Who owns your website, domain and hosting?

This is general information and not legal advice. The law on who owns a website differs between countries and depends on the contract you signed. I do not cover Indian or any other national law here. If the stakes are high, speak to a lawyer who works in your country.

“Who owns my website?” sounds like one question. It is four, and each can have a different answer.

1. The domain name

The domain name is your web address. It is rented from a registrar, normally by the year, and the person or company recorded as the registrant is the holder. ICANN, the body that coordinates domain names, describes the registrant as the holder of the name.

What matters in practice:

• If a developer registered the domain in their own name, they are the holder, even though you pay for it. To move it to you, they usually have to take part.
• To move a domain to another registrar, you need an authorisation code from the current registrar. ICANN says a registrar must provide that code within five calendar days of the registrant’s request.
• Changing the registrant, for example from the developer to you, starts at the current registrar and needs the holder’s confirmation. ICANN notes that a change of registrant can trigger a 60-day lock on moving the domain to another registrar. Some registrars allow you to opt out of the lock. Ask yours.

What to do: have the domain registered in your own or your business’s name, with an email address you control, and keep the login yourself. Many developers will buy it on your behalf; that is fine as long as the registrant is you.

2. The hosting

If the difference between the domain, DNS and hosting is still unclear, domain, DNS and hosting: who does what separates the three.

Hosting is the computer that serves your pages. The question is whose account it sits in. If it is in your account, you can change developers without moving anything. If it is in the developer’s account, they can leave, close the account or stop paying, and the site goes with it.

Whichever you choose, write down who pays, who has the login, and what happens if the relationship ends.

3. The design and code

This is where contracts differ most. Possible arrangements include:

• You own the finished design and code outright once you have paid.
• The developer owns it and licenses it to you, possibly for a fee.
• Some parts are owned by third parties, such as a theme or a plugin, under their own licences.

None of these is wrong, but only one is written down. Ask which applies to your project and make sure it is in the proposal. Also ask whether you will receive the source files, not just a live site, because without them you may not be able to hand the work to someone else.

4. Your content

Text, photographs, logos and documents you supplied are yours, and you are responsible for having the right to publish them. Ask the developer for the same assurance in reverse: if they supply photographs or text, say who holds the rights and whether your use is licensed.

A short check you can do today

1. Find out which company your domain is registered with. A public “whois” or registration lookup for your domain will show the registrar, and sometimes the registrant.
2. Log in to that registrar. If you cannot, find out who can.
3. Make sure the contact email on the account is one you read.
4. Turn on automatic renewal or set a calendar reminder for the expiry date. An expired domain can be lost.
5. Write down where the site is hosted and who holds that login.

What to put in writing

• Registrant of the domain and who holds the registrar login.
• Hosting account owner and who pays for it.
• Ownership or licence of the finished design and code, and whether you receive the source files.
• Rights to photographs, text and any third-party themes or tools used.
• What happens when the project ends, including how the site is handed over (see what you should receive when the website is finished).

On my own projects the site goes live on the domain and hosting you provide, so those accounts stay under your control. Ownership of the design files and code is the item I would want in any proposal in writing, and you should ask every developer, me included, to state it.

Sources

• ICANN, FAQs for Registrants - Transferring Your Domain Name

Read next

• How to choose a website developerPrices are easy to compare and hard to judge. This is a checklist of the things that actually separate a good engagement from a bad one, with the warning signs worth walking away from.
• What to prepare before a website projectMissing material, rather than design or code, is a common reason a website is held up. Gather these items first and the project can move at the speed of the build.
• What a business website project includesA walk through a website project in order, so you know what happens, what is asked of you, and which items need to be written into the agreement to be included.
• Domain, DNS and hosting: who does whatWhen a website disappears, the cause is usually one of three accounts. Knowing which does what turns a panic into a phone call to the right company.
• What you should receive when the website is finishedLaunch day is when most owners find out what they did not ask for. This is a checklist of what to hold at the end, so that the site is yours to run, change or move.
• Website logins and access: who needs whatA website has several separate accounts, and each is a door. Keep a list, give people only the access they need, turn on two-step verification and remove access when a project ends.
• Hosting offers: questions to ask before you acceptHosting offers range from free to expensive, and the label tells you little. These are the questions that show what you are really getting and who is responsible for what.

Where this leads

• Packages and pricesThree one-time packages from ₹19,999 to ₹34,999 plus applicable taxes: what each includes, and which costs stay separate.
• Work: two live manufacturer websitesSamrat Poly Resins and Samrat FRP Traders: what each site had to do and how it was built.