Do I own my website?

Yes — you own everything. The code, the domain, the hosting account and the email addresses are registered in your name, not ours. If we disappeared tomorrow, your website would not notice. There is no proprietary platform, no licence to keep paying, and no dependency on us answering an email.

Reviewed October 6, 2026. Prices are quoted per project; nothing on this page is a published price list.

The short answer

Ownership is the default, not a negotiating position. Your site is hand-written HTML, CSS and JavaScript, so the source is yours outright, and every account that keeps it alive — domain, hosting, email — is opened in your name from day one. Handover includes a document listing every account, password and file.

The four things you must own

The source code, the domain, the hosting account and the email addresses. If any one of those sits in a designer's name, you are renting your own website: leave them and you leave your address, your files or your whole site behind.

How to check right now

Look up your domain's registrant (a whois search shows who it is registered to), log in to your hosting account directly, and ask yourself whether another developer could pick the site up tomorrow. If the answer to any of those is "I am not sure", that is worth fixing — read how to check you own yours.

What "domain hostage" looks like

A designer registers the domain in their own name and renewal quietly stops being your problem — until you want to leave, and your web address is leverage. We register the domain in your name before anything is built, so the scenario cannot happen. If your current designer already holds it, ask for the transfer before commissioning more work; we can help you check.

Questions

Do I own the code?

Yes. Your site is hand-written HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and you own the source. There is no proprietary page builder, no licence to keep paying, and nothing that stops another developer picking it up.

Can I host it somewhere else?

Yes. It is a static site, so any host will serve it. Move it whenever you like, with or without telling us. Handover includes everything needed to do that.

What happens if you disappear?

Nothing happens to your website. The domain, hosting, email and source are in your name, and the handover document lists every account and how to reach support. There is no dependency on us answering an email.

Do I pay you anything after launch?

No. There are no retainers and no maintenance fee. What you pay afterwards is whatever your domain and hosting cost, paid to those providers directly, in your name.

Tell us what you need. Send a few rough lines and we will come back with a scope, a fixed price and a delivery date in writing.

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