Domains
Who Owns Your Domain Name?
If a web designer or an agency registered it for you, you might not actually know. Checking takes a few minutes. Getting it back takes longer, and it starts with working out who actually holds it.
Four things you can lose, and only one of them is the domain
Most of the confusion here comes from these being different things that one company often holds all at once. Work out which ones you've actually lost before you do anything else.
The registrant
The name and contact details legally attached to the domain. This is the one that decides ownership. If it lists your designer or their business instead of you, that's the thing to fix.
The registrar account
The login at the company the domain is registered through, such as GoDaddy or Namecheap. Whoever holds this account can move the domain, renew it, or quietly let it expire.
The DNS
The settings that decide where your website loads from and where your email gets delivered. DNS can sit somewhere completely different from the registrar, which is why a site and its email sometimes break separately.
The web host
Where the site files actually live. Losing your host means rebuilding a website. Losing the domain means losing the address and the email that runs on it, which is the more expensive one.
What managing a domain here involves
Registration, renewals, privacy, and the DNS behind them all.
Transfers cost what a new domain costs
Bringing a domain in is priced the same as registering a fresh one. No transfer fee, and no separate charge for the work of moving it across.
Privacy protection included
Your home address and personal phone number stay out of the public registration record instead of sitting there for anyone to scrape.
Renewals we watch instead of you
Domains renew automatically, and expiry dates get checked against the registrar every night. A lapsed domain is one of the few web problems that can turn permanent.
DNS handled for you
The records that point your website and your email where they need to go. Changes get made when you ask for them, and you never need to learn what a CNAME is.
Email sorted before anything moves
Mail gets set up and tested on the new side before the switch, so a transfer doesn't turn into a morning of bounced messages from clients.
You can leave with it
If you ever stop working with us, we help move your domains out. It's worth asking that question of whoever holds your domain now, before you need the answer.
Getting a domain back
The order matters more than people expect. Doing these in the wrong sequence is how somebody ends up locked out for another two months.
- 1
1. Look up what is on the registration
A public WHOIS lookup gives you the registrar and the renewal dates. Since GDPR, most registrant names and email addresses come back redacted, so plenty of the advice telling you to just look it up now returns a blank. A hidden record isn't evidence either way.
- 2
2. Work out which account holds it
The registrar and the person who built your site are usually two different companies, even when you only ever dealt with one of them. Which one has the login decides who you actually need to talk to, and it's often not the person you've been emailing.
- 3
3. Ask for the authorization code
Transfers need an authorization code from whoever currently holds the domain. If you're the listed registrant and you're being stonewalled, the registrar is the next place to go rather than the designer, and ICANN takes complaints about registrars.
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4. Move it, with your email planned first
A registrar to registrar transfer takes roughly five to seven days. We walk through the move with you on a call of about an hour, and transfers generally take 48 hours to process on our side. Your email gets set up on the new side before anything switches.
Domain ownership questions
If your question is not here, call +1 (636) 362-6221 or email yourfriends@adamsdigital.com and you will reach a person.
How do I know if I actually own my domain name?
Ownership comes down to whose name and contact details sit on the registration as the registrant. Not who pays the renewal, and not who built the site. A public WHOIS lookup shows the registrar and the dates, but since GDPR most registrant details come back hidden, so a blank result tells you nothing either way. The reliable test is whether you can log into the registrar account yourself. If you can't, somebody else is holding it.
My web designer registered my domain in their name. Can I get it back?
Usually, yes. Domains get registered this way because it's quicker for the designer on the day, and then nobody thinks about it again until the relationship ends. The fix is either a change of registrant or a transfer into an account you control. It gets harder when the relationship has broken down or the person has stopped replying, but it's rarely a dead end.
What if my web designer won't give me the authorization code?
Go to the registrar rather than the designer. Every transfer needs an authorization code, sometimes called an EPP code, and if you're the listed registrant then the registrar is the company that has an obligation to you. They have a process for this, and ICANN accepts complaints about registrars who won't cooperate. Where the designer is the listed registrant instead of you, it stops being a technical problem and becomes a contract one, which is worth putting in front of your attorney.
Does my web designer own my website?
The domain, the site files, and the hosting account are separate things and each one can sit with a different party. Who owns the design work is usually decided by your contract, if there's one. The domain is more clear cut. It belongs to whoever is listed as the registrant, whatever anybody intended at the time.
What happens to my email if I transfer my domain?
Nothing, as long as it's planned first. Email is routed by DNS records that travel with the domain, so the mail side gets set up and tested on the new side before anything switches over. For a firm where client mail can't go missing for an afternoon, this is the part of a move worth being careful about, and it needs sorting out before the transfer rather than after.
Why can't I transfer my domain right now?
ICANN applies a 60 day lock after a domain is first registered, and another after the registrant details are changed. The second one catches people constantly: you update the contact details to fix the ownership problem, and the transfer you were about to do is blocked for two months. Doing the change of registrant and the transfer in the right order avoids it.
What does it cost to keep a domain with you?
Domains generally renew between $12 and $20 a year depending on the ending, plus a $3 yearly hosted zone fee for the DNS. Transferring a domain in costs the same as registering a new one, with no transfer fee on top and no separate charge for the work of moving it.
Do I still own my domain if you manage it?
Yes, and the test of that is whether you can leave. If you stop working with us, we help move your domains out to wherever you're going. That's our published policy rather than a favor, and it's the question worth asking anybody who currently holds a domain on your behalf, while you still have a good relationship with them.
Not sure who's holding your domain?
We'll look it up with you and tell you what we find, whether or not you end up moving it here. Domain and DNS management for St. Louis and St. Charles, with more than 35 domains under management. Call +1 (636) 362-6221.