Who owns my website domain, and how to get it back

Who owns my website domain? The short answer

Who owns my website domain? The person or company listed as the registrant in the domain's registration. That can be you, your developer or a former employee. Check the record and the account email before a dispute starts. Only the registrant can renew the domain or move it to another registrar.

The registrant owns the domain, whoever built the site

A domain name is the address people type to reach your site. It is rented through a registrar, a company that sells domain names, and the rental record names a registrant: the person or company the domain is registered to. That record decides who can renew, change or transfer the address.

A studio or freelancer builds the site on top of that address. If the developer registered the domain in their own name, the address is theirs even though you paid for the site and your customers know it. When they stop answering, you can't renew the domain, change where it points or move it. Your site and any email addresses on that domain depend on one record you can't edit.

How to check who owns your domain and hosting

Start with the domain, then the hosting. They are two separate accounts, often with two separate companies.

Look the domain up in a public registration lookup (WHOIS or RDAP, the public databases of registration records). Write down the registrar, the registrant name and the organization.
If a privacy service hides the registrant, the record shows the service instead of a name. Then the registrar account decides: ask whoever bought the domain which registrar it sits with and which email the account uses.
Search your inbox for the registrar's name together with "renewal" or "invoice". Renewal notices go to the account email, so the first one you find shows whose inbox that is.
Check hosting, the server where the site files live. A DNS lookup (the settings that point a domain at a server) shows which server the domain points to. The hosting invoice shows who pays for it.

Common traps when a developer registered the domain:

The registrant is the developer's company or the freelancer's own name.
The account email belongs to the developer, so renewal notices never reach you.
The renewal is billed inside a maintenance fee, so you have no registrar invoice.
A founder or employee registered it with a personal email and has left.

How to get a domain back and what the contract should say

Take the steps in this order.

Write to the developer. Name the domain and ask for one of two things: a change of registrant and account email to yours, or the authorization code (a one-time code from the current registrar that lets you move the domain to another registrar).
Ask what is unpaid. A developer can hold a domain back over an open invoice, and a clear answer shows what to settle.
Reread your contract for clauses about the domain, hosting and access.
If the developer refuses or stays silent, ask the registrar's support what proof of identity or company they accept. What you can enforce depends on your contract and your country, so a lawyer's opinion belongs here.

A contract with a developer should say:

the domain is registered to you or your company, with your email on the account;
who pays each renewal and when;
that the developer hands over access to the registrar account and the hosting at launch;
what happens to the domain and hosting if either side ends the work.

Personal or company registration comes down to who stays. Register a company's domain in the company's legal name, with a shared mailbox such as a role address (like info@ or finance@, not tied to one person) that survives any one person leaving. Keep that mailbox on a different domain from the site, because if the site's domain lapses the mailbox goes with it. A sole trader (a self-employed person with no separate company) can register in their own name.

When we build a site, your domain and server are registered to you and we hand over access. If you want someone to look after the site after launch, see our website maintenance services.

Follow-up questions

Who hosts my website?

Your hosting company is the one that stores the site files and serves them to visitors. Check the hosting invoice, or ask your developer for the name of the hosting account and the email it uses.

Who owns my website?

The domain belongs to its registrant. The files, design and copy belong to whoever your contract says they transfer to, so ask for that in writing before the site is finished.

What is the difference between a domain, hosting and site files?

The domain is the address, the hosting is the server that holds the site, and the site files are the pages, images and code on that server. Each can sit with a different owner, so check all three.

Next step

Leave your phone number in the request form and we'll call you back, talk through the task and fill in the brief (the list of exactly what we build) with you. You pay by invoice under a contract. For a new site with the domain registered to you, see Corporate website.

Author and dates:

We call you back and help fill in the request