If a web designer registered your domain for you, there is a fair chance it sits in their name rather than yours. Most business owners have never checked, because it does not come up until the day it matters. You can find out in about a minute, and it is worth knowing before you need to.

What a domain actually is

Your domain is the address people type in. It is rented, not bought, usually a year or two at a time, from a company called a registrar. Whoever holds that registration controls the address. Not whoever built the site, not whoever pays the hosting, not whoever the website is about.

The three roles people mix up

  • The registrant. The legal holder. Should be you or your business.
  • The registrar account holder. Whoever can log in and change things. Also should be you.
  • Whoever pays for it. Irrelevant to ownership, which surprises people.

It is entirely possible to pay for a domain every year that is registered to somebody else. Usually nobody is being dishonest. It is quicker for a designer to add a domain to the account they already have open.

How to check, step by step

Step one: look up the registration.

For a .uk, .co.uk or .org.uk domain, use Nominet’s own lookup at lookup.nominet.uk. For a .com, .net or .org, use ICANN’s at lookup.icann.org.

Type your domain exactly as it appears in your web address, with no https:// and no www at the start. For example, smithsgarage.co.uk.

You are reading two lines. Registrar is the company it is registered through, and that is almost always shown. Registrant is who holds it, but on a .uk domain you will usually not see a name: Nominet does not display the registrant’s name unless they have given permission. On a .com the name is usually hidden too.

So the lookup tells you who to ask, not always who owns it. The registrar can confirm whose name the domain is in, and for a .uk the registrant can check through Nominet’s own online services.

Step two, and this is the one that matters.

Can you log into that registrar yourself? Not ring someone who can. You, with your own username and password.

If not, you do not control your domain. You have an arrangement that works right up until it does not.

Why it matters

The day you want to move. New designer, new host, a fallout, a retirement. If you hold the domain it is an afternoon’s work. If someone else holds it, you are asking permission, and you find out how good the relationship is.

The day it expires. A .uk domain is suspended thirty days after expiry, can still be renewed up to ninety days, and is dropped at ninety-five. If the renewal notice goes to someone who left in 2021, the first you hear is the website going down. Recovering it after that ranges from awkward to impossible.

The day someone else wants it. A lapsed domain with any history is worth money to somebody. They do get bought.

What good looks like

  • The domain is registered in your business name
  • You hold the login to the registrar account
  • The renewal email goes to an address you actually read
  • Auto-renew is on, with a card that has not expired
  • Somebody else can manage it for you as a guest on your account, rather than as the owner

That last one is the important distinction. Someone managing it for you is sensible. Someone owning it instead of you is not.

What if it is in someone else’s name?

Usually easier to sort out than people expect, and much easier while everyone is still on good terms.

Ask. Most designers will move it without any fuss, because most never meant to hold it in the first place. What you want is either the domain transferred into your own account, or the existing account transferred to you. Both are fine. What you do not want is a promise that they will always be around to help, because that is exactly the thing that stops being true. A flat no tells you something useful about who you are working with, and it is better to learn it now than in three years.

How the move works, and it differs by domain ending.

For a .uk, the current registrar changes something called the IPS tag, which points the domain at its new home. It is usually free and it does not add time to your registration.

For a .com or other international domain, you unlock it and get an authorisation code, sometimes called an EPP or TAC code, then start the transfer at the new registrar. This one has a cost. Transfers of these domains add a year to the registration, and that year is what the transfer fee pays for. It is roughly the price of a normal renewal, so you are not losing the money, but it is not free either.

One trap worth knowing before you start. There is a 60-day lock on these international domains after a domain is newly registered, after a previous transfer, and after the registrant’s contact details are changed. That last one catches people out. If you ask today for the registration to be put into your name, the domain can then be locked for 60 days and you cannot move registrar until it clears.

So if you intend to do both, get the transfer done first and update the details afterwards. Or make the name change and expect to wait two months before moving it.

It is not just the domain

A website usually involves four separate accounts, often bought at different times and sometimes by different people. The domain is the address. Hosting is where the site lives. Analytics tells you who visited. Search Console shows how Google sees the site.

Knowing who holds each is not about mistrust. It is about being able to act when you need to, without waiting on somebody else to pick up the phone.

Common questions

Does paying for the domain mean I own it?

No. Ownership is whoever is named as the registrant, which is not necessarily whoever pays the bill.

Can I check this without asking my web designer?

Partly. A lookup at lookup.nominet.uk for .uk domains, or lookup.icann.org for .com, shows the registrar and the dates, but usually not the owner’s name. The registrar can confirm who the registrant is.

My .co.uk shows no name at all. Is that a problem?

No. Nominet does not show a registrant’s name unless they have agreed to it, so most .uk domains show no name at all. Ask your registrar to confirm whose name it is in.

How long does moving a domain take?

A .uk IPS tag change can be done in a day. A .com transfer usually takes five to seven days, and cannot start inside a 60-day lock.

Will my website go down while it moves?

It should not. Moving registrar changes who the domain is registered through, not where the site is hosted.

Worth doing before you need it

Look your own domain up, then try to log into the registrar. It takes a minute, and you will either stop thinking about it or you will have found something worth sorting out.