Do I own my website or does the agency?

Quick Answer

Ownership depends on what’s written in your contract, not on who built the site. In most legitimate arrangements, you own the content, the design, and the domain once you’ve paid in full. What can complicate that is anything left unspecified upfront, hosting access, source files, or licensed elements never purchased in your name.

A reputable agency puts ownership terms in writing before the project starts, not after you ask. If a contract is silent on ownership, default assumptions vary, and they don’t always favour the client automatically.

Domain names are usually the clearest case. You should always be the registered owner of your own domain, regardless of who manages it day-to-day. If an agency registers it in their own name “on your behalf,” that’s a genuine risk, not a formality. It gives them leverage to hold the domain hostage if the relationship ends badly.

Website builds are murkier. Custom code written specifically for your project is typically yours once paid for. Off-the-shelf themes, plugins, or stock images usually remain licensed to whoever purchased them, which is why it matters whose account and whose payment method were used to buy them in the first place.

The practical test is simple. If your agency disappeared tomorrow, could you take your site, your content, and your domain to someone else without a fight? That’s the same question worth answering before you ever actually need to switch. If the answer is no, or you’re not sure, that’s worth resolving before it becomes a problem, not after.

Ask early, get it in writing, and you’ll never have to find out the hard way.

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