Who Owns Your Website?

When people say “our website,” they usually mean a single thing. In practice it is five, and they are often held by different people.

• The domain. Your web address, such as yourcompany.com. It is registered through a registrar, in someone’s name, with someone’s email. Many businesses discover it was registered by a web designer or a former employee.
• The hosting. The computer service that serves the pages to visitors. It is billed to an account, and that account has an owner.
• The code. The files that make the site work. On WordPress that is the theme, plugins and settings. Whether you get a copy depends on your agreement.
• The content. Your text, photos, logo and videos. You usually own what you created. Stock photos and fonts are often licensed to the designer or the agency, not to you.
• The logins. Admin access to the site and to the accounts above. If only your provider has them, you are a guest in your own website.

• Look up the domain. Search for “domain lookup” and enter your address. You will see the registrar, the expiry date and sometimes the registrant. Many registrants are hidden for privacy, so the registrar account is where to look next.
• Check the expiry date. If it is within a year, find out who gets the renewal notice and whose card is on file.
• Find your hosting bill. Search your accounting records or card statements for the hosting company. If you cannot find one, your provider is probably paying it and passing the cost through.
• Try to log in. Ask for your own admin account on the site. If that is a problem, you have learned something.

• Is the domain registered in the company’s name, under a company email? The right answer is yes, and they can show you.
• Whose account is the hosting on? Ideally yours, or one they can move to yours.
• If we left, what would we receive and how fast? Content, files, a copy of the site, and the domain. Ask for it in writing.
• Which parts are licensed rather than owned? Themes, plugins, fonts and photos can carry licenses that do not transfer.
• Who has admin access today? Ask for a list of names.

A good provider answers these without friction. Slow, vague or defensive answers do not prove anything is wrong, but they are reason to look harder.

Start with the domain, because it is the one that can hurt you. Ask for it to be transferred to a registrar account that you control, under a company email. Then request your own admin login, then a full copy of the site files and content. Do this while the relationship is good. It is much harder to ask during a dispute.

Agreements differ and this is general information, not legal advice. If the contract is unclear on ownership, have someone who reads contracts for a living look at it.