Do you own your
website?

You should control your domain and the accounts around your site, and you own the content you created yourself. The design and code are different: copyright starts with whoever created them. They become yours only if the law treats them as a work made for hire, or if your agreement transfers them to you in a signed writing. In practice, check three things: whose name each piece is registered in, which accounts you can actually sign in to, and what your contract transfers or licenses.

A website is several things, not one

When people ask whether they own their website, they usually mean all of it. In practice, a website is a bundle of separate pieces, and each one can belong to someone different:

• The domain: your address on the web, held by whoever is listed as its registrant.
• The hosting: the account where the site’s files live and run.
• The design and code: the layout, graphics and programming that make the site.
• The content: words, photos, logo and other material.
• Licensed parts: themes, plugins, fonts and stock photos, used under someone else’s licence.
• The accounts around the site: business email, Google Business Profile, Analytics, Search Console and any ad accounts.

Few businesses own every piece outright, and they don’t need to. What matters is knowing four things for each piece:

• what you own
• what you license
• which accounts you control
• what you can export or move if you ever need to

Who usually holds each piece

• Domain: whoever is named as the registrant with the registrar. If your designer registered it in their own name, they hold it, even if you paid for it. Being the registrant and having the login to the registrar account are two different things; you want both.
• Hosting: whoever’s name the hosting account is in. You can own the files and still not control the account they run on.
• Design and code: whoever created them, unless the law or your agreement says otherwise (see the next section).
• Content: content you created yourself is yours. Copy or photos someone else created for you follow the same rules as the design. Stock images and fonts are licensed, not owned.
• Licensed parts: you use them under licence terms, which may belong to whoever bought the licence.
• Accounts: whoever created them or is listed as the owner. Being a “user” on an account is not the same as owning it.

Does my web designer own my website?

They may own the design and code, depending on how the work was set up. US copyright law works like this:

• Ownership starts with the creator. Copyright belongs initially to the author of a work (17 U.S.C. § 201(a)).
• Employees’ work belongs to the employer. A work an employee creates as part of their job is a “work made for hire”, and the employer is treated as its author and owner. If an agency built your site with its own staff, the agency usually holds the copyright, so what matters is what your agreement with the agency transfers to you.
• Commissioned work qualifies only in narrow cases. A commissioned work counts as made for hire only if it falls into one of nine categories and both parties sign a written agreement saying so (Copyright Office, Circular 30). The categories are: contributions to a collective work, parts of a motion picture or audiovisual work, translations, supplementary works, compilations, instructional texts, tests, answer material for tests, and atlases. Websites and software are not named among them. Whether a particular site fits a category is a legal question.
• Otherwise, ownership moves by assignment. A voluntary transfer of copyright (an assignment) generally needs a written document signed by the owner of the rights being transferred (17 U.S.C. § 204(a)).

What this means for you:

• A contract that only says an outside designer’s work is “made for hire” may not do what you expect.
• Look for clear, signed language that transfers the design and code to you, and says which parts.
• If it isn’t there, or you aren’t sure what it means, have a lawyer review it.

This guide is general information, not legal advice.

Website builders and pay-monthly websites

Two common setups work differently:

• Website builder platforms. You typically control your account and the content you put in it, but the site itself usually runs only on that platform. Moving means rebuilding, though your words and images come with you.
• Pay-monthly (leased) websites. Some providers include design, hosting and updates for a monthly fee. Read what happens if you stop paying: whether you keep the design, the content and the domain, or only the content.

Neither is wrong. What matters is knowing what you’d be able to take with you before you need to.

What to check today

A few minutes now can save a difficult conversation later:

1. Look up your domain. ICANN’s free lookup tool shows the registrar. Registrant details are often hidden by privacy protection, and a public lookup isn’t proof of legal ownership. Confirm the registrant details and your own access directly in your registrar account, or with the registrar.
2. Check the hosting account. Is it in your name, and do you have the login?
3. Confirm admin access to the site, not just an editor login.
4. Check owner-level access to your business email, Google Business Profile, Analytics, Search Console and any ad accounts.
5. Read your agreement for what transfers to you, what is licensed, and what happens if you end the relationship.
6. Keep a current copy of your site’s files and content somewhere you control.

Domains: holder, login and transfer are different things

Your domain carries your email and everything people already know about your address, so it’s worth getting this part exactly right. Four things are easy to mix up:

• The registrant is the person or business on record as the domain’s holder.
• Registrar account access is who can sign in and manage the domain. It can be a different person from the registrant.
• A change of registrant moves the domain into a new holder’s name. Under ICANN’s current Transfer Policy, the registrar must get confirmation from both the current and the new registrant (ICANN Transfer Policy). If your designer is the registrant, they have to agree; you can’t make the change on your own.
• A transfer between registrars moves the domain to another company. ICANN describes this as a right of the domain holder, which needs a transfer code that the current registrar must provide on request. Transfers can be refused or delayed in set situations: within 60 days of the domain’s registration or of a previous transfer, during a dispute or court order, or with evidence of fraud. A change of registrant also triggers a 60-day lock on moving to a different registrar, unless the holder opted out beforehand.

If your designer holds your domain:

• Ask them in writing to change the registrant to your business, and to give you access to the registrar account.
• If you also want to move registrars, ask your registrar which step to take first, since a change of registrant can start that lock.
• If the provider won’t cooperate, keep records of your requests and payments, and speak to a lawyer.

Two notes on these rules:

• They are changing. ICANN’s Board adopted changes to the transfer rules in June 2026, including shorter waiting periods and an end to the lock after a change of registrant (Board resolution 2026.06.07.04). They take effect only once ICANN has implemented them. Until then, the current policy described above applies, so check your registrar’s current terms before you start.
• They apply to generic domains such as .com. Country-code domains, such as .us or .co, are run by their own registries and may follow different policies (ICANN on country-code domains).

Before you hire anyone

The simplest time to settle ownership is before work starts. Ask:

• whose name the domain and hosting will be in
• what the agreement transfers to you, in writing
• which parts are licensed
• what you’ll receive at handover

Our guide to the questions to ask before hiring a web designer covers this and the rest of the hiring decision.

How this works with Lux

The design, code, and content we create for your project transfer to you under your agreement. Your domain and business accounts remain under your control. Third-party software, licensed assets, and ongoing services follow their respective terms. We make ownership, licensing, and ongoing service responsibilities clear during project scoping.