Web · 6 min read · September 2026
Who actually owns your website?
If your web designer stopped answering the phone tomorrow, could you renew your own domain? Change a price on the site? Get your email back? For a surprising number of small businesses, the honest answer is no.
It is one of the most common messages I get from new clients, and it almost always starts the same way: "our old designer isn't responding and we can't get into anything." Nobody did anything criminal. The designer bought the domain on their own account to save time, set the hosting up under their own email, and was the only admin on the site. Then they changed jobs, changed numbers, or simply lost interest.
You paid for a website. What you actually own depends entirely on whose name is on five accounts. Here they are, in order of how much it hurts to lose them.
01
The domain registrar account
This is the one that matters most. Your domain — yourshop.com or yourshop.in — is rented a year at a time from a registrar such as GoDaddy, Hostinger, BigRock or Namecheap. Whoever is listed as the registrant controls it. If that is your designer, then legally it is their domain that happens to have your business on it. If it lapses, someone else can buy it, and your visiting cards, signboard and Google listing all point to a stranger.
What to hold: a registrar login in your own email, with your business as registrant and your card on auto-renew.
02
Your business email
If you use an address like info@yourshop.com, it runs through Google Workspace, Zoho or your hosting company. Whoever holds that admin login can read, reset or delete every mailbox. Bank alerts, GST notices and supplier invoices tend to live here, which makes it quietly the second most important account you have.
What to hold: the email admin (super admin) login, not just your own mailbox password.
03
The hosting account
Hosting is where the website's files actually live. It is often bundled into a designer's "annual maintenance" invoice, which is fine — as long as the account is in your name. If the hosting bill is unpaid, the site goes down, and after a grace period the files can be deleted. Without the hosting login, nobody can take a backup before that happens.
What to hold: the hosting control panel login, and the renewal date written somewhere you will see it.
04
The website admin login
For a WordPress, Wix or Shopify site, this is the login that lets you change text, prices and photos. You should have the top-level (administrator or owner) role. Your designer should have their own separate user, which you can remove when you stop working together — not share yours.
What to hold: an administrator account in your name. Log in once a month so you know it still works.
05
Google Business Profile and Search Console
These are not part of the website, but designers often set them up in the same sitting. Your Google Business Profile is the Maps listing with your reviews — years of them, which you cannot rebuild. Search Console shows how people find your site. Both let you add owners and managers, so there is no reason for you not to be the primary owner.
What to hold: primary owner on the Business Profile; owner on Search Console. The designer can be a manager.
Check yours in two minutes
Search for "WHOIS lookup", type in your domain, and look at the registrar and the expiry date. Many results hide the owner's name behind privacy protection, but you will at least see which company holds it. If you have never logged into that company's website, that is your answer.
A designer holding access is normal. A designer being the only one with access is a risk you are paying for.
None of this means your designer is untrustworthy. Most are not. It means that people move on, phones get lost, and a business should not depend on one person's inbox to stay online.
If your designer has already disappeared
It is usually recoverable. It is rarely quick. Work through it in this order:
- Find the domain's expiry date first. If it is weeks away, that is your deadline. Everything else can wait; a lapsed domain may not come back.
- Gather your proof. Invoices from the designer, bank transfers, WhatsApp messages about the site, your GST or business registration showing the business name.
- Ask politely, in writing, once more. Request the domain transfer code (sometimes called the EPP or auth code) and the hosting login. A short, calm email gets answered far more often than an angry one.
- Contact the registrar and host directly. Most have an ownership dispute or account recovery process. Your proof from step two is what they will ask for.
- Save what you can see. Even without logins, the live pages, text and images can be copied. If the worst happens, a rebuild from those is far cheaper than starting from nothing.
What to ask for before you pay
Put this in the quote conversation with any web designer — including me. A good one will say yes without hesitation.
Before we start, please confirm: 1. The domain will be registered in our business name, on our account. 2. Hosting and email will be on accounts we own and pay for. 3. We will have administrator access to the website; you will have your own user. 4. At handover you will send a full backup of the site. 5. We will be the primary owner on Google Business Profile.
That is the whole conversation. It adds nothing to the price, and it is the difference between owning a website and renting one from your designer.
Quick answers
My web designer registered my domain in their name. Is it still mine?
Whoever is listed as the registrant controls the domain. If you paid for it, your invoices and payment records help you prove the claim to the registrar, but the fastest route is always to ask the designer to transfer it into your name while you are still on good terms.
What do I need to move my website to a new designer?
Access to the domain registrar account (or the domain's transfer code), the hosting account, the website admin login, and a full backup of the site files and database. With those four, any competent designer can take over.
Is it normal for a designer to keep the logins?
It is common for a designer to hold access while they build and maintain the site. It is not reasonable for them to be the only person with access. You should always hold the owner-level login, and give the designer their own separate user account.
Related reading
Everything in your name, from day one.
Every website I build is registered and hosted on your accounts, with a full backup at handover. Stuck with a site you can't get into? Send me the domain and I'll tell you what can be recovered.