Who owns my website? Domain, hosting, code and logins explained

Who owns my website? It is really five separate things

When people say “my website” they usually mean one thing. Technically it is at least five, and they are often set up by different people at different times. Ownership has to be checked for each one.

1. The domain name (yourbusiness.ca). This is your address online. It is rented yearly from a registrar, and whoever is listed as the registrant controls it, including where your email goes.
2. The hosting. The server or platform the site runs on, such as a hosting company, a cloud platform or a website builder like Wix or Squarespace. Whoever holds the account can take the site offline or delete it.
3. The code and design. The files that make up the site: the layout, the templates, any custom features. This is where copyright comes in.
4. The content. Your text, photos, logo, videos and documents. Some of it you created, some may have been written or bought by your developer, and some may be licensed stock images.
5. The accounts around the site. Google Analytics, Google Search Console, your Google Business Profile, email, form and booking tools, payment processors and any plugin or theme licences.

You can own the domain but not the hosting, or pay for the hosting while the code belongs to someone else. The aim is simple: every piece should be in your business's name, and other people should be guests.

What you should hold in your own name

Here is how I would set up each piece for a typical small business. “Your name” means an account registered to the business, using an email address the business controls (not a staff member's personal address, and not your developer's).

This matters most for the Google accounts. Your Business Profile holds your reviews and photos, and Search Console holds your search history. If you would like to know what those tools do, my guide to Google Business Profile covers the listing side.

The code and design: who holds the copyright

This is the part that surprises people. Paying for a website does not by itself make you the owner of the code or the design. Under Canadian copyright law, the person who creates a work is generally its first owner. There is an exception for employees creating work as part of their job, but most small businesses hire an outside freelancer or agency, and that exception does not cover them.

For the copyright to move to you, it normally has to be assigned in writing and signed by the person who owns it. Without that, you may only have an implied right to use the site as it is, and a new developer could be on shaky ground copying or changing large parts of it. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has a plain-language guide to copyright if you would like the background.

A few practical points:

• Look for an ownership clause. A good contract says that copyright in the custom code and design passes to you on final payment.
• Some parts can never be fully yours. Open-source frameworks, WordPress themes, plugins and stock photos are licensed, not sold. That is normal. What matters is that the licence lets you keep using them and move them to another host.
• Website builders are different. On Wix, Squarespace and similar platforms you own your content, but the site is built on their software and usually cannot be moved elsewhere as-is. You would take your text, images and domain with you and rebuild.

How to check what you own in thirty minutes

You do not need technical knowledge for this. Open a spreadsheet or a notebook and work through the list. For each item, write down where it is, whose name and email the account is under, and whether you can log in yourself today.

If every line ends with “in our name, and I can log in,” you are in good shape. Each gap is a single fix, and most take less than an hour.

How to get your website back from a developer

In my experience most ownership problems are not malicious. A developer registered the domain for convenience years ago, or an agency set everything up under one account for all its clients. Start polite and specific, and keep it in writing.

1. Ask for what you need, item by item. List the domain, hosting, code, content and accounts, and ask for each to be transferred to the business or for you to be added as owner. A clear list is easier to say yes to than “give me my website.”
2. Do the domain first. It controls your website and email. The usual process is to ask for the domain to be unlocked and for its transfer code (sometimes called an authorization or EPP code), then start a transfer to a registrar account in your name. The code and any transfer notices usually go to the registrant's email address, which is why the contact email matters.
3. Take a full backup before changing anything else. Ask for a copy of the site files, the database and any uploaded media. Even if you plan to rebuild, you want your content and the old pages for setting up redirects.
4. Move or rebuild the hosting. Either have the hosting account transferred to you, or set up a new one in your name and move the site across. Then change every password and remove old users.
5. Pay any fair outstanding invoice. If you owe money for the work, settling it is usually the fastest route to a handover, and many contracts make ownership conditional on final payment.

If you would like help untangling access, I do this kind of work by the hour at $45 an hour, plus HST. It usually comes down to a few emails, a domain transfer and a careful move.

How to make sure it never happens again

The easiest time to sort out ownership is before a project starts. When you are choosing a web developer, ask how they handle each of the five pieces above and get the answer in the quote or contract.

• The domain and hosting are opened in your business's name, on your payment card.
• Copyright in the custom code and design is assigned to you on final payment.
• You receive the source code, design files and written documentation at handover.
• Your developer is added to accounts as a user, and removed when the work ends.
• Licences for paid plugins, themes and fonts are bought in your name or are clearly transferable.

That is how I work. On final payment the code, design files, domain and hosting accounts are yours, with documentation so any developer can pick it up; it is written into my pricing and project FAQ. If you want someone to look after the site afterwards, my care plans work the same way: I am a guest in your accounts, and you can cancel any month and keep everything. My post on website maintenance costs explains what that kind of ongoing help usually includes.

Not sure what you own right now? Send me your domain name and I will tell you what I can see from the outside and what to ask for.