Who Should Control Your Domain, Hosting and Website Accounts?
A practical ownership checklist for domains, renewals, hosting, email records and supplier handovers.
The short answer
Your domain should normally sit in an account your business controls, with renewal emails going to an address you can access. A trusted supplier can manage the technical work without being the only person able to approve a transfer.
The domain is the address people type and the base for business email. Losing control of it can take the website and email offline together, so it should not depend on one former employee or supplier.
Keep the registrar name, account email, renewal date and recovery method in a safe business record. Turn on two-step verification and make sure the payment card is current. Your developer can be given appropriate access without owning the account outright.
Hosting is different from the domain. It is normal for a web company to manage hosting, security and backups as a paid service. The agreement should still explain how files and data are exported if you move.
If an old supplier controls the domain, ask for a transfer into an account you control. For many UK domains this involves changing the IPS tag; other domains may use an authorisation or EPP code. Do not cancel the old hosting until the website, redirects and email records have been checked.
What to do next
- Write down the outcome you need before choosing features.
- Ask for scope, ownership and ongoing costs in writing.
- Compare the smallest useful version, not an unlimited wish list.