The freelancer vanished mid-project
Replies got slower, then stopped. What remains is a half-working application, paid invoices, and nobody to ask a single question.
By situation
The developer stopped replying. You paid, and you don't even know what you own.
Before deciding to resume or rebuild, three answers are needed: do you actually own the code and the access, is the delivered work readable by another developer, and how much of the remaining scope depends on what already exists. Until those three are written down, any takeover quote is guesswork — including ours.
What brought you here
You don't hold the keys to what you paid for
The domain is in the vendor's name, the server on their account, the code in a private repository you never had access to. It's more common than people think, and it can be fixed.
Two agencies told you "it all has to be rebuilt"
Sometimes it's true. It's also the most profitable conclusion for whoever says it, and it often comes without anyone having opened the code. You're entitled to ask what it's based on.
What we actually do
First we establish what you own
Domain, hosting, code repository, service accounts, rights to the delivered work. That list alone settles part of these files — and it serves you whichever vendor comes next.
The code is read, not judged from a distance
We look at whether it runs, whether it's understandable, whether it's tested, and what it depends on. The verdict comes with its reasons: "rebuild" with no justification isn't a verdict.
Three costed paths, not one
Resume as is, resume part of it, start over. Each with what it costs and what it risks, so the decision is yours and not ours.
The audit is a short, closed engagement
It stands on its own, ends with a document, and commits you to nothing further. If the conclusion is that another vendor fits better, that's what it will say.
When this isn't for you
This isn't for you if the dispute with the previous vendor is before the courts: we don't produce expert reports for litigation and won't take sides in an ongoing case. It isn't for you either if you want someone to finish next week what has dragged for a year — a takeover always starts with understanding, and understanding takes days.
No sales page writes this section. That's precisely why it's here: it saves you a thirty-minute call, and saves us an engagement we'd decline anyway.
Questions we get on this
What if I have no access to the code at all?
We start by trying to recover it: hosts and registrars have procedures for a legitimate owner who can prove who they are. It often works. When it doesn't, we assess what rebuilding from what's still running online would cost.
Are you going to tell me to rebuild, like the others?
Sometimes yes — code with no tests, no documentation and nobody who knows it often costs more to take over than to rebuild. The difference is that you'll see what the conclusion rests on, with the other two paths costed beside it.
How long does the audit take?
It depends on the size of the project and the state of the access, and we won't announce a timeline before seeing the scope. What is fixed in advance: the scope and price of the audit, agreed before we start.
Neighbouring situations
Fifteen minutes to find out whether we can be useful.
You leave with what we saw, in writing, even if we never work together.