The short answerYou own it only if the accounts are in your name and you hold the logins. A website has three separate parts: the domain name, the hosting account and the site files. It is common for one or more of them to be registered to the designer or agency instead of the business. Check each one now, while everybody is still on good terms.
The three things, in plain words
The domain is your address on the internet, the name people type. You do not buy it outright. You register it for a year or more at a company called a registrar and renew it.
Hosting is the computer your site lives on. The domain points to it. The site files are the pages, images and code themselves, plus any database behind them. All three can sit with different companies, under different logins, in different people's names.
How to check who holds your domain
Go to the ICANN lookup tool at lookup.icann.org and type in your domain. It shows the registrar and the dates the domain was registered and expires. The owner's name is often hidden for privacy, so the lookup tells you where the domain is, not always whose it is.
The real test is simple. Can you log in to that registrar, with an account under your own email address, and see the domain listed? If the answer is no, somebody else controls it, whatever your invoice says.
- Find the registrar with the ICANN lookup.
- Try to log in there with your own email. Use the password reset if you have forgotten it.
- Check the contact email on the domain is one you read, because renewal warnings go there.
- Turn on auto-renew and keep a working card on the account.
How to check hosting and the site itself
Ask whoever built the site two questions: where is it hosted, and whose account is it on. If it is on their account along with their other clients, you are a tenant. That is not automatically bad, but you should know.
Then ask for a copy of the site. On a website builder there may be no files to hand over, only a login, so make sure the login is yours. On other platforms you can be given an export or a backup. Keep it somewhere safe.
Why it matters
Most of the time nothing goes wrong. The trouble comes when a relationship ends: the designer retires, the agency raises its fees, or you want to move. If the domain is in their name, you may have to ask permission to take your own address with you.
A lapsed domain is the worst version. If renewal notices go to an email nobody reads and the card on file expires, the site and any email on that domain stop working. Getting a lapsed domain back can be slow and is not guaranteed.
How to get things into your own name
If the domain is on somebody else's account, ask them to transfer it to a registrar account you have opened. Registrars have a standard process for this, using an authorization code from the current holder. Changes to where a domain points can take up to 48 hours to show everywhere, though it is usually much quicker.
Ask politely and in writing. Most designers will do it. If your contract says the domain or the site belongs to them until some condition is met, that is a conversation to have with them, and possibly with a lawyer, not something I can answer for you.
- Domain: registrar account in the business owner's name and email.
- Hosting: account in your name, with the builder added as a helper if needed.
- Site: a login with full admin rights, and a backup copy where one is possible.
- Google Business Profile, Search Console and analytics: you as owner, others as managers.
How I set it up
Every Novyx site is handed over with the site, the source, the domain and the hosting account in the customer's name. Hosting on that account is $0 a month, and you get a one-page handover document written in plain English.
Questions people ask
My web designer registered my domain. Is that a problem?
Not by itself. It becomes one if you cannot log in to the account it sits on. Ask them to move it to an account in your name. It is a routine request.
Can I move my site to another host?
If the site is made of files you can export, yes. If it was made on a closed website builder, the design usually cannot leave that builder, and moving means rebuilding. The domain can move either way.
What happens if my domain expires?
The site and any email on that domain stop working. Registrars usually allow a period to renew late, sometimes for an extra fee, but the rules vary. Auto-renew with a current card avoids the problem.
Who should own the Google Business Profile?
The business owner, as primary owner. Add an agency or helper as a manager. A manager can be removed in a minute. Getting ownership back from somebody else takes much longer.