Who actually owns your website?
A website is five separate things and each one can be owned by a different person: the domain, the hosting, the code, the content and the analytics. If your developer holds any of them in their own name, you are renting your website rather than owning it. All five are checkable in an afternoon, and every one of them is far easier to sort out while the relationship is good than after it ends.
Five things, five possible owners
People say "our website" as though it were one object. It is five, and they can be held separately.
The domain is your address. The hosting is the machine it sits on. The code is the site itself. The content is the words and pictures. The analytics is the record of who came and what they did.
Losing any one of them hurts in a different way. Losing the domain is the one that stops your email and takes your search ranking with it, which is why it is first on the list below. Nobody sets out to end up in this position. It happens because the person who built the site did the sensible thing at the time and put everything in the account they already had.
The domain matters most
Whoever is named as the registrant controls where your web address points. Not whoever pays the invoice, and not whoever set it up. The registrant.
If that is your agency, then a disagreement, a company closure or simply an unanswered email can take your website and every address at your domain offline, and there is no support desk that will overrule it. For a .uk domain, Nominet's register is the record and it can be checked in a minute.
What you want: the domain registered to your company, in an account with your own billing details and your own email address on it, and auto-renew switched on. Your developer can have access to manage it. That is a different thing from owning it, and the difference only becomes visible on the day it matters.
Hosting, and why "we host it for you" cuts both ways
Managed hosting is a genuine service and plenty of good agencies provide it. The question is not whether they host it, it is what happens if you leave.
Ask two things. Can you have a full copy of the site and its database on request, without a reason being required? And is the hosting account in your name, or a slice of a reseller account that cannot be handed over?
Neither answer is disqualifying. An agency reselling hosting is normal. But "you can have a copy whenever you ask" and "you cannot have a copy at all" are very different arrangements, and you want to know which one you are in before you need to know.
What to hold, and how to check it
Work down this table. Every check takes a few minutes and needs no technical knowledge.
| Asset | Who should hold it | How to check |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | Your company, as registrant | Look up the domain on a public register such as Nominet for .uk, and read the registrant name |
| Hosting | You, or an account transferable to you | Ask for the login, or ask in writing whether the account can be transferred |
| Code | You, with a full copy in your possession | Ask for a copy today, before there is any reason to need one |
| Content | You, including photography licences | Ask who took the photographs and what the licence permits |
| Analytics | Your own account, with the agency invited in | Open the account settings and read who owns the property |
The code, and what "bespoke" should mean
Ask directly: when we have paid the final invoice, do we own what you built, and can another developer take it on?
The answer should be yes without qualification. Watch for two patterns. The first is a site built on the agency's own platform, where the design is yours but the machinery underneath is licensed and stops working the day you leave. The second is a licence granted "for use" rather than ownership transferred, which sounds similar and is not.
Neither is dishonest if it is stated plainly at the start, and for some businesses a platform is genuinely the right answer. What is not acceptable is finding out at the end. Get it in the proposal, in one sentence, before you sign.
Our own position is that you own what we build, handed over cleanly, with no lock-in, and that another team can pick it up without our help. We think it is the only honest arrangement, and it is also what keeps clients with us long after launch, which is a better reason than the contract.
Check it in this order
An afternoon, at most. Do it while everything is fine.
- Look up your domain on a public register and read the registrant name. If it is not your company, start here and stop reading.
- Log in to the domain account yourself. Not your developer logging in and showing you. You, with your own credentials.
- Ask for a copy of the site and database by email. The response time and the tone tell you as much as the file does.
- Open your analytics and read the account owner. Years of history are difficult to recreate and impossible to backdate.
- Find the sentence about ownership in your original proposal or contract. If there is not one, ask for it in writing now.
Anything you cannot confirm is worth an email today rather than a problem later.
How to fix it without a fight
Most of the time this is not a dispute. It is admin that nobody got round to, and a friendly email fixes it in a week.
Ask plainly and give a reason that is not a threat: you are tidying up your records and want the domain and hosting in the company's own name. Offer to take over the renewals yourself. Keep your developer's access in place, because you still want them able to work. Most agencies will do it the same day, and a good one will be slightly embarrassed it was not done at the start.
If you get resistance, that is information. In that case register the fact in writing, take a copy of everything you can reach, and get advice before the renewal date rather than after it. Domains are far easier to protect than to recover, and the day it lapses is the day someone else can register it.
Common questions
It depends entirely on what was agreed and whose name is on each account, which is why the answer surprises people. A website is five separate things: the domain, the hosting, the code, the content and the analytics. Each can be held by a different party. Unless your contract transfers ownership and the accounts are in your company name, you may be renting rather than owning.
If the domain is registered to you and you hold a copy of the site, it is an inconvenience: another developer picks it up. If the domain is in their name and you have no copy, it can take your website and your email offline with no straightforward route to recovery. That difference is decided long before anything goes wrong, which is why it is worth checking today.
Look the domain up on a public register and read the registrant name. For a .uk domain that is Nominet, and the search is free. Then, separately, log in to the domain account yourself with your own credentials. Being shown the account by somebody else is not the same as having access to it.
It is perfectly normal and often convenient. Just establish two things first: that you can have a full copy of the site and database whenever you ask, without giving a reason, and whether the hosting account can be transferred into your name if you leave. Both answers are fine. Not knowing which one applies is the problem.
Yes. You own what we build, handed over cleanly, with no lock-in, and another team can take it on without us. We put that in the proposal rather than leaving it to be discovered later, because an arrangement that only becomes visible when a client wants to leave is not one we would want to be on the other side of.
Where to go next
If you want a straight answer about your own situation, tell us what you are trying to do and we will say what we would do, including when the answer is that you do not need us. Start a conversation.