Whoever holds the domain registration and the accounts owns your website in practice. Who designed it is a separate question, and it usually does not matter.
Who owns your website is whoever holds these three accounts
Those three are the domain registration, the account hosting and billing sit under, and the admin login on the site. The domain matters most.
ICANN’s Transfer Policy, updated 21 February 2024, says in section I.A.1.1 that only the Registered Name Holder has the authority to approve or deny a transfer to a new registrar.
Most of these fights are about access, not copyright. The owner got set up as a user instead of an admin. Or the domain sits in the builder’s own account. A public r/Wordpress thread shows one: Developer will not give ownership/admin access to website.
The checks below take about twenty minutes and no technical skill.
The five checks you can run in twenty minutes
1. The domain. Run it through ICANN Lookup. That shows which registrar sponsors the name, not who owns it. ICANN’s Registration Data Policy, effective 21 August 2025, keeps the registrant name and email hidden. So the real test is a login. Ask that registrar for a password reset with your own email. Then ask them in writing to confirm the Registered Name Holder of record. If a company name sits in the Registrant Organization field, that company is the holder, under section 6.6.2 of the same policy.
2. Hosting and billing. Check whose email is on the account and whose card is paying. Look on your card statement for the registrar or the host by name. If the only charge there is your web company’s invoice, both sit with them. Keep a backup email that is not at your own domain. Renewal warnings go to the address on file, per ICANN’s implementation notes for its Expired Registration Recovery Policy. One missed renewal can take the domain, the site and the mailbox that would have warned you.
3. Google Business Profile. Open the people list. You want Owner beside your name, not Manager. An Owner can remove a Manager.
4. The files. Ask today, in writing, for a copy of the site files. Getting them is not the same as a working site: a page builder export often will not run anywhere else. Ask anyway.
5. The contract. Find three lines: the notice period, what happens to the domain and accounts when you cancel, and whether the work is assigned to you in writing.
How to get your domain back from a web company
Start with a written request for three things: the registrar account, the transfer code (registrars call it an AuthInfo or EPP code), and a copy of the site files. Email, not a phone call.
If the account is yours, the rules are on your side. ICANN’s Transfer Policy section I.A.5.2 gives the registrar five calendar days to hand over the transfer code and lift the transfer lock. Section I.A.5.4 says it cannot refuse over a payment dispute with you. Under sections I.A.6.2 and I.A.3.5, no answer from the old registrar inside five calendar days counts as approval. Five calendar days, not the five to seven business days repeated everywhere.
Order matters if you need both a move and a name change. Section II.C.1.3 lets you transfer to the new registrar first, then change the registrant name. The other order trips the 60 day lock that section II.C.2 requires after a Change of Registrant.
If they hold the account, you need them to agree. Section II.C.1.4 requires the current registrant’s confirmation, and section II.B.2.2 tells the registrar to deny the change without it. Registrars do act on a court order, under section II.B.2.3.4.
ICANN takes free complaints from registrants under a Transfer type, at icann.org/compliance/complaint. It enforces what the registrar must do, not your argument with your web company.
What will not work, and what we cannot promise
We are not lawyers.
A public WHOIS lookup will not name the owner.
A UDRP is a cybersquatting case, not a contract case. Paragraph 4(a) needs a trademark you hold, no legitimate interest on their side, and a name registered and used in bad faith. A company that registered it for you in good faith fails that last test. WIPO’s Jurisprudential Overview 3.0, section 4.14.6, records panels denying disputes that exceed the UDRP’s cybersquatting scope. Filing costs USD 1,500 for a single panelist covering one to five names, per WIPO’s Schedule of Fees.
You cannot file a TDRP yourself. That process is registrar against registrar. ICANN also has no authority over .us or other country domains.
We do not publish client results here. Everything above traces to ICANN, WIPO or a registrar’s own page.
What to put in a web design contract before you sign
Ask for these four lines in the contract:
- The domain is registered in your business name.
- Hosting, billing and the Google listing sit under your email, with you as owner.
- You get a copy of the site files on request.
- Cancelling costs you the work, not the domain and the listing.
We register the domain in your name. You hold the accounts. Every change waits for your approval before it goes live, and every action goes into a log you keep. More on what we build, the agents, and current complete pricing. What we cannot do is get back a domain you never held.
What to do with a bad answer
One wrong answer out of five is worth an hour this week. Use the contact link on this site and tell us what your checks turned up. We will tell you which one to fix first and what it takes, whether or not you hire us.