Do you own your website? What to check before you pay anyone to build it

Here is a call we never want to get. A business owner's site is down. The designer who built it stopped answering texts. When the owner tries to fix it, they find out the domain, the hosting, and every login are in someone else's name. They paid for a website. They never owned it.

It happens more than it should, and it is almost always preventable with a ten minute check. Here is what you should own, how to check it, and what to ask before you hire anyone, including us.

The four things you should own

1. Your domain. This is your address, like yourbusiness.com. You do not buy it once; you register it through a registrar and renew it. The person or company listed as the registrant is the domain name holder (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers [ICANN], n.d.-a). If that is your designer's company, they hold your address, not you.

2. Your hosting account. This is the building your site lives in. If it is on your designer's account and billed to their card, a missed payment on their side, or a falling out, takes your site offline.

3. Your site files and content. This one surprises people. When an independent contractor creates something, the contractor is generally the author. A commissioned work only counts as a work made for hire if both sides sign a written agreement saying so and the work falls into one of nine specific categories (U.S. Copyright Office, 2024). A typical small business website is not an obvious fit, so the safer move is a contract that assigns the rights to the site and its content to you, in writing.

4. Your logins. Google Business Profile, analytics, your business email, and your social accounts. These should sit under your own email address, with your designer added as a manager or user. You can always remove a manager. It is much harder to remove an owner.

The two minute check

Go to ICANN Lookup, the free tool from the organization that coordinates domain names, and type in your domain. It shows the current registration data for that domain (ICANN, n.d.-b), including which registrar it is with and when it expires.

You may see the owner's details hidden behind a privacy service. That is normal and fine. The real test is simpler: can you log in to the registrar account yourself? If the answer is no, or you do not know which company it is with, you have your answer. As a registrant you are also entitled to review your registration agreement at any time (ICANN, n.d.-c), so ask for it.

Then do the same for your host. Do you have a login, and is the card on file yours?

Red flags before you hire anyone

• They plan to register the domain under their own company name.
• They say "we handle all that" but nothing about ownership is in writing.
• There is no contract, or the contract never says who owns the finished files.
• You will not get your own login to the registrar or the host.
• They hesitate when you ask how you would leave. A good partner answers that question easily.

Why renewals are where businesses lose domains

Registrars have to warn the registrant at least twice before a domain expires, once about a month out and again about a week out (ICANN, 2024). That sounds safe until you realize those reminders go to whatever email is on the registration. If that is your old designer's inbox, you never see them.

After expiration, your site can stop loading. If the registration is deleted, there is a 30 day redemption grace period where it can still be restored (ICANN, 2024), usually for an extra fee (ICANN, n.d.-a). Miss that window and the name can go back on the open market. Keep your own email on the account and turn on auto renew.

How to get your domain back into your name

1. Ask in writing. Email your designer and ask them to change the registrant to you, or to move the domain into a registrar account you control. Most will do it without a fight.
2. Ask for the transfer code. Moving a domain to another registrar needs an Auth Code, and the registrar must provide it within five calendar days of a request (ICANN, n.d.-a).
3. Plan for the 60 day lock. After a change to the registrant name, organization, or email, a domain generally cannot move to a different registrar for 60 days (ICANN, n.d.-a). Change the ownership first, then move it later if you want to.
4. Get your files. Ask for a full copy of the site and a short written assignment of the rights to you.
5. If they refuse, start with your registrar's support team, and talk to an attorney before things escalate.

This post is general information to help you ask the right questions. It is not legal advice.

How we handle it at Hearty Kreation

Our rule is simple: your domain and hosting go in your name, and you pay for them directly. We get added as a helper, never as the owner. If you do not have a domain yet, we help you pick one and connect it as part of the build, registered to you.

That goes for everything we build, from a $75 landing page to a full multi page site. If you ever leave, you leave with everything. We think that is how it should work. It is the same idea we wrote about in Own the pipeline: talent gets you on stage, ownership keeps you there.

Want to build it yourself instead? Our free DIY guide walks through buying your domain the right way. Ready for us to build it? Start your site here.

Common questions

Can a web designer keep my domain?

If the domain is registered in the designer's name, they are the registrant, so moving it to you takes their cooperation. Ask in writing for the registrant to be changed to you or for the transfer code. Registrars must give the registrant that code within five calendar days of a request.

What happens if my domain expires?

Registrars send renewal reminders about a month and a week before expiration. After expiration the site can stop resolving, and once the registration is deleted there is a 30 day redemption grace period in which it can usually be restored, often for an extra fee.

Is a domain the same as a website?

No. The domain is the address people type, rented yearly from a registrar. The website is the set of files that lives on a hosting account. You want both in your own name, along with the logins that control them.

Related reading

• When building your own website makes sense
• What a $75 website actually gets you
• Own the pipeline: what hip-hop taught us about building a business

References

Published September 27, 2026 by Hearty Kreation, Sparks, Nevada.