Most businesses with an ExpressionEngine site didn’t choose ExpressionEngine themselves. A web agency built the site, recommended the CMS, and handled everything from launch onward. That arrangement works well until it doesn’t, and there are several ways it can stop working.
The agency might fold. It might pivot away from ExpressionEngine to a different platform. The relationship might break down. The key contact at the agency might leave, taking their knowledge of your site with them. Whatever the reason, the result is the same: you’re left with a business-critical website and no one who properly understands it.
In the best case, you’ll have access to your hosting control panel, your domain registrar, your CMS control panel, and a reasonably well-organised codebase. In practice, the reality is often messier. Access credentials may be missing or held by the agency. Hosting and domains may be registered in the agency’s name. Custom functionality may exist in the codebase with no documentation explaining how it works or why certain decisions were made.
The hardest part of taking over a site from an agency isn’t usually the technical work. It’s reconstructing the knowledge that existed only in someone else’s head. Things like: why a particular addon was chosen over alternatives, how a specific piece of custom code works, what that scheduled task is doing and whether it’s still needed, why the form submissions route to a particular email address.
None of this is in the code. It was in the agency’s institutional knowledge, and now that knowledge is gone.
The first priority is access. Get control of your hosting account, domain registration, and CMS login. If the agency registered any of these on your behalf, recovering them can be straightforward or complicated depending on how cooperative the agency is being.
Once you have access, the next step is a thorough audit. What version of ExpressionEngine is the site running? What addons are installed? What PHP version is the server on? Are there any obvious issues or vulnerabilities? This gives you a clear picture of where you are before anyone touches anything.
ExpressionEngine specialists are not common. The developer community around it is relatively small compared to platforms like WordPress, and genuinely experienced EE developers are rarer still. Anyone taking over your site needs to understand not just EE in general but the specific way your site has been built, which is why the audit phase matters so much.
The good news is that well-built ExpressionEngine sites are typically solid foundations. The work involved in taking one over is usually about establishing understanding and control rather than fixing fundamental problems. If the original build was done properly, the site should be in reasonable shape even if it hasn’t had much attention.
If your agency has gone quiet, get in touch with Karl to talk through what happens next.
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It is more common than most people realise. A business has been running an ExpressionEngine site for years, the relationship with the agency that built it gradually fades, and eventually there is no-one actively looking after the site. Understanding why this happens helps you know what to do about it.
A significant part of the work we do at Expression 37 involves inheriting ExpressionEngine sites that were built by developers or agencies who are no longer involved. The circumstances vary, but the practical challenge is always similar: a site you didn’t build, with code you didn’t write, and decisions that were never documented.
Most clients come to us when their site has started to feel like a risk rather than an asset. Whether the agency relationship has ended, an upgrade has been delayed, or the site has simply grown beyond what it can handle, a conversation costs nothing.
Get in touch with KarlTrusted by established businesses and growing brands across the UK
Expression 37 works with a small number of clients at any one time. These are some of them.
Karl founded Expression 37 in 2007 and has worked exclusively with ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS ever since. He does not take on work in other platforms and does not hand work to other developers. Expression 37 is deliberately small, because the kind of support that matters to clients with business-critical sites is specific to their site, not something that scales in the conventional sense. If you work with Expression 37, you work with Karl.
Find out how we workKarl at Expression 37 has been essential in keeping our Craft CMS website running at its best. His regular updates and fine-tuning ensure that our site is always up-to-date, secure, and optimised for performance. Karl’s expertise and attention to detail mean we can rely on him for everything from routine maintenance to customised site tweaks. It’s a relief to know our website is in such capable hands with Expression 37. Highly recommended!
Kimberley Clayton-Bull ~ Head of Marketing & Communications
Capula