/ Plain-English guides](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/guides/index.html)/ What should I have ready before I hire someone to fix my site? Basics · people search: “What should I have ready before I hire someone to fix my site?” # What should I have ready before I hire someone to fix my site? A ten-minute homework session saves you days of paid investigation. Here is exactly what to collect, and why each piece matters. Plain English · no jargon · 4-minute read By Rodrigo Valenzuela Iturrieta](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/about/index.html), the engineer who does the work · Published September 18, 2026 · Updated September 20, 2026 Part of **Servers & Infrastructure](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/services/infrastructure/index.html) — read first, then fix it in 48h. Copy link Print Share Know someone with this exact problem? Pass it on — no email gate. The difference between a hire that fixes the site in hours and one that bills you for a week of 'investigation' is rarely skill — it's what you hand over on day one. An engineer can't inspect what you can't open, so every missing access costs paid hours and hands the freelancer the excuse of 'urgency'. Fifteen minutes of reading this list and gathering the items below turns you from a nervous buyer with a panic attack into a client who arrives with the keys already in the lock. ## Check these first, yourself - Write the exact problem in one plain sentence: 'checkout shows error after card, since Tuesday, browser Chrome on phone'. Include when it started, what changed right before, and the exact URL. This one sentence silently filters 80% of bad quotes. - Gather your hosting — The service that runs your site on a server; the plan you pick decides your speed ceiling and your crash risk. panel login (the dashboard with cPanel/hPanel, not the WordPress admin). Most fixes live in the panel — backups, logs, caching, PHP — The language most WordPress sites run on; an outdated version is one of the most common ways in. settings — and no panel means the first day is spent rescuing it from whoever owns it. - Collect FTP — File Transfer Protocol — the old way of moving files to a server; left open and unencrypted, attackers love it./SFTP access or a file manager route, plus any staging/development URL. Engineers work on a copy first when they can; a stage saves them from touching live, which saves you a second incident. - Copy the exact error text and take a screenshot of the broken page (full page, not just the top). 'It's broken' is useless; a full-page screenshot with visible URL often answers the question without a single access. ### When to call a rescue instead of doing it yourself If you're already past the panic and the real cost driver is access — a developer who left with the panel credentials, a host account nobody can log into, a site so tangled no one can safely touch it — that's a rescue. The Escaped Developer Rescue is a flat $2,500: it recovers whatever credentials and code still exist, inventories what's on the server, and hands you back the keys. 48 hours, price locked before work starts. ### Should you fix it yourself or call a rescue? **Have you tried the free fixes (images, caching, plugins)?If yes and it's still slow → the problem is deeper. **Is your hosting or server the bottleneck?Shared hosting, old PHP, no object cache → server-level problem. **Yes → Speed Rescue Fixed in 48h · from $2,000 ](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/rescue/speed/index.html) **Not sure → Send symptom We'll diagnose for free ](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/contact/index.html) ## Still have questions? Is it really worth spending time on this before hiring?It's the highest-ROI hour you'll spend. Every item you collect removes one thing an engineer will otherwise bill you for locating — and a client who arrives prepared also gets honest quotes faster, because the scope is 'fix this' instead of 'find what I need first'.What if I don't have the hosting credentials anymore?That's the most common recovery case — usually the person who built the site took them along. Hosts can reset panel access if you can prove ownership by email, and the same documents that prove it (invoice, domain registrar — The company where your domain name is registered — whoever controls that account controls the domain.) unlock most recovery paths.Should I give a contractor all my passwords?Only what the job needs, and never more. Hosting panel with a temporary password is usually enough — you can rotate it after they finish. Handing over your main email or admin accounts 'just in case' is how surprise bills happen. Skip the diagnosis ## Get this fixed in 48 hours, flat rate Same problem, less sleep lost. One of these rescues maps directly to what you're dealing with. infrastructure **Developer Exit & Access Recovery $4,500 · 48 hours ](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/rescue/escaped-dev/index.html) data **Technical Due Diligence (M&A) $9,000 · 48 hours ](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/rescue/diligence/index.html) infrastructure **Plugin & Subscription Spend Audit $4,000 · 48 hours ](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/rescue/hidden-cost/index.html) infrastructure **Hosting Consolidation & Cost Cut $2,500 · 48 hours ](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/rescue/hosting/index.html) Keep reading ## Related plain-English guides More of the questions business owners actually search — same plain-English style, same no-jargon promise. Basics guide **Is a Flat-Rate Website Fix Worth It? What Web Devs Don't Tell You A flat price and a 48-hour fix sounds too good to be true. Here is what the model actually is, what it does and doesn't cover, and how to spot a bad one. Read the plain-English guide → ](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/guides/flat-rate-worth-it/index.html) Recovery guide **Your Developer Quit and Left You Nothing — Now What? No access, no credentials, no documentation, and the website is the business. This happens constantly — here's the orderly way out. Read the plain-English guide → ](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/guides/developer-quit-on-my-website/index.html) Pricing guide **Flat Rate vs Hourly: What a Web Fix Should Actually Cost Hourly billing rewards whoever takes longer. Here is how to compare a flat-rate rescue with an open-ended quote before you commit. Read the plain-English guide → ](https://getfullstacksolutions.com/guides/flat-rate-vs-hourly/index.html) ## Don't want to become an expert in this? Send the symptom — get a flat-rate ticket and a plain-English plan within 12 hours. Start the Rescue