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If your provider disappeared tomorrow, what would you still control?

Twelve questions — one per thing 'the website' actually breaks into. You'll get an honest read on where you stand, what to verify first, and the exact questions to ask whoever holds the rest.

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The day a provider relationship ends is a bad day to discover what you actually control. This test runs the inventory from our guide towhat you actually own — for each item, the question is the same: whose account is it in, and could you get into it today without calling anyone? "I'm not sure" is a legitimate answer here.

1. Your domain registration

The domain is one of the most important control points. Losing registrar access can disrupt the website, email, and the business’s ability to manage its address online — and whoever holds the registrar account holds the domain, regardless of who paid for it.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds it

2. DNS — where your domain points

DNS is the address-book entry that points your domain at your website and your email. Whoever controls it can point your domain anywhere. It might be managed at the registrar, at the host, or at a third service.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds it

3. The hosting account

Not just "where the site is" — whose login the account sits behind. If the account is someone else’s, the site’s continued existence runs through them.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds it

4. The site’s source files

The actual files that make the pages work. On a hosted builder like Wix or Squarespace there are no portable source files — that’s the platform trade, and "doesn’t apply" is the honest answer.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds itDoesn’t apply — it’s built on a hosted platform

5. The platform or CMS login

If the site runs on Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, or similar: you want your own owner-level account, not a seat on someone else’s. On a custom static site with no CMS, this one doesn’t apply.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds itDoesn’t apply — no platform or CMS

6. Your written content

Your words — services, descriptions, prices — retrievable in usable form you hold, not only rendered inside pages someone else controls.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds it

7. Your photography

The original files, not the compressed versions on the site. If the originals only exist in someone else’s archive, that’s a dependency.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds itDoesn’t apply — no professional photography

8. Form submissions

Where do inquiries actually arrive — whose inbox, whose account? If leads route through a dashboard or address you can’t access, that creates a dependency worth understanding.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds it

9. Google Search Console

Free, and it’s how you see what Google knows about your site. If it’s set up, you should be an owner, not a guest — access can remain tied to a former provider if it was never set up in the business’s name.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds itIt isn’t set up

10. Business email on your domain

If your email runs on the same domain (you@yourbusiness.com), know where it’s hosted and who administers it. Losing email in a website dispute hurts more than losing the website.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds itDoesn’t apply — our email isn’t on our domain

11. Backups

Do any exist, where do they live, and could you restore without the provider? "The host does it" is an answer worth verifying rather than assuming.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds it

12. Licenses — fonts, stock images, plugins, themes

Purchased under whose account? A license bought under a provider’s agency account may not transfer to you.

Yes — it’s in our account and I could get in todayI have access, but someone else controls the accountI’m not sureNo — someone else holds itDoesn’t apply — no purchased licenses

The interactive result needs JavaScript, which appears to be off. The twelve questions above are the whole test — theownership guide walks through every item and what a good answer looks like, and the methodology below explains how results are decided.

How this test works

The twelve items come directly from the ownership inventory inour ownership guide. Four arecritical control items — the ones that most directly decide whether the site survives a provider exit: the domain registration, DNS, the source files, and the platform login (each where it applies). Thehosting account matters too, but differently: with the domain, DNS, and a portable copy of the site in hand, a site can usually be moved to new hosting — so a hosting account outside your control counts as a dependency rather than automatic lock-in. The rest areimportant (content, form destinations, business email, backups) and supporting (photography, Search Console, licenses).

The overall category is decided by fixed rules, in this order:

High lock-in risk — a critical control item (domain, DNS, source files, or applicable platform login) is answered "No." One inaccessible critical item can complicate an exit all by itself.
Unknown — verify before assuming — four or more items are "I'm not sure." You can't claim an independence you haven't checked; verification, not panic, is the fix.
Some dependency — anything else short of full control: an item held by someone else (including the hosting account), access without control, or a few unverified items.
Independent — every applicable item is in your control.

Items marked "doesn't apply" are excluded from the rules entirely — a builder site has no source files to hold, and that's not a dependency, it's an architecture. The "fix first" list orders concerns by tier (foundation before important before supporting) and by how far each item is from your control. No numeric score exists anywhere in this tool, because "82/100 ownership" would be theater.

Two things this test deliberately is not. It is not a verdict on your provider: different architectures legitimately create different dependencies, a hosted platform can be exactly the right choice while still being platform-dependent, and a provider holding an account is usually convenience, not misconduct. And it can't verify anything for you — it structures what to check; the logins are yours to test. Platform export limits mentioned in the items are documented in the guide with the platforms' own support pages.

Same answers, same result, every time: deterministic logic, running entirely in your browser. Nothing you answer is sent, stored, or seen by anyone — including us.

Methodology reviewed August 2026

Go deeper

What you actually own when it's doneThe full guide behind this test — the domain trap, platform export limits, and the exit test in prose.
How to hire a web designerThe ownership questions belong in the hiring conversation — here's the rest of that conversation.
All planning toolsThe cost calculator and the site self-audit live here too.

Want ownership set up correctly from day one?

Domain in your name, portable files, documented access — that's how our builds are structured, and the packages page spells it out.

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