With us, you do: the code, the domain, the hosting account, and every login. That is not universal. Plenty of small business sites are built on an arrangement where the agency owns the domain or the platform, and the owner only finds out when they try to leave. Ask before you sign, because it is nearly impossible to fix afterward.
By Jacob Graber, founder of Blessed Arc Media · Updated
Ownership is not one question, it is four, and a vague yes to the first one does not cover the rest.
Everything else can be rebuilt. The domain cannot, because whoever holds the registrar account controls where it points. If a falling-out means the site goes dark, the email addresses stop working too, and every business card and truck wrap you own now sends people nowhere.
This is not a rare horror story. It is the standard shape of a rank-and-rent arrangement, where the domain and the site are the product being rented to you. Those deals are legitimate if you understand what you are buying. Most people do not, because it was never said plainly.
Look up your domain in a public WHOIS search and see whose name is on it. Then try logging into your registrar and your Google Business Profile directly, not through a link somebody sends you. If you cannot get in, you do not control them, whatever the contract says.
Do this while everyone is still on good terms. Asking for logins during a disagreement is a very different conversation.
The domain goes in your name. You get the code and every login. Hosting with us is optional at $35 a month, or $75 if the site needs a database, and if you ever want to host it somewhere else you can take it and go.
We would rather keep clients because leaving is easy and they stayed anyway. That is a better business than one built on the door being locked.
Or skip the reading and call Jacob at (812) 787-2569.
Send what you do and which towns you want the work from. Back comes a fixed price and a launch date.