Who owns your website? Domains, hosting and code explained

It happens more often than you would think. A business owner wants to change developers or update their site, and finds out that:

• the domain is registered in the old developer's name,
• the hosting account is the developer's, and they will not hand it over,
• the website was built on a platform where the designs cannot be moved,
• nobody has the admin password.

Suddenly the business's own address on the internet is something it has to negotiate for. Here is how to make sure that never happens to you.

The four things that make up "your website"

1. The domain name (for example yourbusiness.in). This is your address. It is rented yearly from a registrar. Whoever holds the registrar account controls where the address points, including your email.

2. The hosting. The server where the website's files and database live. It may be a hosting company, a cloud provider or a website platform.

3. The code and design. The website itself: its templates, code, images and content.

4. The accounts around it. Email, analytics, Google Business Profile, Search Console, payment gateways, social media pages.

What you should own

The domain: always. It should be registered in your business's name, under an account with your email address, with auto-renewal switched on. A developer can manage it for you with their own access, but the account should be yours. Losing a domain can mean losing your email and your search history with it.

The hosting account: ideally. If the developer hosts the site as a service, make sure the agreement says you can have a full copy of the site and data at any time and move it elsewhere.

The code: once you have paid for it. Your agreement should say that the website's code and design pass to you when the project is paid for. Developers usually keep the right to reuse their general tools and know-how, which is fair. But you should be able to take your site to another developer without starting again.

Your content and data: always. Your text, photos, customer lists and enquiries belong to you.

Admin access: always. You should have your own admin login, separate from the developer's.

A five-minute check

1. Look up your domain on a "WHOIS" or registrar lookup. Is it registered to your business? Do you know which account it is in and can you log into it?
2. Do you know where the site is hosted, and do you have a login?
3. Do you have an admin login to the website itself?
4. Does your agreement with your developer say who owns the code?
5. Are your Google Business Profile, Search Console and analytics owned by your business account, with the developer added as a user rather than the owner?

If any answer is "I'm not sure", now is a good time to find out, while your relationship with your developer is good.

Website builders and platforms

Subscription website builders can be a good choice for a simple site. Just know the trade-off: the design and setup usually cannot be moved to another platform. If you leave, you take your content and rebuild the site. That is fine if you go in knowing it.

Our approach

When we finish a project, the domain, hosting and accounts are in your name, you have admin access, and the source code is yours once the project is paid for. If you ever decide to work with someone else, everything they need is already in your hands. We would rather keep clients because they want to stay than because they cannot leave.

Related: what goes into the price of a website and website security basics.