Who owns your domain and website? A checklist

Three things people mix up

• The domain: your address, like yourcompany.com. You rent it by the year from a company called a registrar.
• The hosting: the computer your website files sit on.
• The website itself: the design, text, photos and code.

These can be with three different companies or all with one, and each can have a different owner on paper. The domain matters most, because whoever controls it decides where your address points and where your email goes.

Register the domain in your own account

Open the registrar account yourself, with your own email and your business as the registrant. It's usually a small yearly fee. Then give your web person access as a helper, or point the domain where they tell you. If a designer offers to "take care of the domain", ask whose name it will be under. If it's theirs, getting it back later depends on them being reachable and willing.

Not sure who holds yours today? Log in wherever you think it was bought and look at the account owner and contact email. A public WHOIS lookup shows which registrar holds a domain, though owner details are often hidden for privacy. Still picking a name? See choosing a domain name.

What you should hold

• The registrar login, in your name, with your email and two-step login turned on
• Auto-renew on, with a payment card that isn't about to expire
• The hosting login, or a written note of who hosts the site and how to reach them
• An owner or admin login to the website itself
• Copies of your text, logo files and original photos
• Owner access to your Google Business Profile
• The login for your business email
• A list of all of the above, kept somewhere safe

What to ask a designer or agency

1. Whose name is the domain registered in?
2. If I stop paying the monthly fee, what do I keep: the domain, the text, the photos, the design, the files?
3. Can the site be moved to another host, or does it only run on your system?
4. Is there a fee or a notice period to leave?
5. Who owns the photos and writing you create for me?
6. How fast will you hand over logins if I ask?

There's no single right answer. Some companies keep the design and let you take the content; some hand over everything. What matters is that you know before you sign, and that the answer is in writing.

Ask us the same questions

If you're thinking about working with us, put these questions to us too, and get the answers in writing. Our Ava plans are month to month. Start with the pricing page and the FAQ.

If you leave

With the domain in your own account, leaving is mostly a matter of pointing it at a new site. Without it, you may be starting over with a new address on your cards and trucks. Check today, while everyone is on good terms.