WEB DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT / A PRACTICAL ANSWER
Who should own your website and accounts?
The short answer
Your business should understand and control the accounts and rights it needs to operate its website. Domain registration, hosting, content, source files and third-party licences are separate questions. Agree the practical handover and contractual terms before work starts; payment alone does not explain every right or dependency.
What to agree
Create an ownership register naming the business account owner, administrators, billing contact and recovery route for each important service. Use appropriate business-controlled access rather than depending on one person's inbox. Confirm which design and development materials will be delivered.
How to decide
Ask how licences, subscriptions and supplier-managed services behave if the relationship ends. Some components may be licensed rather than transferred. Obtain appropriate professional advice on contractual rights where needed, while making the operational access requirements concrete for the project team.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE / NOT A CLIENT RESULT
Make it concrete.
If an agency buys the domain using its own account, a later supplier change can become an access problem even when the website files are available. The commissioning checklist should address both the domain account and the build deliverables.
Before you commission
- Confirm domain, hosting and billing ownership.
- Record recovery and administrator access.
- Agree the handover and third-party licence boundaries.
A plain-text worksheet. Downloading does not send us your details.
FROM THE QUESTION TO THE WORK
A useful next step.
Bring the decision, the existing situation and the information you have. We can help define a scope before you commit to a wider project.
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