It happens like this: you paid someone $3,000 to build your website two years ago. Everything was great. Now you need to update your phone number. You email your developer. No response. You call. Disconnected. You text. Nothing. Your web guy has disappeared.
Industry estimates suggest 30-50% of small businesses experience this at some point. It's one of the most common and most expensive problems in small business web development.
The Common Scenarios
The College Nephew
"My nephew built our website in college. He graduated, got a real job, and 'doesn't have time anymore.' We can't even update our phone number."
The Part-Time Freelancer
"We hired a freelancer from Upwork. They built a decent site. Six months later we needed changes. Their account is gone."
The Fiverr Special
"We paid $500 for a website on Fiverr. It looked fine until we discovered the developer used a pirated theme and nulled plugins. Now we're getting malware warnings and they've vanished."
The Agency That Folded
"The agency that built our site went out of business. We don't have login credentials for anything."
The Credential Hostage Crisis
The worst version of this problem: your developer registered everything under their own accounts. When they disappear, you don't have:
- Domain registrar login (they own your domain name)
- Hosting account access
- WordPress admin credentials
- FTP or database access
- Email hosting login
"When my web guy ghosted, I discovered he had registered our domain in HIS name, hosted it on HIS account, and I had zero access. I had to hire a lawyer to get my own domain back."
The Rebuild Tax
When you finally hire someone new, here's what they'll say: "This is a mess. You should rebuild from scratch." That costs another $3,000-$10,000.
No documentation. Custom code with no comments. Hacked-together solutions. Outdated plugins. Security vulnerabilities. The new developer won't touch it — and honestly, they're right not to.
How Bindingstone Prevents This
- Your domain is always yours. You register it in your name. We never own, hold, or control your domain.
- No single point of failure. Bindingstone is a company, not a person. If one developer leaves, your site doesn't disappear.
- No credentials to lose. There's no WordPress login, no hosting panel, no FTP. You don't need access to anything because we manage everything.
- You can always leave. Month-to-month with a 30-day grace period. Cancel and we send you your content, photography, and SEO configuration. Your domain stays in your name the whole time.
- $149/month includes ongoing support. Need to update your phone number? Send us a message. Done. No hunting down a freelancer.
Your website shouldn't depend on one person remembering to check their email. Start your free trial.
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We Build, Host, and Run the Website. You Run the Business.