Who Owns My Website After It Is Built?

Four things, four owners to confirm

• •The domain name. This is rented from a registrar, yearly, and the account should be in your name with your email. This is the single most important one.
• •The content and files. Your text, your photos, and the site itself. This should belong to you once the work is paid for.
• •The platform or hosting. The service the site runs on. You can own the site and still use someone else's platform — like owning your tools but renting the shop.
• •Third-party services. Booking tools, payment processors, email tools. You own your account with them; you don't own the service itself, and their terms apply.

Where people get burned

The usual trap is a domain registered in the builder's name, or a site locked inside a proprietary platform you can't export. Then leaving means starting over, which is exactly the leverage that made it happen. Ask about both before you hire anyone — it's on the list in what to ask before hiring someone.

How it works with me

You see the site before you pay anything. Once it's finished and paid for, the website is yours. Website Care at $50/month is optional — it's for people who'd rather hand off updates, not a fee that holds your site hostage. Your domain stays in your name.

To be accurate about the limits: I can't hand you ownership of platforms or outside services that I don't own either. What I can do is make sure the accounts are yours, you have the logins, and nothing important is sitting only in my name.

Get these four things in writing

• •The domain is registered to me, at my email address.
• •I own the website content and files once paid.
• •I have logins to every account used to run the site.
• •Nothing stops working if I cancel an optional monthly service.

Related: can I use a domain I already own and do I have to pay monthly.