Who Actually Owns Your Website and Domain? Is it you — or your web designer?

If you’ve paid someone to build your website, you probably assume it’s yours. But in practice, ownership isn’t always that simple, especially if you didn’t register the domain name or hosting account yourself.

Many business owners find out the hard way that they don’t fully control their own online presence. Let’s break down what you need to know — and what to avoid.

1. Your Domain Name: Who Registered It? Who owns your domain?

Your domain name (e.g. yourbusiness.co.uk) is the address people use to find you online. If it was registered by your web designer in their own name, then they legally control it — not you.

This means:

• They can renew it… or let it expire;

• They can lock you out if there’s a dispute;

• If they disappear, go out of business, or pass away, you may struggle to recover it (and could even lose it permanently).

  
  

Best practice: Your domain name should be registered in your name, with your email address, and you should have login access to the registrar (e.g. 123-Reg, GoDaddy, Google Domains).

At Websmiths, we are happy to do domain registrations for our clients, BUT we will ALWAYS do so in YOUR NAME ONLY - not ours! Always ask yourself this question: who owns your domain?

2. The Website Platform and Hosting: Who Has Control?

Many small websites are built on platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress with managed hosting. If your designer:

• Creates the account under their email;

• Pays the bills from their card;

• Doesn’t share login credentials with you…

  
  

…then you don’t own or control your site — you’re effectively renting it from them.

Worst-case scenarios:

• They stop answering emails, and you can’t edit the site;

• They go bankrupt, and your hosting plan is deleted;

• You’re stuck with them because moving your site feels impossible.

Best practice: Make sure you have full admin access and shared credentials with your web designer.

At Websmiths, we will set you up as a separate admin user with your own login credentials once we have finalised your site and you have paid our final invoice. This way, you can never lose control of your own site.

3. Email Accounts: Who Can Access Your Business Email?

If your professional email (like you@yourbusiness.co.uk) is set up through your designer’s Google Workspace, Zoho, or hosting provider — and not registered in your name — then:

• You may lose access if they stop paying the bill;

• You could get locked out without warning;

• Recovery might be difficult or impossible if they’re unreachable.

  
  

Best practice: You should own the account that controls your domain-based email. Even if your designer sets it up for you, you should be able to:

• Log in;

• Manage users;

• Control billing and security settings.

At Websmiths, we are happy to set up domain email accounts for our clients, BUT we will ALWAYS do so in YOUR NAME ONLY - not ours!

4. Why These Pitfalls Matter

Imagine this:

• Your designer ghosts you;

• You can't update your site;

• You lose access to your business email;

• Your domain name expires without notice.

  
  

Now you're offline, losing business, and facing the headache of trying to rebuild everything from scratch — sometimes without legal recourse.

What We Do at WebSmiths

At WebSmiths, we take ownership and access seriously. When we build your website:

• You own your domain — registered in your name;

• You get full access to your hosting and website platform;

• We’ll even show you how to keep control of your email accounts;

• If we host/manage things on your behalf, we document and share all credentials with you in a secure format, and you will ALWAYS have full admin rights.

  
  

That way, you’re never locked out, even if we part ways. Your website, domain, and email remain your property — as they should be.

Ask the Question Before You Hire a Designer:

“Who will own the domain, site, and email when it’s done?”

If the answer is unclear or they avoid the question, walk away.

Want a website you can actually call your own? Contact WebSmiths today — and let’s build something together, with trust and transparency from day one. See what's included in our design packages in our blog post about that here.