Who Actually Owns Your Website?

Your website has four distinct pieces, and each one can be owned or controlled by a different party. Many business owners discover too late that they do not fully own what they paid for. Here is what to check, and what to do if the answer is not what you expect.

What are the four pieces of a website?

1. Your domain name. This is your web address. The owner is whoever is listed as the registrant at the domain registrar. If your developer registered it in their name, they control it, not you. Check your registrar and make sure your name and contact information are on record.

2. Your hosting account. This is where your website files live. The account holder controls what gets deleted and what gets exported. If your developer manages your hosting, ask for your own login credentials or have your own account created.

3. Your content. This is your words, your photos, your documents. Content you wrote or commissioned belongs to you. Photos you took or licensed belong to you. Content your developer wrote under contract may have terms attached. Most agreements treat the content as yours, but check if you are unsure.

4. The code and design. This is the theme, the custom templates, the CSS that makes your site look the way it does. This is where the murkiest ownership questions live. WordPress themes are often licensed, not sold. Custom code built by a developer may belong to them unless your contract says otherwise. Many developers retain rights to reuse their work.

Why does this matter for a small business?

Because if you want to move your site, you need access to all four. A developer can hold your domain, your hosting, or your code hostage, whether intentionally or just through inaction. And even without any bad intent, if you simply do not have the login credentials, you cannot do anything without asking for help.

This situation is more common than it should be. Many small businesses had their site set up by a freelancer or a friend, and the account details went into someone else’s email. Years later the business wants to move, and there is no obvious path forward.

What should I actually check right now?

Go through this list:

Domain registrar. Log in and confirm your domain is registered in your name. If you cannot log in, that is the first problem to solve. Contact the registrar directly using your business address to claim ownership if necessary.

Hosting account. Do you have your own login? Can you access the file manager, download your files, and export your database? If not, request access from whoever manages it.

Admin login to WordPress. Do you have an administrator login to the WordPress dashboard? Can you create a new administrator account and remove old ones?

Billing. Are you the one paying for domain renewal and hosting? If not, add your payment method and take over billing so nothing lapses without your knowledge.

What if I am locked out?

Domain disputes can be escalated through ICANN’s dispute process. If your registrar is uncooperative, many disputes can be resolved by proving you are the legitimate business owner. This takes time, but the process exists.

For hosting, your content is legally yours. A hosting company cannot keep your database and files from you indefinitely. Most will provide a backup on request.

For code and design disputes, consult a lawyer if the situation is complex. For most small businesses, the practical solution is to move forward: convert the site, using the content that is clearly yours, and build from there.

The no-hostages policy

Basalt moves small business websites off WordPress to a platform with nothing to hack and nothing to update. The move is free. And if you ever decide to leave Basalt, you get the repository with all of your site’s files. Your content is yours on the way in and on the way out.

This matters because many platforms do not work this way. The lock-in is the product. At Basalt, your site is yours.

A full guide to making a clean exit is here.

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