Who owns your website?
This is the question people wish they had asked, usually at the point they are trying to leave. Three things matter.
1. The domain
The address itself. It should be registered to you, with your name and email as the registrant contact, in an account you can log into. If your designer registered it on your behalf in their own account, they control it — and transferring it later needs their cooperation.
2. The hosting
The server the site runs on. Ideally your own account with your billing details, with access granted to whoever maintains it. If hosting sits inside a designer's reseller account, cancelling the relationship can take the site down.
3. The design files and content
The source files, the images, and the right to use them. This should be stated in your agreement: on final payment, ownership of the finished work transfers to you.
None of this means distrust. Reputable designers hand these over as standard. The point is to establish it in writing at the start, when it is a formality, rather than at the end, when it is a negotiation.
How to check what you currently own
- Domain: search a public WHOIS lookup for your domain. If the registrant is not you or your company, that is worth fixing.
- Hosting: can you log in and see the billing? If you have never seen an invoice, it is probably not your account.
- Files: ask for them. A reasonable request that gets an unreasonable response tells you what you need to know.
If any of these are not in your name, ask politely for a transfer. Most designers will do it without fuss. Do it while the relationship is good.
Common questions
01Can a designer hold my website hostage?
If they control the domain and hosting, effectively yes — not legally, but practically, and resolving it takes time you may not have. This is why establishing ownership at the start matters more than any contract clause you might rely on later.
02Do I own the design if I have not paid in full?
Usually not. Most agreements transfer ownership on final payment, which is reasonable. What should be clear is what happens if the project is cancelled partway — who owns what has been done so far.
03What about stock photos?
Licences are usually bought for a specific site and are not always transferable. Ask what is licensed, to whom, and whether the licence transfers with the site.
Get a fixed quote in writing
Answer five questions and we come back with one number, inside a day. You are not committing to anything by asking.
Or email contact@hire-web-designer.com