Do I Own My Website? How to Check in the UK

The short answer

You own your website when four things are in your name or under your control: the domain, the hosting account, a copy of the files and content, and the logins. Paying a designer does not, on its own, make each of those yours. This guide shows how to check each one with free lookups, and what to do if your designer has gone quiet.

The four things you should own

• The domain. Your web address, such as yourbusiness.co.uk. You rent it through a registrar, a company allowed to sell domains, and the person or company named as the registrant is the legal holder. Nominet, which runs .uk, calls the registrant the owner.
• The hosting account. Hosting is the computer (a server) where your website’s files live. The account should be in your name, or you should have your own login.
• The files and content. Your text, photos, logo and design, and a copy you keep yourself. Copyright is a separate question, covered below.
• The logins. Top-level access to the registrar, the host, the website editor (for example WordPress), your business email, Google Search Console (Google’s free tool for website owners) and your Google Business Profile.

Whoever holds each one can switch it off, hold it back or let it lapse.

How to check who holds your domain

For .com and other global endings: ICANN Lookup

Go to ICANN Lookup, type your domain and click Lookup. It uses RDAP, the system that replaces the old WHOIS. Look at:

• Registrar Information: the company the domain is registered through.
• Dates: including when it expires (Registry Expiration).
• Domain Information: nameservers and status codes (“clientTransferProhibited” is a standard lock against transfers).
• Contact Information: mostly “REDACTED FOR PRIVACY”, often with only the region and country showing.

It answers for .uk domains too.

For .co.uk and .uk: Nominet’s Domain Lookup

Nominet’s Domain Lookup also uses RDAP, and its old WHOIS service closes on 9 February 2027. Type your domain into “Domain to search for here” and click Lookup. You will see the Lifecycle (including Domain Expiry), the Registrar, the Nameservers and a Registrant box marked “REDACTED FOR PRIVACY”.

What is hidden, and why

Personal details are hidden for privacy. Nominet shows a registrant’s name and address only if they choose. For .com and similar, ICANN’s Registration Data Policy (since 21 August 2025) says the name, street, postcode and phone must be hidden where the law requires it, and may be hidden in other cases.

So a lookup shows the registrar and expiry date, but cannot prove you own the domain. To confirm the registrant, log in to your registrar account or ask the registrar. For .uk, you can also log in to Nominet Online Services with the email address the domain was registered with; password resets only go to that address.

Nominet and ICANN’s request service (RDRS) release hidden details only for a genuine reason, and not automatically. The registrar shown is not always the company you pay, so check your invoices too.

How to find out who hosts your site

Start with your invoices

If your designer charges one fee that “covers hosting”, the account may be in their name, so ask which company hosts the site and whose name is on the account. If your site is on Wix, Squarespace or Shopify, that platform is your host.

Then read your DNS records

DNS is the internet’s address book: it says where your website and email live. In the free Dig tool in Google Admin Toolbox, type your domain and pick a record type:

• NS (nameservers): who runs your DNS. This is not always your host.
• A: the IP address (numeric address) of your website’s server. Paste it into ICANN Lookup to see which company owns that network, usually your host. If the site sits behind a service such as Cloudflare, you will see that service instead.
• MX: where your email is delivered. Write these down, because email can stop working after a move until they are added again.

Our own site shows why this matters. seofirstweb.co.uk is registered through Tucows, its nameservers are run by SiteGround, and its A record points to an IP address owned by Vercel, where the site is actually hosted. The nameservers alone would have pointed to the wrong host.

Wix, Squarespace and Shopify: what you can and can’t take with you

On these platforms you never own the hosting: you hold an account, and usually only its owner can hand over the site or domain. If your designer built the site in their own account, they have to start the transfer. A contributor or collaborator role helps, but it is not ownership.

Wix. Wix says a Wix site has to run on Wix’s servers, although the content you build belongs to you, so leaving means a rebuild. The owner can move the site to your Wix account through Site Actions, then Transfer site, and you have 3 days to accept. To move a .co.uk or .uk domain, get an IPS tag from your new provider, then go to Domains, Domain Actions, Transfer away from Wix. For other endings, Wix emails a transfer code to the registrant contact.

Squarespace. Only some content exports, as a WordPress-format file: layout pages, one blog, and text and image blocks. Store pages, extra blogs, product, video and audio blocks and your styling stay behind, and images may not carry over. Only the site owner can change owner: invite the new owner as a contributor, then use Permissions & Ownership, then Transfer Ownership. For the domain, turn off Domain Lock. A .uk domain can leave at any time: click Transfer domain and enter the IPS tag. Other endings use Request transfer code. Moving the domain does not move the website.

Shopify. You can download your theme from Online Store, but it leaves out your products, pages, posts and images, and Shopify says a Theme Store theme is licensed only to the store it was bought for. Products export as a spreadsheet (Products, then Export), without the images. Only the store owner can transfer the store or its domain (Settings, then Domains, then Transfer to another provider). For .uk, get the IPS tag from your new provider and contact Shopify Support.

Who owns the design?

Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the author of a work is the first owner of its copyright (section 11). Work made by an employee in the course of their job belongs to the employer, unless they have agreed otherwise. The UK Intellectual Property Office says that if you hire an outside designer or subcontractor, they will be the copyright owner.

Paying for the work does not change that by itself. Section 90(3) says an assignment (a transfer) of copyright only takes effect if it is in writing and signed by, or on behalf of, the person giving it up.

The Intellectual Property Office advises putting a contract in place before work starts, saying that copyright passes to your business on completion. It also notes that the logo, text, layout, images and font can each belong to whoever created them. Bought photos, fonts and themes come with licence terms of their own. If your contract says nothing about copyright, ask the designer to assign it to you in writing.

This is general information, not legal advice. Whether you can keep using, copy or change a design you paid for depends on your contract and the facts. Speak to a solicitor about your contract before you act.

If your web designer has disappeared

Work through these in order. Nothing here is certain, because some steps need whoever holds the account.

1. Find the registrar and expiry date with the lookups above, and renew first if the date is close. A .uk domain can be renewed for up to 90 days after expiry, though the website and email may stop sooner, and at 95 days anyone can register it.
2. Try your own access. Use the password reset on the registrar, host and website editor. Resets go to the email on the account.
3. Contact the registrar. If the domain is in your name but your old designer’s email is on it, ask the registrar to update it. If they cannot and it is a .uk domain, Nominet lets you re-establish your identity (£10 plus VAT on 25 October 2026; Nominet’s fee, not ours).
4. If the designer is the registrant, only they can hand the domain over. For .uk this is a Registrant Transfer: their registrar may do it for them, or they start it in Nominet Online Services (also £10 plus VAT), and you accept from an email link within 5 days. For .com and similar, the registrant asks their registrar for a change of registrant and confirms it. Ask the designer in writing.
5. Move to a registrar you control. Until 9 February 2027, a .uk domain moves by changing its IPS tag, a short code that names the registrar. The registrant asks the current registrar to change it, or uses Change Registrar in Nominet Online Services. From that date Nominet switches to transfer codes from your current registrar, so check before you act. For .com and similar, your registrar must give you the transfer code within 5 calendar days, and moves are usually blocked for 60 days after a change to the registrant’s name, organisation or email.
6. Contact the host and ask what proof they need that you are the business behind the site.
7. Back up what you can reach. In WordPress, Tools, then Export, then Download Export File saves your posts and pages. Save your text and images too.
8. Change every password and remove old access on the registrar, host, website editor and email, and check you have the Administrator role in WordPress. In Search Console, become a verified owner and remove old owners, but check Unused ownership tokens before deleting any, because one token can also verify other Google services. If someone else owns your Google Business Profile, choose Request access at business.google.com/add (a business with no premises follows different steps). The owner has 3 days to reply. If they do not, you may be able to claim it, though not always.
9. Last resort: a domain dispute. If you have rights, such as a trade mark, in a name the same as or similar to the domain, and the registration is abusive in the other person’s hands, you can complain to Nominet’s Dispute Resolution Service (run for Nominet by WIPO, the United Nations’ intellectual property agency, since 7 July 2026). If the registrant responds, mediation is free. On 25 October 2026 a full Expert decision cost £750, and a full case took about 8 to 12 weeks. Speak to a solicitor before you file.

How to avoid this next time

• Register the domain yourself, in your business’s name, with an email address you will keep.
• Keep the hosting in your name, and get the top-level login to your website (Administrator on WordPress, owner on Wix, Squarespace or Shopify).
• Put copyright in the contract: assigned to you in writing once the work is paid for, with a list of any licensed photos, fonts or themes.
• Diary the domain’s expiry date and keep every login in a password manager.

As our web design page and terms say, once a website is built and paid for in full, it is yours (third-party themes, plugins, fonts and stock images keep their own licences). Our optional Website Care Plan is £39 a month, rolling, with 30 days’ notice to cancel: we look after hosting and updates, and you are never locked in. Rebuilds start from £900 (5 to 8 pages, no VAT added), and the website cost calculator shows which package fits.

Sources

All opened and checked on 25 October 2026.

• ICANN: ICANN Lookup, Registration Data Policy, Registration Data Request Service, Transfer Policy (updated 21 February 2024), Transfer Policy FAQs for domain name holders, EPP status codes, What ICANN does
• Nominet: Domain Lookup, .UK Registry future state FAQs, Releasing your personal data to third parties, Domain disputes, WHOIS basic instructions (registrars and resellers)
• The UK Domain (Nominet’s help site): .UK registration data services are changing (WHOIS retirement), Is my personal information visible online?, Transferring your domain to someone else, Switching registrar, Accessing Nominet Online Services, If you don’t renew by the expiry date
• WIPO: About WIPO
• Wix help: Exporting your Wix site elsewhere, Transferring a .co.uk or .uk domain away from Wix, Transferring your Wix domain away, Transferring a premium site to another Wix account
• Squarespace help: Export your site content, Transferring a domain away, .uk, .co.uk and .org.uk domains, Change the site owner
• Shopify help: Transferring Shopify-managed domains, Change or transfer ownership, Downloading themes, Exporting products
• UK law and guidance: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, section 11 and section 90 (legislation.gov.uk), GOV.UK: selling or transferring your copyright, UK Intellectual Property Office blog: Do I own my website? (4 December 2014)
• Google: Search Console Help, managing owners and users, Business Profile Help, requesting ownership, Admin Toolbox Dig
• Other: WordPress.org, Tools Export screen, Cloudflare, DNS records explained, Cloudflare, proxied DNS records