Who Owns My Website Domain, Me or My Web Designer? How to Check and What to Ask

Plenty of owners assume that because a designer built the site, the designer owns it. Others assume that because they paid, they own all of it. Then the site goes down, or the designer stops answering, and the question of who owns the website domain turns out to have a name they don't recognise. You can check it yourself, before or after you hire.

Short answer: the registrant named on a domain is the one who holds it, and that should be you, not your web designer. Your domain, your hosting and your site files are three separate things, and each can have a different owner. You can check the registrant with a lookup. On my sites, the domain is bought in your own name.

What does "who owns my website" actually mean?

It's three questions hiding in one. Your domain is your web address, the name people type. You pay for it each year, about $15 to $25 a year for a common one (I covered the price in what a website costs in Canada). Hosting is the computer that serves your site to visitors, so the question there is who pays for it and who holds the login. The site files and content are the design, the code, the words and the photos. It's common for each of the three to sit in a different place.

For a domain, "owning" has a specific meaning. ICANN, the body that oversees domain names, uses two terms. The registrant is the person or company named as the holder of the domain. The registrar is the company you register and manage it through. ICANN's agreement with registrars defines a "Registered Name Holder" as "the holder of a Registered Name", and gives the person who pays for a name but isn't the holder a separate term, "Account Holder". So being the one who pays or logs in isn't the same as being the holder.

It usually goes wrong by convenience, not bad intent. A designer sets everything up under their own account to save you a step, the site launches, and nobody changes it later. If you also wonder who hosts your website, that's the second of the three. Ask who pays the host and who has the login. I only touch hosting here as one part of the picture.

How do I check who owns my domain?

There are three ways, shortest first. One, search your domain at ICANN's lookup page, which says it lets you look up the current registration data for a domain. ICANN's own page says the result includes the registrar's name. Two, log in to the registrar account if you have one, and look at the account holder and the renewal date. Three, ask your designer in writing who the registrant is and which registrar account it sits in.

When you read the result, look for the registrar, the registrant and the expiry date. Many registrants are hidden or shown as "redacted", and that on its own doesn't mean the domain isn't yours. It also doesn't prove it is. The registrar can confirm the holder, so ask them, or ask your designer to show you the account. I didn't time any of this, so I won't tell you it takes five minutes. It is a short job that most owners have never done.

A .ca domain has a registrant too, and the same check applies. I tried to open CIRA's page on .ca privacy to say what its lookup shows for individuals, and it wouldn't load for me, so I'm leaving that detail out rather than guess.

What if my designer holds my domain, or I can't tell?

Don't start with a fight. Ask, politely and in writing, for the registrant to be changed to you or your business, and for access to the registrar account. ICANN's page says that to change or transfer a domain you should contact the registrar it's registered with. So if your designer doesn't reply, the registrar is the next call. The cost of waiting is renewals. If whoever holds the account stops paying, the domain can lapse, and the site and any email on it can stop working.

One thing so it doesn't surprise you. ICANN's page says registrars must lock a transfer to another registrar for 60 days after a registrant change, and that you can avoid the lock by asking for the transfer before changing the registrant's information. I can't say how your registrar applies that today, so ask them. I'm not going to walk you through a transfer here. The registrar handles it.

Files and hosting are a separate question. Who owns the design, the code and the words depends on the agreement with your designer and on your country, and I can't tell you what another designer's terms say. Ask for the answer in writing. This isn't legal advice. Rules differ between Canada, the UK and elsewhere, and between .ca, .com and other endings, so for a real dispute, talk to a lawyer. If you're moving to a new designer, a redesign has its own steps, and I cover them on my website redesign page.

What should I ask a web designer before I hire them?

Put these in writing, and ask them of anyone, me included:

• Whose name will the domain be registered in?
• Which registrar account is it in, and will I have the login?
• Who renews it, when, and what does that cost?
• Where will the site be hosted, who pays, and what happens to it if the work ends?
• What do I get at handover (files, content, logins), in writing?

My post on green flags and red flags when hiring a web designer has more to ask. A designer who can't answer these plainly is worth a second look. And you may need the login sooner than you think, because a site can't go live if nobody can find the domain login.

Here's what I can say about mine. I build custom-coded websites for small businesses. You buy the domain in your own name, which costs about $15 to $25 a year, and hosting is free, for as long as your site is with me. For the rest, ask me those questions too. I think the domain should be in the owner's name from day one. It's cheap to get right at the start and painful to fix after a falling-out.

You may not need me for this. If the domain is already in your name and you have the login, you're fine, so check the expiry date and put it in your calendar. If you built a small site on a builder, the same check applies, and it isn't a job for a designer.

What to do this week:

• Look up your domain at ICANN's lookup and note the registrar and the expiry date.
• Log in to the registrar and check the account email is one you read.
• If the registrant isn't you, send your designer one written request to move it.
• Put the expiry date in your calendar with a reminder a month before.

Related posts

• Green flags and red flags when hiring a web designer
• How much does a website cost in Canada?
• How long does it take to build a website?
• My website redesign service

Sources

• ICANN: About Change of Registrant (no date on the page, read 21 October 2026)
• ICANN: Lookup (read 21 October 2026)
• ICANN: 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (published 17 September 2013, read 21 October 2026)
• Eagle Rock Web Design: Pricing

Questions people ask