Who owns your domain, hosting and website code?
Three things should belong to you after a website project: the domain, the hosting account and the code. How to check this before you sign and what to ask for.
A common surprise comes years after a website is built: the domain is registered to the agency, or the site cannot be moved because nobody has the files. Ownership is easy to settle at the start and hard to fix later.
The domain
The domain (for example yourcompany.sk) should be registered in your name, with your e-mail as the contact. A developer can manage it for you, but the registrant should be you. Ask for the name of the registrar and check the record yourself.
The hosting account
Hosting is where the site runs. Ideally the account is yours, and the developer has access to work on it. If the account is the developer's, ask what happens to your site if you part ways, and how it can be moved.
The code and content
- Do you receive the source code and a copy of the content at handover?
- Is anything built on a licence that must be renewed, such as a paid theme or plugin? Who pays for it and holds the licence?
- Are the design files yours?
Accounts and passwords
Keep a list of the accounts connected to the site: domain registrar, hosting, analytics, e-mail, payment provider. They should be reachable by you, not only by the person who set them up.
Put it in writing
A short sentence in the quote or contract is enough: what is handed over, to whom each account belongs, and what happens if the cooperation ends. This is one of the questions in how to choose a web developer.
If you want to talk through what this looks like for your project, write to me.