What you should own after paying for a website, why it matters, and how to check before there is a problem.
This question surfaces at the worst possible time, which is when a business wants to change providers and discovers it cannot. Sorting it out before you build takes ten minutes.
What you should own outright
- The domain name, registered in your company's name with you holding the login
- The source code and design files
- The hosting account, or at minimum the ability to export everything
- Analytics and Search Console properties
- Any developer accounts for app stores, in your company name
- Content: copy, photographs, and logo files in their original formats
How to check what you actually have
- Look up your domain on a WHOIS service and see whose name is on it.
- Log in to your domain registrar yourself. If you cannot, you do not control it.
- Ask for the repository URL or a copy of the code, and confirm you can access it.
- Check your Google Analytics account: are you an owner or just a viewer?
Reasonable exceptions
Some things genuinely are not yours to own, and that is normal.
- Licensed stock photography, which is licensed to the project rather than transferred
- Third party plugins or themes, which remain the property of their authors
- A studio's internal tooling, which is not what you commissioned
- Fonts, which are licensed and sometimes tied to page view volumes
What to put in writing before starting
One paragraph is enough: on final payment, ownership of the code, design files and content transfers to you, and all accounts are registered in your name. Any studio operating in good faith will agree without hesitation. The reaction to being asked is itself informative.