Paying for a website and owning one are not the same thing. Five checks, five minutes, and you will know where you stand.
1. The domain
Run a WHOIS lookup on your own domain. The registrant should be your business, not your developer, not your marketing agency, and not a person who left three years ago. This is the one that matters most, because it is the one that can hold everything else hostage.
2. The hosting
Log into the hosting account yourself. If you cannot, or if the account is billed to someone else’s card, you are renting access to your own site. Being on a developer’s reseller account is common and not automatically wrong — but you should be able to leave without asking permission.
3. The code
Ask where the source code lives and whether you can get a copy today. For a WordPress or Shopify build that means the theme and any custom plugins. For a custom platform it means a repository you have access to. “It’s on our server” is not an answer.
4. Content and licences
Stock photography, fonts and premium plugins are usually licensed, sometimes to the developer rather than to you. If the licence is not in your name, a renewal you do not control can break your site or expose you. Ask for the list.
5. Analytics and search console
These get forgotten and they are the easiest to lose. Your Google Analytics property and Search Console should be owned by an account you control, with the developer added as a user — not the other way round.
If the answers are wrong
Most of it is fixable without drama, and most developers will hand things over when asked plainly. If yours will not, our recovery note covers the order to do it in. And on our own builds, all five sit in your name at handover — code, repository, hosting access and documentation. Nothing to ask for later.