Owning your website files: why it matters

Owning your website files means you could take your site to another company without starting over. On some setups that is easy: you download the files and move them. On others, especially website builders, the design and code cannot leave the platform, and what you really own is your domain, your words and your photos. Neither is wrong, but you should know which one you have before you pay, and before you ever need to leave.

The four things people mean by "my website"

When an owner says "I own my website", they can mean any of these, and each has a different answer:

1. The domain name, like brightsmilefamilydental.com. This should be registered in your business's name, in an account you control, whatever else is true.
2. The content: your text, photos, logo, price lists and menus. You almost always own what you wrote and photographed yourself.
3. The design and code: the layout, the theme, the programming that makes it work.
4. The hosting account: the place the site runs from, and who holds the login.

Lock-in happens when number 3 or 4 is in someone else's hands and cannot be moved.

Which platforms let you take your site

Website builders

Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy's website builder, Weebly and similar tools run your site on their own system. You can connect your own domain and leave whenever you like, but the design and the working site generally stay behind. Some builders offer a partial export, for example blog posts in a format another system can import, but not a complete working copy of the site.

What you take with you: the domain, and whatever content you saved separately. If you leave, someone has to rebuild the site elsewhere.

WordPress

WordPress sites can be moved. The files plus the database can be copied to any other WordPress host, and they will look and work the same. Two catches:

• Paid themes and plugins are often licensed per site or per year, sometimes to the designer rather than to you. The files may move, but updates stop if the license is not yours.
• WordPress.com (the hosted service) differs from WordPress installed on a host of your choice. Moving off WordPress.com is possible but depends on your plan.

Simple file-based sites

A site made of plain HTML pages, images and style files is the most portable kind. The whole site is a folder. Any host can serve it.

A designer's own system

Some agencies build on their own custom platform. When you stop paying, you may receive nothing that works anywhere else. Ask before you sign.

Where designers and contracts come in

The most common lock-in is not the technology. It is the paperwork.

• Who holds the accounts. If the designer bought the hosting and the domain in their own account, your site lives at their pleasure.
• Who owns the design. In US law, the person who creates a work usually owns its copyright unless a written agreement transfers it or it counts as work for hire. A website contract should say plainly what you get when it is paid for. This is a question for your attorney if it matters to you.
• Who owns the photos. Stock photos are licensed, often to the designer's stock account. If you move, you may need your own license or replacement photos. Website photos: permission and using pictures you find online covers this.
• Monthly plans that include "the website". Some packages bundle the site, hosting and support into one monthly fee and keep the site if you stop. That is a legitimate model, but it should be said up front.

What to ask for, by situation

If a designer built your site:

• The login to the hosting account, or confirmation it is in your name.
• A full copy of the site (files and, for WordPress, the database).
• A list of paid themes, plugins and photos, and whose name each license is in.
• The original logo files, in a high-quality format such as SVG or a large PNG.

If you are on a builder:

• Download your original photos and logo from wherever you uploaded them from.
• Copy the text of every page into a document.
• Export what the builder allows, such as blog posts, product lists, contact lists or form submissions.

If you are on WordPress at your own host:

• Make sure the hosting account, the WordPress admin login and any license keys are in your name and email.

The part you can always own

Even on the most closed platform, three things should be yours from day one, and you can check them today:

1. The domain, in your business's name. Who owns my domain and how to check shows how.
2. Your words and pictures, kept in your own folder.
3. Your list of page addresses, so a future site can keep the same addresses working for customers who saved them or for listings that link to them.

With those three, leaving any platform is a manageable project rather than starting from nothing.

Is lock-in always bad?

Not necessarily. A builder that keeps your site inside its system also handles security, updates and hosting. Many owners are glad to trade portability for not having to think about it. The problem is only lock-in you did not know about, or a monthly fee that keeps rising because leaving looks impossible.

It is worth looking at the whole picture of what you pay each year and what you would keep if you left. One-time website payment vs monthly subscription goes into those trade-offs.

What to do this week

• Check the domain is in your business's name.
• Write down where the site is hosted and who holds that login.
• Save your text, logo and original photos in a folder you own.
• If a designer built the site, ask for a copy and the license list.
• Read your website contract for what happens if you leave.

If you find your current site is stuck on a platform you cannot export from, you do not have to rebuild it yourself. You can see your site rebuilt first from what it shows today, and keep your domain and page addresses as they are.