If Your Fire Department's Website Provider Is Winding Down: A Move Checklist

If your website provider may be winding down, start here

The goal is simple: keep your department visible, keep your web address, and move without a gap where people cannot find you. For a fire department, a dark website can mean missed volunteer interest, missed inspection or event details, and extra calls to staff for information that should have been easy to find.

Start by confirming the date with your provider directly. If you have heard that your provider is winding down, confirm your own date with them directly. Mainfolk is not affiliated with 911Webs and does not know any department's date. Do not rely on rumors, social posts, or a secondhand email. You need the date for your own plan.

If you are looking for a 911webs alternative for a fire department or fire district, the right move is less about a quick redesign and more about saving the pieces that matter before anything disappears.

What to save before you move

Think in terms of what the public uses most often and what your own team updates often. Save copies of the content below, even if some of it may later be rewritten on the new site.

• Station and contact pages
• Staff or officer pages
• Volunteer recruitment pages
• Calendar entries and event notices
• Burn permits, forms, and applications
• Public education pages
• Meeting notices or agenda pages, if you post them
• Photos, logos, and other department images you want to keep using
• Any downloads the public uses often

Do not forget the small things. A lost form can create a long week for the clerk, secretary, or admin assistant who has to answer every call that could have been a web visit.

Example: a volunteer member looking for the application form at 8 p.m. should find it quickly, not send a message, wait for a reply, or give up.

Keep your web address

Your web address is part of your public identity. Try to keep it if at all possible, because people already know it, cards may already print it, and other local partners may link to it from their own sites.

If you keep your web address, the move feels smaller to the public. They still type the same address, and they still land where they expect. If your address must change, plan a clear redirect path and tell partner agencies, town staff, and the public early. That takes more work, which is why keeping the address is usually the first choice.

Mainfolk keeps your own web address in your name, and you can export your content anytime. That matters when you want control without having to manage the technical side yourself.

Pick the new home before the old one goes dark

Do not wait until the last week to choose where the site will live. Give yourself enough time to collect content, review layouts, test forms, and check every page that the public uses most. The right question is not just, “Can it go live?” It is, “Can the public keep using it without trouble on day one?”

When you compare options, look for these practical points:

• Can they move your public pages for you?
• Will they keep your web address in your name?
• Will the site be easy to read on a phone?
• Will it be built so everyone can use it, including people with disabilities?
• Can you get an emergency alert banner for urgent notices?
• Can you get clear visitor insights so you know what people are actually using?

Mainfolk is built to WCAG 2.1 AA, which helps more visitors use the site without trouble. That is especially important for public notices, forms, meeting information, and emergency updates.

A simple move checklist for fire departments

1. Confirm your date directly with the current provider.
2. Make a list of every page and file the public uses.
3. Save calendars, forms, staff pages, documents, and photos.
4. Check whether your web address can stay the same.
5. Choose the new home and agree on who will review the content.
6. Set up the new site while the old one is still live.
7. Test the most-used pages on a phone and a desktop.
8. Check forms, event pages, staff pages, and any alert banner.
9. Move over when everything is ready, then verify the public can reach it.
10. Keep a final copy of your content for your own records.

Example: if your department posts training nights, apparatus information, and membership forms, test those first. Those are the pages most likely to get phone calls if they fail.

Test before you switch

Testing is the part that protects you from a bad first day. Open the site on a phone, because that is where most people will check it. Read every main page out loud if you need to. Make sure staff names are current, phone numbers work, and every download opens the way it should.

Also check the old site one more time for anything that may have been added recently, such as a meeting notice or change in hours. A small missed update can confuse the public after the move. If your department uses a regular emergency banner, make sure that it appears where people can see it right away.

If your department is a volunteer organization, remember that recruits often arrive through a simple search or a shared link from a friend. If the site is slow, confusing, or empty, that interest can fade fast.

After the switch, watch the first week closely

Once the new site is live, keep an eye on the pages that matter most. Check the home page, contact page, recruitment page, calendar, and forms. If people keep calling about something that should be clear on the site, that is useful feedback. Fix it right away.

That first week is also a good time to save a fresh copy of your content and make sure the public is reaching the correct pages. For a department, a smooth move is not just a tech job, it is a public service job. The fewer dead ends you leave behind, the fewer calls you take, and the easier it is for people to get the help or information they need.

Mainfolk can handle a move like this without making your staff do the heavy lifting, and there is no contract. Mainfolk Civic is $149 a month or $1,490 a year, everything included, no contract and no setup fee, and a public body can ask for a written quote.

What a good move should feel like

Your members, residents, and callers should not need to know that anything changed. They should still find the same basic information, the same contact paths, and the same documents they came for before. That is the real test of a good move: the site stays useful, the department stays reachable, and your team spends less time cleaning up avoidable problems.

If you handle the move in steps, you give yourself room to verify the important things before the old site disappears. That is the safest way to keep the public informed and keep your department in control of its own information.

Free download: grab our fire department website checklist: the short, plain-English list of what your site needs to get found and bring in calls. No cost, no obligation.