Your website is three separate assets that people routinely treat as one: the domain name, the hosting account, and the code and content. They can be owned by different parties, and a business can find it controls none of them. Establishing where each sits takes about twenty minutes and is the single most useful piece of administrative hygiene available.
The three assets
The domain name
The address itself, leased annually from a registrar. The critical field is the registrant, which is the legal owner. Administrative and technical contacts can be anyone, and frequently are the developer, which is fine.
What is not fine is the registrant being someone other than your business. That means the address customers type belongs to a third party, and moving it requires their cooperation.
How to check: log into the registrar account. If you cannot, that is the finding.
The hosting
The server the files sit on. Commonly resold, meaning your developer holds an account with a provider and allocates space to you. Legitimate and convenient, and it means your site lives inside someone else's account.
How to check: establish whether you have credentials of your own, and ask what moving the site would involve.
The code and content
The files, the design, the copy, the photographs. Governed by contract, and in the absence of a clause the default in many jurisdictions favours the creator, not the person who paid.
How to check: read the agreement for an assignment of rights on final payment. If there is no written agreement, this is unresolved.
Why the split causes problems
Because control fragments quietly and only becomes visible under pressure.
A business wanting to change suppliers discovers the domain is registered to the previous one. A site needs moving urgently and nobody has hosting credentials. A developer becomes unreachable and every asset is behind accounts only they could access.
None of this usually involves bad faith. It accumulates through convenience: someone offered to handle it, it was easier, and nobody wrote down where things ended up.
The pieces people forget
- DNS management. Sometimes at the registrar, sometimes at the host, sometimes a third service. Whoever controls DNS controls where your traffic and email go.
- Email. Frequently tied to hosting, which means a hosting dispute becomes an email outage. Worth knowing before it happens.
- Analytics and Search Console. Often created under the developer's personal account, taking your historical data with them.
- Google Business Profile. Regularly claimed by an agency and never transferred.
- SSL certificates. Usually automatic now, occasionally purchased and tied to an account.
- Third-party licences. Themes, plugins, fonts, and stock images may be licensed to the developer rather than to you, which can mean losing the right to use them.
The twenty minute audit
- Log into your registrar and confirm the registrant is your business. If you cannot log in, request access now rather than when you need it.
- Confirm you have hosting credentials, or know exactly who does.
- Find your written agreement and locate the ownership clause.
- Check who owns your analytics properties and add yourself as an owner if you are not.
- Confirm your Google Business Profile lists you as owner rather than manager.
- Write it all down somewhere that is not one person's inbox.
If you do not control things now
Ask, plainly and without accusation. Most suppliers transfer things without difficulty because most were never trying to hold anything hostage.
Domains can be transferred between registrars with an authorisation code from the current one. Hosting can be moved by copying files and repointing DNS. Analytics access is granted in a few clicks.
Where a supplier is unresponsive, the domain is the priority, because it is the only asset that cannot be recreated. Files can be rebuilt and hosting replaced. An address customers already know cannot be substituted.
The wider point: this is not about distrusting your developer. It is that control should not depend on any single relationship remaining good, including with people who have done nothing wrong.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns a domain name, the business or the web designer?
Whoever is listed as the registrant, which should be your business. Administrative or technical contacts can reasonably be your developer, but if the registrant is someone else then the address your customers use legally belongs to a third party.
How do I check who owns my domain?
Log into the registrar account and view the registrant details. If you have no login for the registrar, that is itself the answer and worth resolving immediately rather than when you next need to make a change.
What happens if my web developer holds my hosting account?
It is a common and often reasonable arrangement, but it means your site sits inside someone else's account. Establish whether you have your own credentials and what moving the site would involve, so a change of supplier does not become an emergency.
Do I automatically own my website code?
Not necessarily. Ownership depends on the contract, and where no clause exists the default in many jurisdictions favours the creator rather than the person who paid. An explicit assignment of rights on final payment is what establishes ownership.
What website assets do people commonly forget about?
DNS management, email if it is tied to hosting, analytics and Search Console properties created under a developer's personal account, the Google Business Profile, and third-party licences for themes, fonts, and stock images that may be issued to the developer rather than the client.
What should I prioritise if I control none of my website assets?
The domain, because it is the only element that cannot be recreated. Files can be rebuilt and hosting replaced, but an address customers already know and that carries your search history cannot simply be substituted.
West Coast Media Solutions Inc. builds and maintains websites for businesses across Canada. This article reflects patterns we see in practice. Contract and ownership questions vary by jurisdiction and agreement; where money or rights are at stake, take legal advice on your own documents.
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