"Do I own my website?" is a question most business owners only ask when they try to leave a provider - which is the worst possible time to find out the answer. It is worth checking now, while everyone is on good terms.
A website is not one thing. It is a domain name, some content, some code and somewhere to host it all. You can own some of those and not others, and that is often fine. The one you must own is the domain.
The four parts of a website, and who usually owns them
- The domain (yourbusiness.co.uk). Owned by whoever is named as the registrant. This is the address customers, Google and your van signwriting all point to.
- The content: your text, your photos, your logo. Usually yours if you supplied it or paid for it to be written, but check the contract for anything written or photographed by the provider.
- The code, theme or platform. Often owned or licensed by the provider or platform. On builders like Wix, the site can only run on the builder's own servers.
- The hosting. A service you rent. Owning it matters less than being able to move away from it.
Why the domain matters most
Your domain is the one part that cannot be recreated. A new site can be designed in days, and your content can be copied from your old pages if you have to. But if someone else is the registrant of your domain, they control where it points and whether it is renewed. Your emails, your Google listing and every business card you have ever printed rely on it.
The registrant should be you or your limited company, with contact details you control. Not the web designer, not the agency, not "admin@" an address you have never seen.
How to check who owns your domain
For .com and other generic domains, a WHOIS lookup (ICANN runs one at lookup.icann.org) shows the registrar and dates, though many registrants now use privacy services that hide their name.
For .uk domains (.co.uk, .uk, .org.uk), the registry is Nominet. Since GDPR, Nominet says the .UK WHOIS does not display the registrant's name or address unless they have consented. So a public lookup will usually show the registrar and the renewal date, but not the owner. That still tells you something useful: which company to ask.
- Run a WHOIS lookup on your domain and note the registrar and the expiry date.
- Log in to that registrar's account (if you have one) and look at the registrant contact. It should be your name or your company.
- If you do not have a login, contact the registrar and ask them to confirm, in writing, who the registrant is.
- If it is your designer or provider, ask them to change the registrant to you now. A reputable provider will do this without fuss.
Who owns the words and photos?
Content you wrote or photographed yourself is yours. Content the provider created - copy written for you, photos they took, a logo they designed - depends on the contract. Many providers hand over rights once the work is paid for; some keep them, or licence them to you only while you remain a customer.
Read the ownership or intellectual property clause before you sign, and if it is silent, ask. At minimum, keep your own copy of every page's text and every photo you supplied. If you ever need to rebuild the site elsewhere, that folder saves days of work.
Hosting lock-in: what it is and when it matters
Some platforms cannot be moved. Wix, for example, says plainly that a Wix site must be hosted and operated on Wix's servers and cannot be exported to another host. Squarespace offers a partial export that covers some pages and blog posts but not everything. Many pay-monthly providers run sites on their own systems in the same way.
That is not a reason to avoid them. It is a reason to know, going in, that leaving means rebuilding the site rather than moving it, and to keep a copy of your own words and photos somewhere safe.
Questions to ask your web designer or provider
- Who is the registrant of my domain, and can you show me?
- If I leave, what exactly do I get: domain, content, photos, design files, code?
- Is there a fee for transferring the domain or releasing the content?
- Who owns the copyright in the text and photos you created for me?
- Can the site be moved to another host, or would it need rebuilding?
What good looks like
A fair arrangement is simple: the domain is in your name, your content and photos are yours to take, and leaving costs nothing but the notice period. At Nerdsharks the domain is registered in your name from day one, and your content and photos leave with you. Whoever you use, get the answer in writing before you need it.