If you stopped working with your website person tomorrow, could you keep your web address and get what you need to move?
If your answer is “I assume so, I've been paying the bill,” let's check. The invoice tells you what you paid. It doesn't tell you who controls the accounts or what happens when the relationship ends.
A login, a contract and a movable website are different things
“You own your website” is a pretty useless sentence until someone explains what it includes.
- Account control: Can your business sign in, approve changes and recover access?
- Contractual rights: What are you allowed to keep, reuse or give to another provider?
- Ability to move: Can another provider actually run the site elsewhere, or will parts need rebuilding?
Having the password doesn't settle the rights. In the U.S., copyright ownership can pass through contracts, and licensing lets someone use work without owning it. Read your agreement for the design, code, writing and photos separately. If there's a dispute about rights, get a qualified lawyer to review it. A login screen isn't legal advice.
Start with the address on your business cards
Your domain is your web address. The registrar is the company where it's registered. Start there, even if someone else handles renewal for you.
Don't know the registrar? ICANN's transfer FAQ explains how to find it through ICANN Lookup.
- Sign in through the registrar's official website. Confirm your domain appears in the account.
- Check who is listed as the registrant, meaning the registered name holder. Confirm that it matches your business's intended arrangement.
- Find the renewal date, payment method and contact receiving renewal notices.
- Inspect the account's recovery email and phone. Can your business reach them without your provider's help?
A privacy or proxy service appearing in registration information isn't proof of a problem. Confirm the underlying details with the registrar instead of treating a public lookup as an ownership verdict.
For now, inspect. Don't start a transfer or change contact details just to tidy things up. ICANN documents transfer locks after certain registrant changes. Ask the registrar about restrictions before making changes, and have your provider check anything that affects your business email.
Check what you can recover without your website person
Make a short account list: domain, website editor, hosting, business email, form service and analytics. For each, record the provider, account holder, your access level and the recovery route. Keep passwords out of that list.
Where separate users are supported, ask for your own invitation with the permissions your business needs. Check that the recovery email, second-factor device and backup codes aren't all controlled by someone outside the business. Store credentials and recovery codes securely in your business password manager.
Your provider doesn't need to hand over a master hosting login that exposes other customers. A documented way to recover or move your own site is a reasonable alternative. Get that process written down, including what happens if the provider is unavailable.
Find your content and your customer inquiries
Check that you can get copies of your page text, original photos and downloads. Ask which images, fonts or templates are licensed, and whether those rights cover use after you leave.
Then ask for a sample export. Open it. Have a replacement provider inspect it before anyone promises an easy move.
For example, Squarespace exports certain content, but its export excludes style settings and several content types. An export button doesn't mean the whole website packs itself into a suitcase.
Check inquiries separately. Where are the stored submissions? Can you access and export the records your business is entitled to retain, including attachments? A notification in your inbox doesn't answer that. I've covered the form-submission and notification checks separately.
Use a dummy inquiry to check the handover process, not a customer's private information sent around by email.
Get the exit terms in writing
You don't need to announce a breakup. Send this while everything is working:
I'm documenting our website setup for the business. Please send an inventory of the services and accounts used, who holds each account, and how we can access or recover our part.
Please also confirm what happens if we end the service: what files, content and inquiry records we receive; what rights we have to reuse the design and licensed materials; and what cannot be moved.
What notice is required, how long does handover take, and what charges or outstanding balances apply? When would the site, email or connected services stop? Who handles the domain and any routing changes?
Please use account invitations or secure sharing for access, rather than emailing passwords.
Save the response with your agreement. If it changes the agreement, get the change formally recorded. “We'll sort it out” leaves an awful lot to sort out.
Before cancelling anything, agree on the sequence with both providers. Have the replacement checked, the necessary records copied and the website, forms and email tested. Moving the website and moving the domain registration are separate decisions.
Managed service is fine. Mystery terms aren't.
Paying someone to handle hosting, renewals and updates can be a perfectly sensible choice. You have a business to run. Becoming the emergency website department probably wasn't the plan.
A service can also have limits on what you can take when you leave. Get those limits, any rebuild costs and the handover process clear before signing. Judge the arrangement by whether it works for you, with the exit understood.
Start by signing into your domain account. Then send the handover question while you and your website person still like each other.