Who Actually Owns Your Website?

A contractor called us a while back with a straightforward request. He wanted to move his website. Nothing dramatic had happened; the guy who built it had stopped answering, and he wanted it somewhere he could get help.

Simple, except for one thing. He didn’t have the domain. He’d been paying for it, by way of a line item on an invoice, for six years. But the registration was in the builder’s name, at a registrar he’d never heard of, tied to an email address he couldn’t reach.

He hadn’t done anything wrong. He’d just never been told there was a question to ask.

Three things, not one

“My website” describes three separate assets, and they can each be held by a different party.

The domain. Your address on the internet, rented annually through a registrar. The registration record names a registrant, and that’s the party with control. Critically, the registrant is not automatically whoever pays the bill.

The hosting. The computer your site’s files live on. Belongs to whoever holds the hosting account.

The site itself. The design, code, text, and photos. Governed by your agreement, if you have one.

You can move hosts and keep your domain. You can move your domain and keep your host. The trouble is always the same shape: one of the three is controlled by someone else and you find out at the exact moment you need it.

What your rights actually are

Worth knowing, because it’s less bleak than people fear.

ICANN, the body that oversees the domain name system, is direct about this. Transferring your domain to another registrar or another registrant is one of your rights as a registrant, and your registrar is required to give you the information you need to make that transfer.

Two practical details from ICANN’s policies that catch people out:

The 60-day lock. After a change to the registrant’s information, registrars must apply a lock preventing transfer to another registrar for 60 days. Registrars may allow you to opt out of that lock beforehand, but they aren’t required to. So if you’re moving a domain into your own name and also to a new registrar, sequence it deliberately. Otherwise you’ll do the first step and find the second blocked for two months.

Notification. Registrars must notify both the prior and the new registrant of a change of registrant, including how to approve or cancel it. If you’ve never received an email like that about your own domain, that’s information.

The important limit: ICANN governs domains. It does not govern your website’s files or content. Those are contractual. Which is why the agreement matters more than most people give it credit for.

How to check, in about ten minutes

Do this now, while nothing is wrong. It is far easier to fix on a calm Tuesday than during a dispute.

1. Look up your domain in a public registration lookup. Note the registrar and the registrant. Privacy protection may mask the details, but you’ll still see which registrar holds it.
2. Try to log in to that registrar with an account in your own name and your own email. This is the real test. Not who pays. Not who says they manage it. Can you get in?
3. Find your hosting account. Same test. If you can’t identify who your host is, that’s the answer.
4. Check the email address on both. A surprising number of accounts are tied to an address at a company someone left in 2019, which means password recovery is impossible.
5. Read your agreement, if you have one, for the words “ownership,” “termination,” and “content.” If you’re still deciding how to build the thing in the first place, this is one of the factors in choosing between a builder and hiring someone.

If you can log into both accounts under your own name, you’re fine. Write down where they live and who else can reach them, and get on with your day.

What to fix if the answers were uncomfortable

Ask plainly. Most of the time this is not malice. It’s a small shop that set things up under its own account years ago because it was faster. Ask for the domain to be transferred into a registrar account in your name. Reasonable people say yes.

Set up your own registrar account first, using a business email address that will outlive any one employee. Then have the domain moved into it.

Mind the 60-day lock. Change of registrant first, then wait, then move registrars. Or ask about opting out of the lock before the change is made.

Get a copy of your site. Files and database. Even if you’re staying put. A copy on your own drive costs nothing and changes your position entirely.

Fix the contact email on both accounts to something the business controls.

What to require before you sign the next one

Whether it’s us or anyone else:

• The domain is registered in your name, at a registrar you can log into.
• You own your content, your text, and your photos.
• You can get a copy of your site and database on request.
• The agreement says in writing what happens if you leave.

Ask the question directly: “If we part ways, what do we walk away with?”

A company that answers that easily and specifically has thought about it and is comfortable with the answer. A company that gets vague or slightly wounded has told you something more useful than any portfolio could.

The contractor got his domain back, incidentally. It took about three weeks and a couple of awkward emails. Ten minutes of checking, six years earlier, would have made it a non-event.