Who really owns your website? Five things to check today

Most business owners assume they own their website. They paid for it, after all. Then the developer stops answering emails, or the agency closes, and it turns out the domain, the hosting and the admin login are all in someone else's name.

It happens more often than it should, and it's easy to prevent. Here's what to check.

1. The domain name

Your domain is your address online. Whoever controls it controls your website and, usually, your email.

• Look up where your domain is registered. A WHOIS search will normally show the registrar, even when the owner's details are hidden.
• Log in to that registrar's account. If you don't have a login, that's the first thing to fix.
• Check the account email is one you control, not a former employee's or your developer's.

If someone else holds it, ask them to move it to an account in your name. A good developer will do this without fuss.

2. Hosting

Hosting is where your site's files live. It's often bought by whoever built the site, on their own account.

That isn't always bad. Plenty of agencies manage hosting for their clients and do it well. But you should know where your site lives, who pays for it, and how you would get a copy of it if you needed one.

Ask for the name of the host, and whether the account is yours or theirs.

3. Admin access

You should have your own administrator login. Not a shared one, and not an editor account with limited rights.

If you only have an editor login, ask for an administrator account in your own name. You may never use it, but it will be there when you need it.

4. Backups you can reach

A backup you can't get to isn't much use. Find out:

• How often the site is backed up
• Where the backups are stored
• How you would get one, and how long it would take

The answer should be simple. If it isn't, better to find out now than on the day your site goes down.

5. Paid plugins, themes and apps

Premium plugins, themes and apps come with licences. If they were bought on your developer's account, they may stop updating when that relationship ends, and out-of-date plugins are one of the most common ways sites get hacked.

Make a list of what's paid for, whose account it sits on, and when each renewal is due.

What to do with what you find

You don't need to change everything overnight. Start a short document with:

1. Where your domain is registered, and the login
2. Who hosts the site, and whose account it is
3. Your admin login
4. Where the backups live
5. Paid licences and their renewal dates

Keep it somewhere safe, like a password manager. Then, if you ever change developers, the handover takes an afternoon instead of a rebuild.

If one thing on this list isn't in your name, fix that first. It's usually one polite email.