Get your code and accounts back when a developer will not hand them over.
If a developer or agency will not hand over your software, you are facing five or six separate recoveries rather than one. The repository, the hosting account, the domain, the database, and the third-party services sit in different places, and most can be recovered from the providers themselves. Work the cheapest route first: a written request with a deadline, then provider account recovery, then a lawyer, then a rebuild. Ego Eimi does this as the opening stage of a software rescue.
By Felipe Telles, founder of Ego Eimi
01 / What you are trying to get back
Getting your code back is really five or six separate recoveries, held in different places by different people.
The code sits in a repository. The application runs on a hosting account. Customers find it through a domain. Payments and email run through third-party services with their own logins. Each has its own owner of record and its own way back, so naming them separately turns this into a list you can work.
Write down what you can reach today and what you cannot. The gaps tell you what leverage the other side holds, which is usually less than it feels like on the first bad day.
| Asset | Where it usually lives | Who usually controls it | How it usually comes back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source code | GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket | The account that created it, often a personal one | The developer, a lawyer's letter, or a copy off the server |
| Hosting and database | AWS, Google Cloud, Vercel, or a rented server | Whoever opened the account, even when you pay the bill | Provider account recovery, using the payment and billing history |
| Domain and DNS | A registrar such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Cloudflare | The listed registrant, sometimes the developer | Registrar support, using registration and payment records |
| App store listings | Apple App Store and Google Play | The developer account that published the app | A transfer the current account holder has to start |
| Services and API keys | Payment processor, email sender, SMS, analytics | Usually your business, on your card, with their logins | Support recovery with billing evidence, then reissue every key |
| Documentation | A wiki, a shared folder, or nowhere at all | Often nobody | Usually rewritten rather than recovered |
02 / Check what you are owed before you argue
Your agreement decides how much leverage you have, and most of these situations are disputes rather than thefts.
A developer who has gone quiet is often owed money, buried in other work, or reading the agreement differently than you are. The cheap routes stay open while it is a dispute and close once it becomes a fight.
Does my developer own the code I paid for?
Paying for software does not automatically transfer ownership of it. In the United States, work created by an outside contractor generally belongs to the contractor unless a signed agreement assigns it to the client. Find that clause before you argue anything else. This is general information, not legal advice.
- 01
Work for hire, and the clause that transfers ownership.
Work for hire is a narrow term in the United States. For software commissioned from an outside contractor it often does not move ownership, and a signed assignment clause is what does.
- Look for wording that assigns all right, title, and interest in the work to your company.
- Quote that clause in your written request. If the contract says work for hire and nothing more, ask a lawyer whether it does what you assumed.
- 02
Payment in full.
Many agreements make the transfer conditional on the final invoice being paid. Where that is true, an unpaid balance is a legitimate hold rather than hostage-taking.
- Check whether ownership, delivery, or both are tied to payment. If an undisputed invoice is open, paying it is the cheapest move on this page.
- If the invoice is disputed, say so in writing and offer to pay the part you agree on.
- 03
No written contract at all.
Plenty of small engagements were agreed over email or a phone call. That does not leave you with nothing, and it does change which route works.
- The accounts your company pays for still come back through the providers, and that route never depended on the contract.
- Without a written assignment, the copyright generally stays with whoever wrote the code, though you usually hold an implied right to use what you paid for.
03 / The first move, a written request
The cheapest thing that works is a short, unemotional message that names every asset and sets a date.
Write it down even if you have been calling for weeks. It often works on its own, because the person on the other end is disorganized rather than hostile. It also gives providers and lawyers the record they will ask for later. Keep it plain and factual, with no accusations and no lawyer copied on the first message.
- ✓ Every asset by name, with the account or email address it sits under.
- ✓ What you want done with each: a transfer, an invite to your organization, or an export.
- ✓ A specific date, usually seven to ten business days out.
- ✓ An offer to make it easy: a call, and an organization ready to receive the repository.
- ✓ Confirmation that any undisputed balance will be paid on handover.
- ✓ One calm sentence about what you will do next if the date passes.
04 / Routes that do not need the developer
Most of what you are missing is held by a provider, and providers have processes for the paying party.
Can I recover my domain and hosting without the developer?
Often, yes. Hosting companies, registrars, and payment providers all run account-recovery and ownership-dispute processes, and the paying party has standing in them. They will ask you to prove the account belongs to your business: billing records, the payment method on file, entity documents, and the email history that set it up. Gather that before you call.
- 01Often recoverable
Hosting, servers, and the database.
Start here, because this is where the running system and your data live. If the account is billed to your company, the provider's support team can usually verify that and restore access. Back up the database and the files before you change anything else.
- 02Often recoverable
The domain and DNS.
The domain controls your website and your email, so losing it hurts most, and it is usually recoverable. Registrars have account-recovery paths and ownership-dispute processes, and transfers between registrars follow rules ICANN publishes. Registration history and payment records are the evidence.
- 03Usually the easiest
Third-party services and API keys.
Payment processors, email senders, and messaging services are normally opened against your business entity and bank account, which makes them the simplest to recover. Work through them one at a time with support, reissuing the keys as you go so any copy the developer kept stops working.
- 04Rarely, without them
The source code repository.
This is the one a provider will not settle for you. Repository hosts do not move a private project out of someone's personal account because a customer asks. If the code sits in an organization your company pays for, that account can often be recovered. Otherwise the route runs through the developer, a lawyer, or the server.
- 05Needs their consent
App store listings.
Apple and Google both support moving an app between developer accounts, and both require the account holding it to start the transfer. If that will not happen you can publish under your own account, and you lose the ratings, the reviews, and the ranking history.
The running server is often a partial answer. Depending on how the system was built, it may hold a working copy of the application alongside the database. That is not the repository, since the change history is gone and compiled front-end code will not come back as readable source. It is often enough for a new team to continue from.
Want to know what your server still holds? A software audit reads what exists and tells you in writing. Start a conversation.
05 / When a lawyer is worth it
A demand letter is the cheapest legal step, and at this size it is often the last one needed.
Is it worth suing to get source code back?
Usually not, at this size. A letter from a lawyer is a different matter, because it costs a fraction of a case and it changes the arithmetic for the other side, who now has to decide whether one repository is worth a legal fight. Courts move in months, and legal costs can pass the value of the code.
A demand letter names the assets, cites the clause that entitles you to them, sets a deadline, and states what happens next. Bring your lawyer the agreement, the invoices, the request you already sent, and the asset list from this page. That package is most of the work, and it keeps the bill down.
06 / When to stop chasing and rebuild
There is a point where recovering the old system costs more than replacing it, and it arrives earlier than most owners expect.
When is rebuilding cheaper than recovering?
When the data is safe and the code is the only thing missing. Most of the value sits in the data, the customers using it, and the knowledge of what the system has to do. If you hold the database and the accounts, a new team can rebuild the working parts on a fixed price.
Run the numbers before the next escalation: what you have spent chasing this, what more legal work would cost, and what it costs to keep operating on a system nobody can change. A software audit runs about $5,000 to $15,000, takes about one to two weeks, and is credited in full to whatever you build next. A fixed-price build usually runs about $15,000 to $50,000 and up, over four to eight weeks. Sometimes the fastest route to owning your software is to stop chasing the old one.
Our comparison of rebuild vs rescue walks the trade-off, and if you do get the accounts back, taking over software from a previous developer picks up where this page ends. Recovering the assets is half the job, because someone still has to run the system, which is what software rescue covers.
Weighing recovery against a rebuild? Start a conversation and we reply within one business day, and you get a fixed price and a date in writing before any code.
07 / Preventing round two
The next engagement should make this impossible, and it costs nothing to set up on day one.
Everything on this page traces back to one root cause: the accounts were opened by the person doing the work instead of the person paying for it. One person holding every key is key-person risk at its most literal. A good partner already works the other way.
- ✓ Open the accounts yourself: hosting, domain, repository, and every third-party service, in your company name and on your card.
- ✓ Put the repository in your organization from the first commit, with the developer as a collaborator you can add and remove.
- ✓ Get ownership in writing, assigning the code, the designs, and the documentation to your company.
- ✓ Agree what handover means before work starts, down to documentation and credentials.
- ✓ Keep your own copy of the database, on a schedule you control.
- ✓ Ask what happens if they disappear, and consider escrow for anything the business cannot run without.
Our guide on how to protect your idea when hiring developers covers the contract side, vendor lock-in names the pattern this page is a symptom of, and source code escrow is the safeguard for a system you cannot afford to lose. For the next build, building software without a tech team is the full playbook.
08 / Common questions
My developer won't give me my source code. What can I do?
Send one written request naming every asset, with a deadline, then work the routes that do not need them. Hosting, domain, and third-party accounts can usually be recovered from the providers with your billing records. The repository is the hardest piece, because repository hosts will not move a private project out of someone's account on request.
I am locked out of my own website. How do I get back in?
Start with the domain and the hosting account, in that order. The domain controls both your web address and your email, and registrars run account-recovery and ownership-dispute processes for the paying party. Hosting providers have the same. Both will ask you to prove the account belongs to your business, so gather your billing records first.
Does my developer own the code if I paid for it?
Not automatically. In the United States, work created by an outside contractor generally belongs to the contractor unless a signed agreement assigns it to the client. A clause saying work for hire may not be enough on its own, because commissioned software usually falls outside the categories that phrase covers. This is general information, and a lawyer should read your agreement.
What if there was never a written contract?
You are not left with nothing. The accounts your company pays for come back through the providers, and that route never depended on a contract. What changes is the code: without a written assignment, the copyright generally stays with whoever wrote it, though you usually hold an implied right to use what you paid for.
What if I can never get the source code back?
You can still own working software again. Most of the value is the data, the customers using it, and the knowledge of what the system has to do, and none of that lives only in the repository. Recovering the hosting account often recovers the database and a usable copy of the application. From there an audit gives you a salvage-or-rebuild call.
Last updated July 2026 · Talk with Felipe
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