There are three separate things, and people conflate them
Almost every ownership problem comes from treating "my website" as one object. It is at least three, and they can each be held by a different party.
The domain name
Your address. Rented yearly from a registrar. Whoever controls the registrar account controls where your website and your email go. This is the crown jewel.
The files
The actual pages, images and styling. On a custom build these can be handed to you as a folder. On some platforms they cannot be meaningfully exported at all.
The hosting and accounts
The server, plus every third-party account bolted on: booking, analytics, forms, email. Each has its own login and its own owner.
How to check, in about ten minutes
- Look up your own domain. Search for a WHOIS or domain lookup tool and enter your address. Much of the record will be privacy-masked, which is normal and fine. What you want to know is which registrar holds it — then confirm you can log in there yourself.
- Try to log in. Not "do I have the password somewhere". Actually log in to the registrar, the hosting account and anything taking bookings or payments. An account you cannot enter is an account you do not control.
- Check the recovery email. If the account's recovery address belongs to your former designer, they can take the account back whenever they like. This catches people out constantly.
- Ask for the files. Even if you never touch them, knowing they exist and can be handed over tells you whether you are locked in.
None of this is an accusation. Most designers set things up in their own account because it is faster on day one, not because they are planning anything. It still leaves you exposed on day four hundred.
The platform question
Some builders make genuinely lovely websites that you can never fully take with you. That is a trade, not a scandal, but you should make it knowingly. Before you commit, ask: if I stopped paying this company tomorrow, what would I still have?
With a hand-built static site the answer is "a folder of files and my domain", which will still open in a browser in ten years. That is one reason I build the way I do — and one reason my care plan is cancellable without holding the site hostage.
How I handle it
Your domain is registered in your name, at your registrar, with your card. I will happily sit on a call and walk you through registering it, but I do not want to hold it. Once the final invoice is paid, the finished design and its content are yours, subject to any third-party licences. If you leave, you get the files.
If I ever stop hosting a client's site, they get at least thirty days' notice. That is written into the terms, not just promised on a call.
If you are already locked out
Start with the registrar, not the designer. Registrars have documented processes for proving you are the rightful owner of a domain used by your business; they deal with this constantly. Gather the evidence first — company registration, the original invoice, the card that paid for it, business email on the domain.
Meanwhile, keep building something you do own. A second site on a domain in your own name is not wasted work if the alternative is waiting on someone who has stopped replying.