Who Should Own Your Business Domain Name?

You should. Your domain should be registered with you or your company as the registrant, in a registrar account you can log in to, with an email address you actually read. Not your web designer, not the marketing agency, not the nephew who set it up years ago. The registrant is the one the registrar deals with when the domain is renewed, changed or moved.

It's quick to check, and it matters: a domain that lapses takes your website and your email offline at the same time.

What "owning" a domain means

Strictly speaking, nobody owns a domain outright. ICANN, the organization that coordinates domain names, says in its registrant FAQ that paying to register a domain "is not the same as 'buying' it outright or permanently," and that it's "more like leasing the domain name from the registry operator." You keep control by renewing it before it expires, for as long as you want it.

So "owning your domain" really means being the registrant. ICANN's FAQ defines the registrant, also called the Registered Name Holder, as "the person or entity that holds the rights to a domain name." A few other words you'll run into:

Registrar: the company you register the domain through and pay for renewals.
DNS: the settings that point your domain at your website and your email.
Hosting: where the website itself lives. The same FAQ points out that your registrar and your host can be different companies. Website hosting explained covers that side.

Your web person can manage the DNS for you. That's access, and it's fine. Being the registrant is control, and that should stay with you.

Why it has to be in your name

Think about everything that points to your domain: the side of the truck, the yard signs, your business cards, your Google Business Profile, every email you've ever sent from your business address. The domain ties all of it together. If someone else is the registrant, they hold that piece of your business.

The common ways this goes wrong:

The designer registered it in their own name. ICANN's FAQ describes this exact case. A developer you hired "may have registered the domain name using their own contact details (even if you have paid them to register and manage the domain name)," which makes them the registrant of record.
The renewal reminders go to someone else. Under ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy, registrars must send at least two renewal reminders before a domain expires, about a month and about a week ahead. All of them go to the registrant email in the domain's contact record. If that address belongs to a designer who closed shop, or an employee who left, nobody sees them.
It expires. The same policy requires registrars to disrupt the domain's DNS before deleting an expired name, and ICANN says that disruption stops "any services associated with the domain name such as a website or email service." For a plumber, that's the website and the inbox gone on the same morning.
Switching web companies gets harder. Changes to the domain go through the registrant of record, and ICANN's FAQ tells owners to check with the registrar to see who that is. If it's your old designer, you'll need their help, or proof that you paid for the domain.

None of this usually comes from bad intent. Plenty of designers register a client's domain in their own account because it's quicker at the time. It still leaves you depending on them.

How to check who your domain is registered to

1. Look it up

Go to ICANN Lookup and type in your domain. The tool uses RDAP, which ICANN describes as a replacement for the old WHOIS protocol, so this is the same "WHOIS lookup" people talk about, in its current form. You'll see:

the registrar, which tells you where the domain is managed
the registration and expiration dates
the name servers, which hint at who controls the DNS
the domain's status codes

Don't be surprised if the registrant's details aren't shown. Some registration data isn't public, and ICANN's lookup page explains how people with a legitimate reason can request it. For checking your own domain, the next step is easier.

2. Log in to the registrar

The lookup tells you which registrar holds the domain. Log in to your account there and open the domain's contact details. Find the registrant, sometimes labeled the owner contact. It should show your name or your company's legal name, and an email you check.

If you can't find an account, or the domain isn't in any account you have, that's your answer: someone else holds it.

3. Check the renewal settings

While you're logged in:

Turn on auto-renew, and make sure the card on file won't expire before the renewal date.
Use a registrant email that doesn't depend on the domain itself. If the domain lapses and your email is at that same domain, the later notices have nowhere to land.
Turn on two-step login for the account.
Write down the registrar, the login and the expiration date with your other business records.

If someone else is the registrant

Ask them to change it. Ask your designer or agency to make you the registrant, or to move the domain into an account in your name. Get it done while things are friendly, not in the middle of a disagreement or the week before a new site launches.
Go to the registrar if they won't or can't. ICANN's FAQ says you "may need to provide proof of your payment to the third-party/developer to prove to your registrar that you are the rightful holder." Dig out the invoices, receipts or contracts that show you paid for the domain.
Keep your web person as a helper, not the owner. If they manage your DNS or hosting, give them access through your account. Some registrars let you add a second user with limited permissions, so they can do the work and you keep control.

If you're registering a new domain

Whether you register it yourself or a web company does it for you:

Register it in your business's legal name, with you as the registrant.
Use your own registrar account, and pay with the business card.
Consider registering it for several years. ICANN's FAQ notes that registrars can offer registrations in one-year steps, up to ten years at a time. Turn on auto-renew either way.
If someone else sets it up, ask which registrar it's at and get the login before they're done.

Before you change web companies

If you're planning a new site, sort out the domain first. It's the one thing that has to carry over, because your phone number, your signs and your Google listing all lead to it. Our article on whether to fix or rebuild your website covers the rest of the checklist, and the website redesign page explains how we handle a move, domain included.

Every site we build goes on your own domain with SSL, and once you've paid, the site is yours. If you're not sure who controls your domain, we help you find out, and it's better to know before anything goes live. Then get your free preview: we build the first version of your site in 2 days, and you decide after you've clicked around it.