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.
Related Services
Related Case Studies
ExpressionEngine is a specialist platform. The community of genuinely experienced EE developers is small, particularly in the UK, and the difference between someone who has worked with EE seriously and someone who has touched it once or twice is significant.
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.
Most business owners have no idea what state their ExpressionEngine site is in. They know it’s working, they can add content, and the contact form still sends emails. Beyond that, it’s a black box. Problems can accumulate quietly over a long period before they become visible.
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 is the founder of Expression 37 Ltd and has been working exclusively with ExpressionEngine and Craft CMS since 2007. In eighteen years he has supported more than 80 clients across the UK, from long-term retainer arrangements to emergency rescues when something has gone wrong at the worst possible moment. Every piece of work is handled personally by Karl, with no account managers or junior developers between you and the person doing it.
Find out how we workWe recently got in touch with Karl to help with some issues we were having with our site. All issues were dealt with in a very quick, efficient manner. Whilst our requests have only been minor ones, Karl's commitment to helping us out has been first class, and we would thoroughly recommend him!
Loretta Jones
Leeds Mencap