My agency stopped answering. Can I contact the host directly?

Yes, if the hosting contract is in your name. If the agency holds it, the host will generally only deal with its customer, so your first task is finding out who signed.

I paid every invoice. Is the code not mine?

Paying buys the service, and it does not by itself transfer copyright in France. Read your contract for a written assignment. If there is none, ask a lawyer before reusing or modifying the code elsewhere.

Can a new developer work from the live server only?

Often yes, since the deployed files and the database usually sit there. Some history and build sources may be missing, which makes the work slower, and the question of rights remains separate.

Should I pay the old agency to get my files?

That can be a reasonable commercial way out, especially if a real invoice is unpaid. Get what you receive listed in writing, along with the rights attached to it.

How long does a Sylius takeover take?

It depends on the version, the custom code and what you can recover. A first technical review gives a real answer, and any estimate given before that is a guess.

Sylius abandoned by your agency: recover your shop

When your Sylius shop is abandoned by its agency, recover access in this order: domain name, hosting, database, source code, then third-party accounts such as payment. In France, paying for a site does not automatically make you the owner of its source code: rights pass through a written assignment. Most shops can be taken over technically, and the legal question should be settled alongside it, not after it.

I offer Sylius takeovers, so I have an interest in this subject. I am also not a lawyer: the legal part below is orientation drawn from the published texts, not advice on your case.

What to recover first, and what you risk without it

Start with an inventory, not with a developer. Write down what you can log into today, then work through the table. The order follows the damage a loss would cause: without the domain you have no shop at all, whereas missing Git history is annoying but survivable.

Asset	How to check who holds it	The risk if you do not hold it
Domain name	Whois lookup, registrar invoices	Site and email can disappear on a missed renewal
Hosting	Name on the contract and invoices	Server closed when the agency stops paying
Database	Hosting panel or SSH access	Orders, customers and invoices at stake
Source code	Git repository access, server files	No way to fix or upgrade safely
Payment, email, shipping accounts	Account owner in each dashboard	Keys held by someone who no longer answers

If you do have server access, make a copy today, before any discussion gets tense: a full database dump and an archive of the files, including uploaded media. It costs little and removes the worst scenario. Store it somewhere the agency has no access to, and treat it as sensitive, because it contains your customers' personal data.

Who owns the source code in France

This is the point that surprises buyers. Article L111-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code states that a contract for work or services does not displace the author's rights, subject to the exceptions in the code. Article L131-3 then requires each assigned right to be separately mentioned, with its scope defined by extent, purpose, place and duration.

A 2013 article by lawyer Romain Darriere in Journal du Net applies this to websites: the client who commissions a site gets a right to use it and only acquires rights through a precise assignment clause. It cites a 2011 Paris court ruling that treated a client's copying of a first provider's work onto another domain name as infringement. That is old and one decision, and commentators differ on how far L131-3 reaches for software, so have your contract read by a lawyer if the relationship is hostile or if the sum at stake is serious.

Keep in mind that Sylius itself is open source, so its core does not depend on your agency. What is in question is the custom code written on top, and the design.

The domain name and your customers' data

If a .fr domain was registered in the agency's name and you cannot get it back, the French registry Afnic runs Syreli, a procedure through which a person with an interest in acting can seek the transfer or deletion of a domain, under articles L.45-2 and L.45-6 of the French postal and electronic communications code. Afnic states that a decision comes within two months of opening. Try a written request to the agency and to the registrar first. A .com or .be domain follows other rules.

You also have a lever that people forget. An agency hosting your customer data generally acts as your processor under GDPR, and article 28(3)(g) requires a processor, at the end of the service and at the controller's choice, to delete personal data or return it. That covers data and not code, yet it often unlocks the database.

Technical handover: what to ask for

Whether the agency cooperates or a new developer works from the server, the handover list is the same. You want the Git repository with its history, the composer.lock file that records exact versions, the environment variables, the private keys used by payment and API integrations, the cron jobs and worker configuration, and notes on anything built outside the normal path. Ask for these in one written message with a date, so there is a clear record.

Secrets deserve care. The Symfony deployment documentation warns that changing APP_SECRET invalidates signed URIs and remember-me cookies, so keep it during the transfer and rotate it deliberately later. All other credentials known to the former provider should be changed once you control the server.

Then check the version. Support for Sylius 1.14 ends on 31 December 2026 and for 2.1 it ended on 30 September 2026, and an abandoned shop has often missed the October 2026 security release. Applying the latest patch of your branch is usually the first technical step after the backup.

When a takeover is not the right answer

If the agency is merely slow, a dated letter or a call often costs less than replacing it, and the people who wrote the code know it best. If the shop has few custom features and modest sales, rebuilding on a simpler platform can make more sense than rescuing an old project. And if you face a real conflict over money or rights, your first call should be to a lawyer, not to me.

If you do need someone to take over, ask for a written review before any commitment, ask who will touch the code, and ask how sales continue during the change. For reference, I took over the Belgian shop Coucouroucoucou: around 15,000 orders with their customers and invoices, without interrupting sales, and a move to a dedicated server.

The next step is simple: list what you still have access to and send it through my Sylius developer page. I reply within 24 working hours and you speak directly to the person who will read the code.