Who owns my website, me or my web designer?
Short answerIt depends on your contract and on whose name things are in. A website is really four pieces: the domain, the hosting account, the code and design, and the content. You can own some and not others. Check the domain registration first, then the contract’s ownership clause, then whose account the hosting sits in.
Unsure who controls your website?
Send me the link. I’ll check where the domain and hosting sit and tell you what to ask your designer for.
The longer answer
The four things to check
- The domain. You register a domain rather than own it outright, so the registrant record is what counts. Log in to your registrar to check it, since public WHOIS results often hide the owner. The registrant should be you or your company.
- The hosting or platform account. Whose email and card is it under?
- The code and design. Governed by your contract. Without a written, signed assignment, an outside designer generally keeps copyright by default.
- The content. Words and photos you supplied are yours. Copy or photos made for you depend on the agreement.
Why the default might surprise you
Under Canada’s Copyright Act, copyright generally starts with whoever created the work. Work an employee makes in the course of their job usually belongs to the employer, but a designer you hired as a contractor generally keeps copyright until it’s assigned to you in writing. A licence lets you use the work; an assignment transfers ownership. Many good contracts handle this cleanly, assigning ownership on final payment. Some say nothing at all.
That’s general information, not legal advice. If ownership is in dispute, talk to a lawyer about your situation.
How to fix gaps before they matter
If the domain is in your designer’s name, ask them to transfer it to an account you control. Most will, without fuss. If there’s no ownership clause, ask for a short written assignment of the design and code. If the site is on a builder, make sure you’re the account owner and they’re a collaborator, not the reverse. The code ownership entry explains what “owning the code” means in practice.
What I’d do
Nick Lovett, founder of Tavro
I’d start with the domain, because it’s the hardest thing to lose and the most painful. Logging in to your registrar takes a minute. If you can’t log in to the account where it’s registered, sort that out this week while everyone is still friendly.
On my projects, the domain is in the client’s name from the start, and the contract states they own the code and design once paid. That should be the norm.
Follow-up questions
It can be. Ask them to transfer it to an account in your name. Most domain registrars make this straightforward.
If they control the hosting or domain, they technically can. Owning those accounts yourself removes that risk.
Not necessarily. Stock photos are licensed, often to whoever bought them. Ask whose licence covers them and whether it transfers.
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- nick@tavro.ca
- 587-439-9994
- Calgary, Alberta