Who owns my website, domain and code?
It depends entirely on whose name the accounts are in, and that is often not yours. Three things need to be in your control: the domain registration, the hosting account, and the code or site files. If your builder holds all three, leaving means rebuilding — regardless of what you paid.
Four separate things, commonly confused
What people call "my website" is four assets that can each be held by a different party. Paying for a website does not automatically give you all four, and most disputes come from discovering that years later.
| Asset | What it is | Who often holds it |
|---|---|---|
| Domain name | The address, licensed from a registrar | Frequently the builder, on their own account |
| Hosting | The server and accounts the site runs on | Frequently the builder, often resold to you |
| Code and site files | The actual build — templates, configuration, custom work | Varies, and often never discussed |
| Content | Your words, images, logo | You, unless a photographer or writer licensed it to you only |
The domain is the one that matters most, because it is the only one that cannot be reproduced. A rebuilt site is an expense. A domain you cannot control is your email address, your search standing and every printed reference you have ever handed out.
How to check what you actually have, today
- Look up your own domain in the public WHOIS register. For a .com.au, the registrant should be your business name with your ABN. If it names your builder, they hold the licence, not you.
- Confirm you can log in to the registrar yourself, with a username and password you hold. Being listed as the registrant while someone else controls the account is nearly as bad as not being listed.
- Confirm you can log in to the hosting account, or that it is in your business name and billed to you.
- Ask where the site files or code repository are, and whether you have a copy. For a custom build, ask specifically whether you have a licence or whether you own it.
If any of those four comes back wrong, it is almost always fixable while the relationship is good and almost always painful once it is not. That asymmetry is the entire reason to check now rather than when you are leaving.
Why builders hold these accounts
Usually not malice. It is genuinely easier to manage fifty sites on accounts you control than to coordinate fifty clients’ credentials, and for the client it removes an administrative task they did not want. Many good agencies work this way and transfer everything on request without argument.
The problem is not the arrangement; it is the arrangement being undocumented. If the builder becomes unresponsive, ceases trading, or simply disagrees with you about an invoice, an undocumented convenience becomes leverage — and recovering a domain from an uncooperative registrant is slow and sometimes unsuccessful.
What to agree before a build starts
Four lines in writing are sufficient, and any reasonable provider will agree to them: the domain is registered in the client’s business name and ABN; the client holds registrar credentials; on termination the client receives a complete copy of the site files or code and a documented export of content; and nothing is contingent on an ongoing service agreement.
That last clause matters most. A build where leaving means losing the site is not a website you bought; it is one you are renting, and that is a fine arrangement as long as both parties know which one it is.
This question comes up most often in our Web Development engagements.