TJ Slade
Web designer · Kansas City
The call usually starts the same way. The person who built our website stopped answering, and now we cannot log in to anything. Sometimes it is a designer who moved on, sometimes a nephew who set it up in 2016, sometimes an agency that closed. Almost nobody knows who owns their website until the day they need to change something and discover they cannot. I'm TJ Slade, I build small business websites, and untangling this is a surprisingly large share of the work I get asked to do.
The good news is that finding out takes about fifteen minutes, and fixing it before there is a problem is almost always easy. Fixing it during a dispute, with a designer who is not answering and a domain about to expire, is the expensive version.
Your website is really four things, and each one has an owner
When people say my website, they usually mean one thing. It is actually four, and they can each be in a different name:
- The domain. Your address, like yourbusiness.com. You never buy it outright, you rent it year to year from a company called a registrar.
- The hosting. The server your site actually runs on, either rented directly from a hosting company or run for you by whoever manages your site.
- The site itself. The design, the code, and the content inside it: your words, your photos, your logo.
- The accounts around it. Google Business Profile, Search Console, Analytics, your social profiles, and the email that runs on your domain.
Having those split across companies is completely normal, and so is paying someone to run the hosting and the site for you. Plenty of owners would rather run a business than a server. What matters is knowing who holds each piece, and what you walk away with if the relationship ends. That is the thing to find out.
The domain is the one that matters most
If you lose everything else, you can rebuild. If you lose the domain, you lose your address, every link anyone has ever shared to you, your place in Google, and usually your email with it, because the email runs on the same name. Whoever is listed as the registrant on the domain controls it, full stop. If that is your old designer, the designer controls your address.
Start with ICANN Lookup, the free lookup run by the organization that coordinates domain names. Type in your domain and it will show you the registrar, the company your domain is registered through, and the date it expires. The owner's name is often hidden for privacy, which is normal, so the useful part is the registrar. Then log into your account at that registrar. If you do not have one, or cannot get in, that is your answer: somebody else is holding it.
Finding out where your site is hosted
Hosting is harder to see from the outside, but you can usually find it without anything technical. Search your email and your card statements for web hosts, website builders, and domain companies, and see who is charging you. If you pay a designer a monthly fee that covers hosting, that is managed hosting, and it is a perfectly good arrangement: they run the server and keep it patched, you run your business. If nobody is charging you at all, find out who is paying, because whoever pays usually controls the account. Your registrar account will also show where the domain points, which is often enough to identify the host.
Then ask whoever hosts it the direct question: if we part ways, what happens to my site? A good answer is specific. You get the code and the content, there is a notice period, and they help you move it. A good designer answers that in one email. Hesitation is information.
Owning the site, not just the address
This is where the type of website matters. On an all-in-one builder, you own your content, the words and images, but you are renting the design and the platform. You generally cannot pick up the finished site and move it somewhere else; leaving means rebuilding. That is a fine trade for a lot of businesses, as long as you know you are making it. I compare the options in a web designer versus a DIY site builder.
On a site built on WordPress or built custom, the files themselves can be moved, but only if you can get them. If someone else hosts it, that is fine, as long as your agreement says the code and the content come to you if you leave. And check what you own on final payment. The right answer is everything: the design, the code, and the content. Some contracts quietly say otherwise.
The accounts nobody thinks about until they are locked out
The quiet ones cause the most trouble, because they are free, so nobody tracks them. Your Google Business Profile should list you as the primary owner, not a manager added later by whoever set it up. The same goes for Google Search Console and Analytics, which hold years of history about how people find you. And if your email runs on your domain, the email account itself sits with a provider, which needs a login you control.
Your designer can and often should be on these, especially if they manage your site. They should be there as a manager or user you added, not as the owner you have to ask permission from. Hosting is the one account a managed arrangement puts in their hands, which is exactly why the exit terms matter.
What to get in writing before anyone builds anything
All of this is easy to settle at the start and miserable to settle at the end. Before a project begins, get these in writing:
- The domain is registered in your name, with your email address, on your card.
- If someone else hosts and manages the site, a written exit: a notice period, and your code and content handed over when you leave.
- You own the design, the code, and all the content once the final invoice is paid.
- Owner access, from day one, to the accounts that are about your business: the domain, your Google profiles, and your email.
- No exit fee, and no charge for your own files if you ever leave.
- A written list of every account involved, with who owns each one.
If a designer pushes back on any of those, that tells you how the relationship will end. It is one of the questions worth asking in hiring a web designer, and in my experience the answer tells you more than the portfolio does.
If you are already locked out
Start politely and in writing. Most of these situations are neglect, not malice, and a clear email listing exactly what you need, the registrar login, the hosting login, and a copy of the files, resolves a lot of them. Send it with a reasonable deadline and keep a copy.
If the domain is registered in someone else's name and they will not respond, contact the registrar directly. They have processes for proving you are the rightful owner, and a paper trail helps: invoices, the business registration, an old email where the designer confirmed it was yours. Moving a domain between registrars normally needs it unlocked and an authorization code, and ICANN explains the mechanics in its domain transfer FAQ. Whatever you do, do not let the expiration date slide past while you sort it out. Most registrars give a short grace period after a domain expires and then a costlier recovery window, and after that the name can be released to anyone.
The fifteen minute ownership check
Do this today, even if nothing is wrong. Especially if nothing is wrong:
- Look up your domain and note the registrar and the expiration date.
- Log into that registrar account, confirm the domain is in your name with a current email, and turn on auto-renew.
- Find out who hosts your site. If it is managed for you, confirm your agreement says what happens to your code and content if you leave.
- Open your Google Business Profile and confirm you are the primary owner.
- Check that you can get into Search Console, Analytics, and your domain email as an owner.
- Put every login in one place, a password manager rather than a sticky note, and tell one other person where it is.
That last step matters more than it sounds. The most common version of this problem is not a hostile designer. It is a business where the only person who knew the passwords left.
How I handle it
Most of my clients have me host and manage their site, because they would rather run a business than a server. So this is exactly the arrangement I am describing, and here is how it works with me. Your domain stays in your name. You own the design, the code, and every word and photo on the site. Hosting is month to month, and if you ever leave, you give 30 days' notice and your code and content come with you, along with help moving it. No exit fee, and nobody holds anything hostage. If you are not sure what you own right now, send me your address and I will tell you what I can see from the outside and what to ask for. The ranges for everything else are on the pricing page.