The Website Handover Checklist: What to Own Before the Final Invoice

The most expensive mistake we see in web projects has nothing to do with design or code. It is discovering, a year later, that you do not actually own your own website — the domain is registered to your former developer, the hosting is on their account, and moving on means starting over or paying to be released. It is rarely malice; it is usually just how things got set up when nobody thought to ask. The fix is simple: before you pay the final invoice, make sure these accounts are in your name.

The domain name

Your domain should be registered to you or your company, at a registrar you can log into. This is the single most important one — whoever controls the domain controls your web address and your email. Ask for the registrar login, and check the registrant details show your name, not the agency's.

The hosting or cloud account

Where the site actually runs should be an account you own, with billing in your name, even if your developer manages it day to day. This is the difference between hiring someone to drive your car and renting a seat in theirs. A good partner sets this up in your name from day one and simply gets access to it.

The source code

You paid for the code; you should have a copy of it, in a repository you control. Ask for access to the code repository (GitHub, GitLab, or similar) under your own account. Without it, no other developer can ever pick up the work.

DNS and email

DNS is the switchboard that points your domain at your site and your email. Make sure you can reach wherever it is managed. If your business email runs through the same setup, that access matters even more than the website itself.

Analytics and search tools

Your traffic data and your Google Search Console are business assets that accumulate value over time. Have them created under your own account and share access with whoever needs it — not the reverse.

A straightforward test cuts through all of it: if your relationship with your developer ended tomorrow, could you walk away with everything and hand it to someone new without asking permission? If the answer is yes, you own your website. If it is "I'd have to ask them," you do not — and that is worth fixing before the next invoice, not after a dispute.