Who should own my domain?

Your domain is your web address, like yourbusiness.co.uk. It’s on your van, your cards and your Google listing, and if you use it for email, it’s where your emails go too.

So who should own it? You. It should be registered in your name, or your business’s name, in an account you can log in to yourself.

What owning a domain means

You don’t buy a domain outright. You register it for a set period, often a year at a time, and renew it to keep it.

For .uk domains (such as .co.uk and .uk), the register is run by Nominet (opens in a new tab). Whoever is named on a registration is the registrant: the person or business the domain is registered to. Strictly, a domain is a registration rather than a piece of property, so “owning” it really means being the registrant.

The company you register it through is called the registrar. It looks after the registration on the registrant’s behalf.

That’s why the name on the registration matters more than who paid. If a designer registers your domain in their own name, then as far as the register is concerned it’s theirs, even if you paid for it.

Three things to check today

It’s worth knowing the answers even if everything is fine:

1. Whose name is it registered in? It should be you or your business.
2. Which account is it in, and can you log in? You should have your own login, not just someone’s word that it’s all in hand.
3. Where and when does it renew? Know which company it’s with and when it’s due, and check that the email address and payment card on the account are yours and up to date.

If you don’t know, ask whoever set it up. A good designer will tell you straight away, and help put it in your name if it isn’t already.

What can go wrong when it isn’t yours

Most designers who register domains for clients mean well. It’s often done to save the client a job. But when the domain isn’t in your name and account, a few things can go wrong:

• You can’t renew it yourself. If renewal reminders go to someone else and get missed, the domain can expire. Your website and emails can stop working, and if the registration lapses completely, someone else could register the name.
• You can’t move it. Changing designer, or moving your website, usually means changing the domain’s settings. If the account isn’t yours, you need the old designer’s help to do it.
• You’re stuck if they stop replying. People retire, close their business or just get busy. If the only person who can log in isn’t answering, you can’t change anything.
• It weakens your position if things go wrong. It’s rare, but if a working relationship ends badly, a domain in someone else’s name leaves you relying on their goodwill.

None of this matters while things are going well. It matters when something changes.

How I do it

Your domain and hosting go in your own accounts, in your name, with your own login. I work in them with access you give me, and you can take that access away whenever you like.

That’s how my three client sites are set up. Each one is in the client’s own accounts, not mine. Salon 15, for example, is hosted in the salon’s own Cloudflare account, on its own domain. If a client ever wants to move on, there’s nothing to hand back.

Not legal advice

This is general information about how domain registration usually works in the UK, not legal advice. If you’re in a dispute over a .uk domain, Nominet runs a dispute resolution service, and a solicitor can advise on your situation.