Most business owners assume yes - they paid for it, after all. But ownership of a website is three separate things, and plenty of businesses discover they hold none of them at the worst possible moment. Here is how to check, today, for free.
One: the domain
Your domain is the deed to the property - and the single most common horror story in this industry is discovering, mid-dispute or mid-move, that the old agency registered it in their name. If the registration is not in your name, in a registrar account you control, you do not own your address; you are borrowing it from whoever does, on their goodwill.
Two: the content and data
Your words, your images, your customer enquiries, your order history. The question is not whether they are “yours” in spirit - it is whether they can leave in practice. Ask for an export before you need one; the answer tells you everything about the relationship you are actually in.
Three: the platform
A builder site can never leave its platform - stop paying and the site simply ceases, taking your improvements with it. WordPress is honestly more portable: another WordPress shop can usually take it over, and we concede exactly that in our own comparison table. Bespoke platforms vary by agency - which is why the question below matters more than any feature list.
Ownership is three deeds: the domain in your name, content that exports, and a platform with an exit. Check the domain first - it is the one people lose without noticing.
How to check today
- Look up your domain on a WHOIS service - is the registrant you, or your old agency?
- Confirm you hold login access to the registrar account itself, not just the website.
- Ask your provider, in writing: “If we parted ways, what exactly could I take with me?”
The exit question
We answer it unprompted on the OliveCore page: your content and data export, your domain is yours, and the platform itself can be licensed - so leaving us does not mean leaving it. Any provider worth trusting should relish that question. The ones who bristle at it have answered it too.
