Rented, or yours?
Each question below has a yes-or-no answer, and the pattern tells you where you stand.
The four questions
- If you stopped working with whoever built it tomorrow, would the site keep running?
- Is the domain registered in your name, in an account you can log into?
- Do you have a copy of the code, somewhere you control?
- Could another developer pick it up and understand it without starting over?
Four yeses: you own it. Two or three: you are part-owner of something, and the rest is held by other people. Fewer than two: you are renting, whatever the invoice says.
Nobody sets out to put a business on borrowed ground. It happens one convenient decision at a time: the developer registers the domain because it is quicker, the platform hosts the build because that is the deal, the code never leaves their machine because nobody asked.
What ownership looks like when it is real
The code handed over in full. Accounts in your name, with your email on the recovery. Written proof that the work is yours, and a written explanation of how it fits together, so the knowledge is yours too. Ninety days of guarantee, and nothing owed to us monthly. The whole list is here.
The test we hold ourselves to: if you wanted to hire someone else the week after we finish, you could, and they would have everything they need.