Who Owns Your Website After Launch?

Who owns your website after launch is one of the questions founders ask us most, usually because someone has been stuck before: a site hosted on an agency’s account, a domain registered by a former freelancer, or a developer who is the only person who knows how anything works. The answer should be simple. You own all of it, and you can change it without asking anyone. Here is how handover works on our projects, and what to look for in any web partner’s proposal.

The four things you should own

• The website project. We build in our workspace during the project, then transfer the whole project to an account under your company email. You accept the transfer, and that account becomes the owner. You can invite as many editors as you like.

• The domain. Your domain stays with your registrar, in your name. It never needs to move to us.

• The hosting. Hosting and the CMS run on your own platform subscription, billed to you directly. We tell you exactly which plan you need and put it in the proposal, so there are no surprises later.

• The content. Pages, CMS entries, images and files all live inside your project. There is no separate database or backup service held by someone else.

How launch day works

Your domain currently points to your old site. Going live means updating a few DNS records at your domain provider so it points to the new one. You have two options:

• Give us delegated access. Ideally as a separate user on your domain account, so you never share your own login.

• Make the change yourself. We send you the exact records to add, with a screenshot of where they go, and finish the connection on our side once they are in.

We usually transfer the project close to launch, once everything is final, so nothing breaks mid-build. If you would rather have everything in your workspace from day one, we can start the handoff early.

Making sure your team can run it

Owning a website is only useful if your team can actually edit it. Every handover includes:

• A recorded walkthrough. How to edit text, swap images, add CMS entries and publish, recorded on your actual site.

• Written notes inside the project. Short instructions on the pages where your team is most likely to make changes.

• A CMS built for non-developers. Case studies, posts and team members are added through a form, and the design system protects the layout from accidental changes.

We also recommend setting up the workspace on your company email with two-factor authentication turned on, so access does not depend on any one person.

After launch

The first two weeks after launch are covered by included support, because that is when small issues tend to show up, usually once your team starts adding real content. After that, ongoing help is optional and month to month. Hosted sites keep running without a maintenance plan. A plan is there for new pages, sections, integrations and fixes, and you can pause it whenever you like.

Common questions

Do we have to keep paying our web studio for the site to stay online?

No. Hosting runs on your own subscription. Ongoing support is optional, and the site keeps running whether or not you use it.

Can we move to another designer or developer later?

Yes. You own the project, so you can invite anyone as an editor or remove access at any time. We stay on as an editor after handover only if you want us to.

Who should hold the domain?

You. Register it under a company account you control, and give web partners delegated access when they need it.