Do you own your website?

Paying for a website is not the same as owning it

A lot of web companies build your site on a platform they control. You pay every month, the site looks fine, and everything is calm until the day you want to leave. Then you learn that the design, the content, and sometimes even your domain are locked inside their system. You cannot export it, you cannot move it, and if you stop paying, it disappears. You were renting the whole time.

Owning your website means that if you and your web company parted ways tomorrow, you would walk away with everything: the code, the design files, the content, your domain, and your hosting login. Nothing held hostage. That is the difference between a site that is an asset you built and a subscription you are trapped in.

What you should actually own

A website you truly own comes with all of these, in your name and in your control:

• The code and design files. The actual files the site is built from, handed to you, not just a login to an editor.
• Your domain name. Registered in your account, with you as the owner, not the agency.
• Your hosting account. In your name, so you can move hosts whenever you want.
• The content. Every word and image, yours to reuse anywhere.
• The analytics and search accounts. Google Analytics and Search Console under your own email, so the data is yours.

Six questions to ask before you sign

You do not need to be technical to protect yourself. Ask these, and listen for a clear yes:

• If we stop working together, do I keep the website and everything on it?
• Is the domain registered in my name and my account?
• Will you give me the code and design files at the end?
• Is the hosting in my name, and can I move it later?
• Are the analytics and Google accounts under my email?
• Are there any monthly fees I must keep paying just to keep the site online?

If any answer is vague, or if the honest version is that the site only works while you keep paying them, you do not own it. Walk carefully.

Why lock in happens

It is usually not malice. Building on a closed platform is faster and cheaper for the company, and monthly lock in is good for their revenue. The trade is that your leverage disappears. When a price goes up or the service slips, you cannot easily leave, so you stay. A studio that hands you everything has to earn your business every month instead, which is exactly the incentive you want on your side.

How we do it

At Saedi Tech, you own 100 percent of what we build. The code, the design, the content, and your domain are yours from day one. If you ever leave, you take all of it with you, and we help you move it. We work on a fixed price agreed up front, with no lock in, because we would rather keep your business by doing good work than by holding your website hostage. If you want us to host and maintain it, that is a choice you make, never a trap you are stuck in.

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