Website ownership is one of those topics that seems abstract right up until it is urgent. It becomes urgent when a designer stops answering emails, when a business changes hands, or when someone wants to move to a new supplier and discovers that the parts of their web presence are held in five different places, three of which belong to somebody else.
A website is not one asset. It is several, and they can be owned separately.
The parts, one at a time
The domain — always yours
Non-negotiable. The registration should be in your name or your company's, at a registrar you can log into. A supplier who registers your domain in their own account, however convenient at the time, holds the address of your business.
Your content — yours
Text you supplied, your photos, your logo, your customer data and your enquiry records. If a supplier wrote copy or took photographs for you, the contract should say those are assigned to you on payment. Without an assignment, copyright in commissioned work generally sits with the person who created it, which surprises almost everybody.
The design — usually yours, sometimes licensed
A bespoke design made for you should be yours. A design built on a purchased theme is licensed rather than owned, by both of you — you can use it, you cannot resell it. That is normal; it just needs to be understood.
The code — it depends, and it should be stated
| Arrangement | What you get | Typical of |
|---|---|---|
| Full transfer | All source code, yours to modify or take elsewhere | Custom development, usually priced accordingly |
| Perpetual licence | Use it indefinitely on your site; the builder retains rights to reuse their framework | Studios with a reusable production system |
| Platform licence | Access only while you subscribe | Wix, Squarespace, Shopify and similar |
| Managed build | The site is yours to use; the underlying system stays maintained by the builder | Managed service arrangements |
None of these is dishonest. A studio that has spent years building a component system reasonably retains rights to it, in the same way an architect reuses details between houses. The problem is never the arrangement — it is discovering the arrangement two years later.
Your accounts and data — yours
Google Business Profile, Analytics, Search Console, hosting and email accounts should be owned by you, with your supplier added as a manager or user. This is how every one of those platforms is designed to work, and there is no legitimate reason to invert it.
Ownership versus access
The most common confusion in this whole topic. People assume that if they cannot edit every part of a site themselves, they do not own it. Those are different questions.
A managed arrangement where selected content fields are editable — prices, hours, photos, articles — while the code, layout and accessibility patterns stay protected is a legitimate service model, and often a better one for a small business. It keeps the site fast, accessible and consistent, which is exactly what erodes when everything is editable by everyone.
What to get in writing
- Who the domain is registered to.
- Who owns copy, photographs and design assets after final payment.
- What happens to the code if the relationship ends.
- Whether you can obtain a full export or backup on request, and in what format.
- Who owns the enquiry data and customer records the site collects.
- What is included in ongoing care, and what is billed separately.
- Notice period on either side, and what handover includes.
- Which accounts you hold ownership of, and which the supplier is merely a user on.
Questions worth asking before you sign
- If I want to move to another provider in two years, what exactly do I take with me? A clear answer here tells you most of what you need to know.
- Is the domain registered in my name? If the answer involves an explanation, that is the answer.
- Can I get a copy of the site and its content on request?
- Who owns the enquiries and customer data?
- What happens if you retire or become unavailable? Every honest small supplier has thought about this.
- Which parts can I edit, and which parts can I not? Ask for the specific list, not a reassurance.
If you have inherited a mess
Many businesses discover this topic mid-problem: a previous designer is unreachable and nobody knows where anything lives. It is usually recoverable.
- 01Find the domainA public WHOIS lookup shows the registrar. Even with privacy protection enabled, the registrar name is visible, and that tells you who to contact.
- 02Start the recovery processRegistrars have a documented process for regaining access to a domain when the registrant is unreachable. It requires identity documents and takes time, but it exists.
- 03Find the hostA DNS lookup of your domain's A record identifies where the site is served from, which usually identifies the host.
- 04Take a copy of what is publicEven without any access, the visible site can be archived so the content is not lost.
- 05Claim your own profilesGoogle Business Profile has a request-access process. It takes a week or two but it works.
- 06Rebuild the foundation correctlyOnce recovered, register everything in your own name with your own email and two-factor authentication, and record it somewhere your successor could find.
Common questions
- Do I own my website if someone else built it?
- You own what your contract says you own. In practice the domain, your content and your data should always be yours; code and design vary by arrangement. If nothing was written down, the position can be genuinely unclear, which is why writing it down matters more than any particular answer.
- Can a web designer hold my website hostage?
- They can withhold access to accounts they control, which is why domain registration and account ownership should be in your name from day one. A domain in your own registrar account is the single most effective protection available.
- What is the difference between owning a website and renting one?
- On a platform subscription, stopping payment takes the site offline and the design does not travel with you — your content is exportable, the site is not. An owned site can be copied and moved to another host. Both models are legitimate; only one of them is usually explained.
- Should my web designer have my domain login?
- They may need access to make DNS changes, but the account should be yours. Where the registrar supports delegated access, use it. Where it does not, share access temporarily and change the password afterwards.