Who Owns Your Website, Domain, and Hosting?
You own it, all of it, if the work was done right. Your website files, your domain name, and your hosting account should all sit in your name, not your designer's or agency's. If they don't, you don't actually own your website, you're renting it from whoever built it, and that arrangement can cost you dearly if you ever want to switch.
Who owns my website, domain, and hosting after the build?
You should own everything after the build is done: the design files, the code, the domain registration, and the hosting account. That means your name is on the domain registrar account, your name is on the hosting account (or at least you have full admin access), and you have copies of every file that makes up your site. At A Visual Identity, this is a flat policy, not a favor: files, domain, and accounts go in your name, outright. Nobody rents you your own website. If a designer builds your site under their own agency accounts and never hands over the keys, you're stuck asking permission every time you want to make a change, switch hosts, or leave. That's not ownership, that's a lease with extra steps. A brand new website built the right way should never leave you in that position.
How do I take my website with me if I leave my designer?
You take your website with you by having access to three things: your domain registrar login, your hosting account login, and a full backup of your website files and database. If you have all three, moving to a new designer or host is straightforward, even if it takes some technical setup on the other end. If you don't have them, ask your current designer for them in writing, right now, before you need them. Most reputable designers will hand these over without a fight. If yours won't, or makes excuses, that's a sign the relationship was built to keep you locked in rather than to serve you. If you're stuck on an old WordPress site with no clear ownership records, a WordPress rescue can often untangle the mess and get everything moved into accounts you actually control.
What should I get in writing about website ownership?
You should get a written statement, ideally in your contract, that says the domain, hosting, and all files belong to you outright, both during the project and after final payment. Look for language that spells out who the domain registrar account belongs to, who the hosting account belongs to, and what happens to your files if you and the designer part ways. A good agreement also spells out the price up front so there are no surprises tied to "releasing" your own property later. At A Visual Identity, the quote is the bill: the price we agree on is the price you pay, and if anything changes, we talk about it out loud before moving forward, not after you're locked in. Once your site is live and yours, ongoing website maintenance should work the same way, a service you can walk away from anytime, not a hostage situation. If you're not sure what your current site's ownership looks like, a free website audit is a fast way to find out where you actually stand.
The checkup is free. We'll look at what you have, tell you plainly what we'd do, and you'll walk away knowing exactly who owns what, even if you never hire us.
