Who owns your website, domain and logo when you hire an agency abroad?

When you hire an agency in another country, the question of who owns the result is easy to skip until something goes wrong: the agency stops replying, you want to move hosts, or you need your logo files for a printer. This guide covers what to check, so you are never locked out of your own website or brand.

This is general information, not legal advice. Copyright rules differ between countries, so ask a lawyer where you are if a contract matters a lot to you.

The domain is the most important thing to own outright. It should be registered in your name or your company's name, with your email address as the contact, in a registrar account you can log in to. If an agency registers it for you, ask them to transfer it to your own account once the site is live.

The hosting account should also be yours, paid with your card. An agency can still do the technical setup if you add them as a user. If the agency hosts the site for you, make sure you can get a full copy of the files and database whenever you ask.

Owning a website means three things:

• Admin access. You should have the top level of access to WordPress (or whatever the site runs on), not just an editor login.
• A copy of everything. The files, the database and any custom code written for you.
• The rights to the work. In many countries, including the UK and the US, the person who creates a design or code usually owns the copyright unless a written agreement transfers it. Paying for the work does not always transfer it on its own. Look for a clause in your contract that says the rights pass to you, and when.

Some parts of any website are licensed, not owned. Premium plugins and themes, stock photos and web fonts all come with licences. Ask whose name each licence is in, and what happens to it when the project ends. A premium plugin licence held in the agency's account can stop receiving updates if you part ways.

For a brand identity, ask for:

• The logo as vector files (AI, EPS, SVG or PDF), not only PNGs and JPGs
• Versions for light and dark backgrounds, and a one-colour version
• The fonts used, with the licence details
• Brand guidelines covering colours, type and how to use the logo
• A written transfer of the rights to the final logo

Fonts are worth checking. A logo can use a font you don't own a licence for, which is fine for the logo itself in most cases, but you may need your own licence to use that font in other material.

1. Whose name will the domain and hosting be in?
2. Will I get full admin access when the site is live?
3. When do the rights to the design, code and logo pass to me?
4. Which licences will be in your name, and which in mine?
5. If we stop working together, what do I get and how?

With us, you own the finished work. Once the project is complete and paid for, the website, content and brand files are yours, and you get full admin access to your site at handover. Read how we work, or start a project.