Do you own your website? A code ownership and lock-in checklist

The domain

• The domain is registered with you or your business as the registrant, not the developer or agency.
• You have your own login at the registrar, with an email address you control.
• Auto-renewal is on, and the renewal payment is yours, so the domain cannot lapse because someone else’s card expired.
• You know who can change the DNS settings, which decide where the domain points.

Hosting and email

• The hosting account is in your name and billed to you, or the contract says exactly how and when it transfers to you.
• Business email (Google Workspace, Zoho, Microsoft 365 or similar) has you as the top-level administrator.
• You can download a full backup of the site and its database without asking anyone.

The source code

• The code lives in a repository you own — a GitHub or GitLab account or organisation in the business’s name — with its full history, not a zip file sent once.
• The site is built with standard, documented tools that another developer could pick up. A proprietary builder that only the agency can edit is a lock-in, whatever it is called.
• There is written documentation of how to deploy the site, which settings it needs and where each one is kept. Secret keys go in the hosting account’s settings, not in the documentation.

Accounts connected to the site

• Google Analytics and Google Search Console: you are an owner or administrator, not only a viewer.
• Google Business Profile: the business is the primary owner.
• Payment gateway, WhatsApp Business, SMS or email-sending services: the account is registered to the business, because the money and the customer messages flow through it.
• Any AI or other paid API keys are created in your account, so usage is billed to you and can be switched off by you.

Design files and licences

• Design files (Figma or similar) are handed over or shared into an account you own.
• Paid themes, plugins, fonts and stock photographs are licensed to you, or the contract says whose licence covers the site and for how long.
• You have the right to use every photograph and piece of text on the site.

The contract

• Ownership of the code and design transfers to you on final payment, stated in writing, not implied.
• The handover list is specific: repository, credentials, backups and documentation.
• What happens if you stop paying for maintenance is written down. The honest answer is that support stops and the site keeps running.
• Any recurring fee is for a service you can name — hosting, maintenance, monitoring — and not a licence to keep using what you already paid for.

Red flags

• “We will register the domain for you”, with no mention of whose name it is in.
• “Hosting is included”, with no way to export the site.
• An annual fee described as a licence for your own website.
• A reluctance to put ownership terms in the contract.

At MUCO LABS the code, design and accounts are yours on final payment, and every item above is part of our handover. It is still worth checking; a promise is only as good as the list behind it.