Otherwise years of data stays behind.
8. 8
   8. Email & marketing tools

   Sending domains, templates and — above all — the subscriber list. Confirm the account owner is a company login and export the list regardless.
9. 9
   9. Files, creative & licences

   Source files, brand assets, font/stock licences, and any code repositories. Licences bought under the agency's name may not transfer — find out now, not after.
10. 10
    10. Credentials sweep

    After everything moves: rotate every shared password, remove agency emails from every user list, and check for forgotten API keys and integrations.

Handling the conversation

Most agencies hand everything over professionally — their reputation depends on it. Make it easy: send one list of exactly what you need (the ten items above, scoped to what they hold), propose a transition window where they keep read access for continuity, and settle outstanding invoices; withheld payment is the number-one reason handovers stall.

If your contract says the agency owns work product or accounts, the checklist still works — it just tells you what to negotiate for. And if things do turn hostile, the per-asset recovery guides linked below are the escalation paths.

The rule that prevents all of this

One sentence, applied to every future vendor: accounts are created and owned by the business; agencies and freelancers get delegated access. Every platform in this checklist supports that model — partner access, manager roles, collaborator accounts. An agency that insists on owning your accounts is telling you how the breakup will go.