How to Take Back Control of Your MVP From an Agency

Why this matters even when things are fine

Agencies often open accounts in their own name so they can start quickly. During the build, nobody notices. It turns into a problem when you change agency, raise money or hire your own developer, and someone else still controls what you paid for. The owner of an account controls it. If hosting is billed to the agency's card, your app goes down when that card fails. If your app sits in the agency's Apple account, you can't ship an update without them. Ask in writing so you have a dated record of what you requested and when.

Step 1: List what the agency holds

Make a list before you email anyone. For each account, note who owns it today and who pays for it. If you charge users, add your payment provider. Payouts should go to your company's bank account.

• Domain. What to check: registrant name and registrar account. Who has to act: the agency moves it, you accept.
• Hosting (for example Vercel). What to check: the team that owns the project, and the billing card. Who has to act: the agency owner transfers it to your team.
• Database (for example Supabase). What to check: the organization that owns the project. Who has to act: the agency owner transfers it to your organization.
• GitHub. What to check: the organization that owns the repo. Who has to act: the agency transfers the repo to your organization.
• Apple App Store. What to check: the developer account that publishes the app. Who has to act: the agency starts the transfer, you accept.
• Google Play. What to check: the Play Console account that publishes the app. Who has to act: the agency submits the request, you approve.

Step 2: Transfer each account, starting with the domain

The domain controls your website and often your email. Ask the agency for one of two things. They can move the domain into a registrar account in your company's name. Or they can unlock it and send you the transfer code, so you can move it to your own registrar.

Hosting on Vercel

Create a Vercel team in your company's name and add your company card. Vercel's transfer guide says the person moving the project must be an owner of the team it leaves and a member of the team it joins. So invite one person from the agency into your team as a member for the transfer. Vercel says projects move with zero downtime. Deployments, project settings, domains and most environment variables move with the project. Integrations don't, and have to be added again afterwards. Once the move is done, check that the app runs and that the bill now comes to you. Then remove the agency member if they no longer work on the project.

Database on Supabase

The same logic applies. Supabase's transfer guide says the person moving the project must own the source organization and be at least a member of the target organization. The project also can't have an active GitHub integration or log drains while it moves, so the agency has to disconnect those first.

GitHub

Create a GitHub organization for your company, with you as Owner. Give the agency permission to create a repository in it. GitHub's documentation says that permission is required to transfer a repo into an organization. Ask for the repo itself, not a zip file. GitHub keeps the commit history, issues and pull requests in a transfer. Your next developer will need that history to understand how the app was built.

Apple App Store

You need your own Apple Developer account, enrolled as an organization. Start this first. No transfer can begin until your account is active. Per Apple's app transfer overview, the agency's Account Holder starts the transfer and your Account Holder accepts it. Reviews and ratings move with the app. A few things don't, and the agency or you must handle them:

• TestFlight beta testing must be turned off before the transfer.
• Push notification certificates must be regenerated on your side.
• If the app uses Apple Pay, a new merchant ID must be created on your account when you submit an update.
• If the app sells auto-renewable subscriptions, the agency generates an app-specific shared secret and sends it to you, so your servers can keep verifying subscriptions.
• Analytics and sales history are split between the two accounts.

Google Play

You need your own Google Play Console account. Google's app transfer page says you must supply the registration transaction IDs for both accounts, so send yours to the agency. The agency submits the request, you approve it, and Google's support team processes it. Google says it reviews and replies to transfer requests within 2 business days. Users, ratings, reviews and subscriptions move with the app. Bulk export, estimated sales and earnings reports don't, so ask the agency to download them first.

Step 3: Change every key and remove old access

Once everything is in your name, there's one job left. During the build, the agency saw your API keys, database passwords and service tokens. Ask a developer you trust to follow the steps below. Not sure your code is worth keeping, or what state it's in? Book a call. We'll tell you plainly where you stand.

• 1. Generate new keys for each service.
• 2. Put them in your hosting settings.
• 3. Delete the old keys.
• 4. Check that the app still works.
• 5. Remove agency access you no longer need, on every account.

The email to send

Send it by email, not on a call, so you have a dated record. Vague requests get vague answers. A named account, a named person and a date get done. Copy it and fill in every bracket before you send. Subject: Transfer of [App name] accounts to [Your company]. Hi [Name], We're moving all accounts for [App name] into [Your company]'s name. Please complete the steps below by the dates shown.

• 1. Domain: move [domain] into our registrar account, or unlock it and send the transfer code. By [date].
• 2. Hosting: transfer the Vercel project to our team [team name]. We've invited [agency contact] as a member. By [date].
• 3. Database: transfer the Supabase project to our organization [org name], after disconnecting the GitHub integration. By [date].
• 4. GitHub: transfer the repository, with full history, to our organization [org name]. By [date].
• 5. Apple: turn off TestFlight testing and start the app transfer to our Team ID [Team ID]. By [date].
• 6. Google Play: submit the transfer to [email], transaction ID [ID]. By [date].
• 7. Before the transfers, please download the Play Console reports and send us the app-specific shared secret if the app has subscriptions.
• Please confirm receipt by [date]. If any step is blocked, tell us what you need from us. Thanks, [Your name]

Setting the dates

Pick dates that suit your project and your agency. Ask for the domain and hosting first. If those fail halfway, your app goes offline. The app store transfers can't break anything for your users while they wait. Here's one example of a schedule you can adapt:

• Confirmation of receipt: a few days after you send the email.
• Domain, hosting, database and GitHub: in the same week. On the agency's side, these are mostly a few clicks once your accounts exist.
• Apple and Google Play: started once the agency has your account details. The stores then take their own time to process.
• Key changes: right after the last transfer, done by your side.

If the agency goes quiet

Send one short written follow-up that restates each open item on its own line. Give a new date for each item, and keep that email as your dated record.

Where BuildMVPFast fits

At BuildMVPFast, the code belongs 100% to you, on your GitHub. Fixed at $3,460. See our services for what a build covers. Our guides on hiring an MVP agency help you compare. Once you're live, our post-launch guides cover what comes next. Planning a build where the code is 100% yours, at a fixed price? Book a call.

• Your MVP app on the web, iOS and Android.
• Delivered in about 20 days.
• Fixed quote before we start.
• Design included.
• Progress shown every week.
• 2 weeks of fixes after launch.

Do I lose my reviews and users if the app moves to my store account?

Not if you use the official transfer. Apple says reviews and ratings move with the app. Google says users, ratings, reviews and subscriptions move too. Some technical items, like push notification certificates on iOS, have to be set up again on your side.

Can I just publish a new app under my own account instead?

You can, but you start from zero. No reviews, no ratings, and your users have to download a new app. The official transfer keeps all of that.

What if I don't have Apple or Google accounts yet?

Open them now. No transfer can start until your account is active, and the agency needs your account details to begin.

Will my web app go offline during the hosting move?

Vercel says its project transfers happen with zero downtime. Check the app straight after the move, and add any integrations again, because those don't transfer.

Do I need a developer for this?

You can send the email and accept the transfers yourself. To change the keys and check that the app still runs afterwards, get a developer or technical freelancer to help.