Who Owns My Website When an Agency or Web Designer Builds It?

You own the parts of your website that are in your name or signed over to you in writing. Paying the invoice is not enough on its own. A web designer or agency keeps the copyright in the design and code it creates until it signs a transfer to you.

A website is not one single thing. It is a bundle: a domain registration, a hosting account, design and code, words and photos, software licenses and a set of logins. Each part follows its own rules. This guide takes them one at a time for US and UK small businesses. It then covers the contract, a handover checklist and what to do if a past designer will not let go.

Searching “who owns my website” to look up someone else’s site instead? ICANN Lookup shows which registrar a domain is with.

Why doesn’t paying for a website make you the owner?

Because payment and copyright are separate things. In both countries, the person or company that creates a work owns the copyright first. Your money pays for the work, but the law asks for a signed document to move the copyright. Without one, you may only have permission to use what you paid for.

The other parts work differently again. A domain is a registration contract. Hosting is a service account. Plugins and stock photos come with licenses from the companies that make them. Google tools run on Google accounts with admin roles. So “who owns my website” has several answers, and you need each one.

Who owns the domain name?

The registrant does. That is the person or company named on the domain record at the registrar. ICANN sets the rules for names such as .com. Its registrant rights page tells registrants: “You will assume sole responsibility for the registration and use of your domain name”.

The name on that record decides who controls a move. ICANN’s Transfer Policy says the registered name holder “is the only party that has the authority to approve or deny a transfer request” to a new registrar. If an agency bought your domain in its own name, the agency holds that power.

How do you check whose name is on it?

Log in to the registrar account that bills for the domain and look at the registrant contact. If you have no login, you are probably not the account holder. Ask your designer in writing which registrar they used and whose name is on the record.

What do the transfer rules give the registrant?

• The transfer code. Moving a domain to another registrar needs its AuthInfo code. ICANN’s registrant FAQ says your registrar must give it to you within five calendar days of your request, if you cannot create it yourself online.
• No hold over fees. The policy bars a registrar from refusing the code solely because of a payment dispute between the holder and the registrar. This protects you from the registrar, not from a designer.
• A lock after a name change. Changing the registrant name, organization or email can start a 60-day lock on moving to another registrar. Some registrars let you opt out first. ICANN’s FAQ suggests finishing a registrar move before you change contact details.

These rules are being updated. On June 7, 2026, ICANN’s Board adopted 47 transfer policy recommendations and directed ICANN to put them in place. Registrars will roll the changes out over time, so check your registrar’s help pages for its current steps.

What about .uk domains?

Nominet runs the .uk registry. Its policy page describes its terms as “The contract a registrant enters into with Nominet”. So the same idea applies: the registrant holds the rights. Nominet’s registrar FAQ says .uk transfers switch to a code system on February 9, 2027. From then, the old registrar gives the registrant a code, and the new registrar uses it to move the name.

Who owns the hosting account?

Whoever opened the account and pays for it. Hosting has no special ownership rule. It is a service contract between the host and the account holder. Many agencies host client sites on their own plans, and that can work well. The catch is that leaving the agency may also mean leaving its server.

If the agency will host your site, ask before you sign. Can you get a full backup, including the database, whenever you ask? How quickly will they send it if you leave? Will they move the site into your own hosting account, and what does that cost? If the site runs on the agency’s own private platform, a backup may not run anywhere else.

Who owns the design and code?

This is general information, not legal advice.

What does US law say?

Under 17 U.S.C. 201(a), copyright “vests initially in the author or authors of the work”. For a website, the author is the designer or agency that made it. The exception is a “work made for hire,” where the hiring party counts as the author.

That label covers two cases, set out in 17 U.S.C. 101. The first is work an employee does within the scope of their job, and an outside agency is not your employee. The second is a commissioned work, but only in these nine types:

• a contribution to a collective work
• part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work
• a translation
• a supplementary work
• a compilation
• an instructional text
• a test
• answer material for a test
• an atlas

The US Copyright Office’s Circular 30 lists four tests for a commissioned work. It must fit one of the nine types. There must be a written agreement. The agreement must expressly call it a work made for hire. Everyone must sign. In the circular’s words, “If a work fails to satisfy any of these requirements, it is not a work made for hire”.

A typical business website does not fit neatly into any of those nine types. So a contract that only says “work for hire” may not give you the copyright. It is wiser to ask for an assignment as well, so the rights pass to you even if the label fails.

An assignment has its own rule. Under 17 U.S.C. 204(a), a transfer “is not valid unless” it is in writing and “signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or such owner’s duly authorized agent”. The owner here is the agency, so its signature is the one that counts. An order form that only you signed is not enough on its own.

What does UK law say?

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, section 11, says “The author of a work is the first owner of any copyright in it”. An employer becomes first owner only when an employee makes the work “in the course of his employment”. Your outside agency or freelancer is not your employee.

So ownership has to be moved by assignment. Section 90(3) says “An assignment of copyright is not effective unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor”. The assignor is the agency.

The UK Intellectual Property Office’s guide, Ownership of copyright works, explains what happens when nobody signs anything. For commissioned work, the maker is the first owner, not you, “unless you otherwise agree it in writing”. A court may find you have permission to use the work, but “the commissioner of the work may only get a limited non-exclusive licence”.

What if your own staff helped build it?

Shared work can mean shared ownership. The same GOV.UK guide uses a website as its example. Say a hired designer and one of your employees create a site together. The guide says “It is likely that both the person being commissioned and the company would be joint first owners of copyright in the website”. The guide adds that all joint owners would have to agree before someone copies or uses the work. An assignment from the agency clears that up.

Can the agency keep its own toolkit?

Yes, and that can be fair. US law lets copyright be “transferred in whole or in part” under section 201(d). UK law says an assignment “may be partial” under section 90(2). A fair split gives you the custom work, while the agency keeps the code library it reuses on every job. If so, ask for a written license to that library that lasts as long as you run the site, even after you part ways.

What about the agency’s freelancers?

An agency can only sign over what it owns. If a freelancer designed your pages for the agency, that freelancer may still hold the copyright. Ask the agency to confirm in the contract that it holds written assignments from anyone it brought in for your project.

Who owns the words and photos?

Words you write and photos you take stay yours. Copy the agency writes follows the same rule as the code: it belongs to the writer until assigned. The same goes for a photographer you book. In the UK, commissioned photos once belonged to the person who ordered them, but GOV.UK notes that rule applied only before August 1, 1989.

Who holds the stock photo license?

You never own a stock photo. You buy a license, and it sits with the account that paid for it. Terms differ by site. Adobe Stock’s license page says a Standard license lets the buyer “Transfer the license to your client or employer”. It cannot go to more than one client unless each is licensed separately.

So if your agency licensed images on its own Adobe Stock account, ask it to transfer those licenses to you and send the purchase records. Adobe lists each license on the buyer’s License History page. Other stock sites set their own rules, so check each one before launch.

Who owns the theme and plugins?

Neither you nor the agency. Their makers do, and you get a license. WordPress itself is released under “the GPLv2 (or later)”. WordPress.org says “we feel strongly that plugins and themes are derivative work and thus inherit the GPL license,” while admitting “some legal grey area”.

The GPL covers the code. Updates and support are a separate matter, and premium sellers tie them to a license key. GeneratePress’s terms show how this works. A buyer may use its key for “client sites where you are actively building, developing, and managing the website and acting as its administrator”. The same terms ban “transferring” the key to anyone else.

Put simply, when the agency stops managing your site, its key may stop covering you. You can still use the GPL code, but automatic updates and support come with the key. Buy premium themes and plugins on your own account, or plan to buy your own keys at handover. Treat paid fonts the same way and check whose account each font license sits on.

Who should be the admin on your accounts?

Your business, on every one. The agency can work as an added user, but it should never be the only top-level admin. Here is what that means for the main tools.

• Website admin. Keep your own admin login on WordPress, Shopify or whatever runs the site, under a business email address. The agency gets its own separate login.
• Business email. Your email addresses run on your domain. Whoever controls the domain settings can redirect your mail, which is one more reason to hold the registrar login.
• Google Analytics. Google’s user management help says you need the Administrator role to add or change users. Make your own Google account an Administrator at the account level, not a viewer.
• Search Console. Google’s permissions page says a property must have at least one verified owner, and only owners can grant access to others. Verify your own Google account as an owner.
• Google Business Profile. Google’s owners and managers page says a profile “can have multiple owners but only one primary owner”. That primary owner should be your business.

Who usually holds each part, and what should you ask for?

What should the contract say about ownership?

Agree these points before work starts. This is general information, not legal advice, so ask a lawyer about anything you are unsure of.

• Assignment on full payment. The agency assigns the copyright in the custom design, code and copy to your business once you have paid in full. The agency signs it.
• A list of deliverables. Name the files you get, such as design source files, code or theme files, a database export and any guides.
• Accounts in your name. Domain, analytics, Search Console and Business Profile sit in your accounts from day one, plus hosting if you hold it.
• A third-party list. Every theme, plugin, font and stock image, with its license holder and renewal date.
• Subcontractor rights. The agency confirms it holds written rights from anyone it hires for your work.
• The agency’s toolkit. Anything it keeps comes with a lasting license for your site.
• Ending the work. The notice period, what gets handed over, by when, and whether the handover costs extra.

What belongs on a website handover checklist?

Use this list at launch, and again whenever you change agencies.

• Registrar login in your name, with your business as registrant
• Domain set to renew, billed to your business card
• Hosting login, or a full backup with the database
• Your own admin login on the website
• Signed copyright assignment for the custom work
• Design source files and code files
• List of themes, plugins, fonts and stock photos, with license holders
• Google Analytics with you as Administrator
• Search Console with you as a verified owner
• Business Profile with your business as primary owner
• Old agency logins removed once you have taken over

What if a former designer holds your domain or logins?

Start polite and in writing. A calm request is the quickest route to try first, and it leaves a record if you need one later.

1. Gather your proof. Collect the contract, invoices, renewal receipts and emails that show you paid for and used the domain and site.
2. Send a written request. List exactly what you need: the domain moved to your registrar account or your business named as registrant, admin logins, a full backup and Google access. Give a fair deadline.
3. Clear what you owe. If an invoice is open, paying it or agreeing a plan may be the fastest fix.
4. Use the official processes. Each part below has its own.

If your business is the registrant

Then the rights are yours, even if the agency has the login. Ask the registrar’s support team how to regain access to the account, then request the transfer code. If a registrar wrongly denies a transfer, ICANN’s FAQ says you can file a Transfer Complaint with ICANN.

If the agency is the registrant

Then on paper the domain is theirs, and you need their agreement or a formal process. ICANN’s UDRP page says most trademark-based domain disputes must be settled by agreement, court action or arbitration. Its faster process is for trademark holders facing abusive registrations, such as cybersquatting. It is not a general tool for disputes with an agency.

For .uk names, Nominet’s Dispute Resolution Service has been run by WIPO since July 7, 2026. To complain, you need rights, such as a trade mark, in a name that matches the domain. If the other side responds, Nominet offers free mediation. If that fails, a full expert decision costs £750, or £200 for a summary decision when there is no response.

This is general information, not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer before you start any dispute or court claim.

If the old agency controls your Google accounts

• Business Profile. Google’s request ownership page lets you ask the current owner for access, and the owner has 3 days to respond. If they do not, you may be able to claim the profile, though Google says that option “isn’t always available”.
• Search Console. Because you control the website, you can verify yourself as an owner. Then remove the old owner and their verification tokens, as our guide to SEO red flags explains.
• Google Analytics. Ask a current Administrator to add your Google account as an Administrator. Google notes that the last Administrator cannot delete themselves, so the agency can only step back after you are added.

How ECL can help

If you are planning a new site or a rebuild, here is how Ecommerce Linkers handles ownership. You receive what you pay for. The design and code we create are yours to use, and we will sign them over in writing on request. New domains go in your business name. Paid themes, plugins and fonts are bought in your business name too, though we can use our own licenses if you prefer.

Hosting can stay with us or sit in your own account. To stop, give one month’s notice. Analytics, Search Console, your content and brand assets stay with your business either way. See how a project runs on our website design and development page, where you can also ask for a free website consultation.