Can my web designer take my website down?

If they control the domain or the hosting account, they technically can, and that is exactly why both should be in your name or covered by a written agreement. Most designers would never do it, but you should not have to rely on that.

Do I own the photos on my website?

Photos you or your staff took are yours. Stock photos are licensed, not owned, and the licence may sit in your designer's account. Photos your designer or a photographer took belong to them unless your agreement says otherwise, so check what you are allowed to do with them.

Is it bad if my web designer hosts my website?

Not at all, if it is agreed in writing. Many good designers and maintenance plans include hosting. What matters is that you have your own login to the site, a recent copy you can take away, and a clear promise that they will help you move if you ever leave.

What if my domain is registered to my old web designer?

Ask them, in writing, to change the registrant to your business or transfer the domain to an account you control. If you cannot reach them, contact the registrar the domain is with. It is much easier while the domain is active, so do not let it expire.

Do I need a solicitor to check who owns my website?

Usually not for the checks in this guide, which you can do yourself. If your contract is unclear about copyright, or someone is refusing to hand over something you paid for, a short consultation with a solicitor who handles intellectual property is worth it.

Do I Own My Website? A UK Owner's 30-Minute Checklist

You own your website only if your business is the registrant of the domain, has its own administrator login and a way to take the hosting with you, and holds the copyright in writing. Under UK law, whoever creates a commissioned website owns its copyright unless the contract transfers it. Check each in about 30 minutes, and fix gaps while relations are good.

Owning your website is not one thing. It is several separate pieces, often sitting in different accounts: the web address, the hosting, the website and its logins, the licences for the tools it runs on, and the legal rights to the design itself. You can own some and not others without realising. This guide explains each piece, shows you how to check it yourself, and finishes with exactly what to ask your web designer for.

What does owning your website actually mean?

It means you control every piece the website needs to keep running and that you could take it to someone else tomorrow without asking permission. Here are the pieces, and what good looks like for each:

Piece	What it is	Good looks like
Domain name	Your web address, such as yourbusiness.co.uk	Registered to your business, in an account you can log in to
Hosting	The service where the website files live	In your name, or with your designer under a written agreement and an exit plan
Website login	The WordPress dashboard	Your own administrator account, not a shared one
Licences	Paid tools the site runs on, such as Elementor Pro or a premium theme	In your account, or clearly agreed with your designer
Email and Google accounts	Business email, Google Business Profile, Analytics, Search Console	Your business as owner, not just a user
Copyright	The legal rights to the design, code and content	Transferred to you in writing

Most owners have some of these and assume they have all of them. Go through each one below. It takes about 30 minutes with a cup of tea.

How do I check who owns my domain name?

Start with a lookup, then check that you can log in to the account the domain is held in.

Look it up. For a .uk domain, use the free lookup from Nominet, the .uk registry. It shows when the domain was registered, when it expires and which company (the registrar) manages it. The registrant’s name only appears if they have agreed to it being shown, so a blank name is normal. For .com and other endings, most registrars offer a similar free lookup.
Find the account. Look for renewal emails from the company the lookup named, such as 123 Reg, GoDaddy or Cloudflare. If renewal reminders go to your designer, not you, that tells you whose account it is in.
Log in. You should be able to sign in to that account and see the domain listed under your business’s name and contact details.

If the domain is registered to your designer, or sits in their account, ask them to change the registrant to your business or move it to an account you control. For .com and similar domains, ICANN’s rules say the registrar must give the registrant the transfer code within five calendar days of asking, if there is no self-service option. They also say a domain usually cannot move to another registrar for 60 days after the registrant name changes, so build that into your plans.

The domain is the piece to sort first. If you control the web address, you can always point it at a new website. If you do not, you could lose the address customers know you by.

Who controls my hosting and website logins?

Check two things: whose account the hosting is in, and whether you can log in to the website yourself.

Hosting. Ask your designer who hosts the site, and whose name the account is in. There are two healthy set-ups:

The hosting is in your name, paid by you, and your designer has their own access.
Your designer or maintenance provider hosts it for you, as part of a plan, with a written agreement that they will give you a full copy of the site and help you move if you leave.

The unhealthy version is hosting inside someone else’s account with no agreement and no copy of your site. It works fine until the relationship ends.

Website login. Go to your website address followed by /wp-admin and try to log in. You want:

Your own login, in your name, not a shared “admin” account whose password only your designer knows.
The administrator role. In WordPress, go to Users and check your account is listed as Administrator. Other roles cannot add users or change important settings.

A copy of your site. Ask for a recent full backup, files and database, that you can keep somewhere safe. If the worst happens, a backup lets someone else rebuild your site on new hosting.

Does my web designer own the copyright to my website?

Possibly, yes. This is the part most owners never check, and the UK rule surprises people.

GOV.UK’s guidance on copyright says that when you commission someone to create a work for you, the first legal owner of the copyright is the person or organisation that created it, not you, unless you agree otherwise in writing. Paying for a website does not, by itself, make you the copyright owner of its design and code.

In practice, most clients are allowed to use the website they paid for, and most designers have no interest in stopping them. The risk shows up later: when you want to move to another designer, copy the design for a second site, or the relationship goes sour.

What to check:

Find your contract or terms. Look for a clause that assigns, or transfers, the copyright in the design, code and content to you once you have paid.
No contract, or nothing about copyright? Ask your designer to confirm in writing that the copyright in your website passes to your business. A short email is better than nothing. For anything significant, ask a solicitor.

This is general information, not legal advice. If anything is unclear or disputed, a short consultation with a solicitor who handles intellectual property is money well spent.

What else should be in my business’s name?

These are the pieces that catch people out, because they live outside the website itself.

Elementor Pro and other premium licences. Many sites run on paid tools like Elementor Pro, a premium theme or paid plugins. Often the designer bought the licence in their own account. Elementor says that if Pro is not renewed, you can no longer update it or add Pro features, and may only have limited access to existing ones, although the free version keeps working. Ask whose account each licence is in, and when it renews.
Business email. If your email runs through Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or your hosting, check who holds the account. Losing access to email is worse than losing the website.
Google Business Profile. Your listing on Google Maps can have several users, but only one primary owner. Owners have full control. Managers cannot add or remove users. Make sure your business is an owner, ideally the primary owner.
Google Analytics and Search Console. These hold your visitor history and Google’s messages about your site. You should have owner or administrator access, not just a guest login. Our guide to why a website is not showing up on Google explains why Search Console matters.
Photos and content. Words you wrote and photos you took are yours. Stock photos are licensed rather than owned, and photos your designer or a photographer took belong to them unless you agreed otherwise.

What should I ask my web designer for?

Ask calmly, and ask while things are friendly. In our experience, a designer holding a client’s domain or hosting is usually about convenience, not bad intent: it was quicker to set it up in their own account at the start. Most will happily put it right.

Here is a list you can copy into an email:

Please confirm the domain is registered to my business, or move it to an account in my name.
Please confirm whose account the hosting is in, and what happens if I ever move the site.
Please set me up with my own administrator login to the website.
Please send me a recent full backup of the site, files and database.
Please tell me which paid licences the site uses (such as Elementor Pro or a theme), whose account they are in, and when they renew.
Please make my business an owner of our Google Business Profile, Analytics and Search Console.
Please confirm in writing that the copyright in the website passes to my business.

If your designer has gone quiet, or will not help, start with whatever you can control. The domain comes first, then a copy of the site. If you are about to hire someone new, our guide to the questions to ask before hiring a web designer covers how to get all of this agreed at the start.

How we can help

You always own your website when we build it. We have spent over ten years building and fixing Elementor and WordPress websites, across more than 500 sites, and we would rather you were never in a position where someone else holds the keys.

If you are planning a new site, our new website design page explains how we work and shows current pricing. If you have an existing site and are not sure what you control, our existing website help service can help untangle it. Or start with a free website audit and we will tell you where your site stands.