The default rule, and why it surprises people
Paying for a website feels like buying it outright, but copyright law does not automatically work that way. The US Copyright Office is direct about the requirement: a commissioned work counts as a "work made for hire," with the person who paid for it treated as the legal author, only if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that it is a work made for hire.
Source: US Copyright Office, "Work Made for Hire," checked September 2026.
Without that specific written agreement, the default author, and therefore the default copyright holder, is whoever actually wrote the code. An invoice, a receipt or a friendly handshake does not do what that written agreement does. This is exactly backward from what most business owners assume, which is why it is worth asking about directly rather than assuming it was handled.
What "the website" actually breaks into
A website is not one asset with one owner; it is several, and ownership can differ across them even on the same project.
- The domain name: whichever registrar account it sits in controls it, regardless of who is billed for it
- The code and design: covered by the work-made-for-hire rule above
- The hosting account: a separate login that may or may not be in your name
- Content you supplied yourself, like your own photos and copy, which is generally already yours
- Third-party accounts the site depends on, such as analytics, forms and the CRM it connects to
The site’s own answer to this, since it is only fair to ask
The website page on this site answers this directly, and it is quoted here in full rather than summarized: "Yes. The domain is registered to you and the delivered site is yours, on the plan and on a quoted build. We build it in a repository under your account and work in it as a collaborator you can remove. On the plan, hosting is a subscription that ends with the plan and we explain how the move works before you sign. On a quoted build, hosting is set up in your name as the written scope says."
Questions to ask any agency before you sign
- Is the domain registered in my name, in a registrar account I control, or in yours?
- Will the code live in a repository under my own account from the start?
- Does the contract say, in writing, that this is a work made for hire or that copyright assigns to me on completion or payment?
- What exactly do I keep if I stop paying or the relationship ends?
- Can I take the actual files and move them somewhere else, today, if I asked?