Who owns your website? Code ownership and portability for SMEs

The question asked too late

A client calls us. His agency has closed down. He wants to take back his website and hand it to someone else. He discovers that he has no access to the code, that the content lives in a proprietary tool whose password nobody knows, and that the domain name is registered in the name of the defunct agency. Three years of work, and he is back to square one.

We see this scenario several times a year, and the problem is always contractual: it is settled when you sign, long before you part ways.

The right question to ask before ordering a website: “the day I want to leave, what do I take with me?” If the answer is vague, you are renting your website while thinking you own it.

What “owning your website” means in practice

A website is four distinct things. You can own some of them without the others, and that is where the surprises come from.

The domain name. The address (yoursite.ch) must be registered in your company’s name, with your details as the holder. If your provider registered it in its own name “to make life easier for you”, you do not control it. The transfer will depend on its goodwill.

The source code. The files that run your website: pages, styles, logic. On a modern stack, it is a folder of code that you can copy, version and hand over to another developer. On some closed platforms, this code does not exist in an exportable form. It stays locked in with the vendor and never leaves.

The content. Your texts, images, articles, product pages. On an open CMS, it can be exported in a standard format. On a proprietary tool, the export may be partial, in a format that cannot be read anywhere else, or simply missing.

The access. The logins for the domain, the CMS, the web analytics account, the form-sending system. Without them, you cannot take back control of anything, even if the rest belongs to you.

Owning your website means having all four. Portability is the guarantee that you can get them back and start again elsewhere, without asking permission or negotiating.

Lock-in, explained once

This is called lock-in, or vendor lock-in: the situation where changing provider or platform costs so much, or becomes so complicated, that you remain captive even though you would like to leave.

Lock-in is not always malicious. Often, it is the by-product of a technical choice made to move fast at the start. But you pay for it later, at the worst moment: when the relationship deteriorates, when prices go up, when you want to evolve and are told that “it’s not possible on our system”.

Three forms come up most often.

The agency that holds the code hostage. The website is developed, delivered, live. But the source code is never handed over. The day you want to entrust a change to another developer, you discover that you have nothing to give them. You are forced to stay, or to redo everything.

The closed SaaS platform you cannot leave. You build your website on an all-in-one tool. Convenient at first. But the content, the structure and the layout live in a format that belongs to that platform alone. The day you want to leave, there is no clean way out. You recreate everything elsewhere, by hand.

The proprietary theme that cannot be exported. Your website runs on a theme that was bought or custom-built, but locked. The layouts, the components and the logic are shut inside a system that only the original vendor controls. Changing provider means giving up all that visual work.

What it costs, in francs and in weeks

Lock-in has a price. It becomes visible when you want to move.

Rebuilding a locked business website from scratch. Allow CHF 8,000 to 15,000 to rebuild what you already had, with no improvement. You pay twice for the same work.

Recovering content that cannot be exported. When there is no clean export, the content has to be copied page by page. For a website of 20 to 40 pages, allow 3 to 8 days of manual data entry, plus copying errors. At CHF 100 an hour, the bill climbs fast.

Losing your SEO history for lack of access. Without access to the old URLs and without the possibility of setting up proper redirects, a forced migration causes the traffic you have built up to drop. The time it takes to climb back to the previous level is counted in months.

Negotiating an exit under pressure. When the provider knows you cannot leave easily, the negotiating position is not yours. Price rises go through more easily when the client is captive.

None of these costs appears on the initial quote. All of them are paid at the moment you leave.

Where lock-in hurts less

This risk does not carry the same weight for every SME.

A simple business website, a stable provider. If your website is modest, rarely changed, and your provider is solid and easy to reach, lock-in remains theoretical as long as nothing changes. The risk wakes up the day the situation shifts.

A short-lived project. An event page, a temporary campaign, a website that will disappear within the year: portability matters little. You will never need to get out.

A very tight start-up budget. A closed platform can be the right compromise to launch at a lower cost. You simply need to be aware of it, and to plan for an expensive exit if the project grows.

A website meant to grow or to last. This is where portability becomes fundamental. A corporate website that accompanies you for 5 to 10 years, that will evolve and may change hands: it must be owned and exportable from the start. That is the case for most SMEs.

The questions to ask before signing

You do not need to be technical to check that your future website will belong to you. Four written questions are enough, and the answer must be in writing too.

1. Will the domain name be registered in my company’s name, with the access handed over at delivery? The expected answer is yes, unconditionally.

2. Will the source code be handed over to me, in a form I can give to another developer? A Git repository, a documented archive. If the answer is “the code stays with us”, that is deliberate lock-in.

3. Can the content be exported in a standard format? An open CMS exports in formats that can be read elsewhere. A tool that offers no export, or an export that cannot be used outside its platform, locks you in.

4. What access will be handed over to me at the end of the project? Domain, CMS, web analytics, form system. The list must be clear and complete.

These questions cost nothing to ask. In five minutes, they reveal what you would otherwise only discover three years down the line.

How to check a website you already have

If your website already exists, you can test its portability without waiting for a dispute.

The domain test. Check who holds your domain name (a public whois tool is enough, or ask your provider to show you the account). The holder must be your company.

The code test. Ask for a copy of the source code. A provider who plays fair sends it to you without argument. Hesitation, a delay that drags on, an evasive answer: that is a warning sign.

The export test. Ask for a complete export of your content. Open the file. If it is readable and structured, you are in a good position. If it does not exist, or if it is unusable, you know where you stand.

The access test. List all the accounts linked to your website and check that you have access to them in your own right, without going through an intermediary. Access that goes through the provider is access you do not really have.

A website that passes all four tests is a website you own. If it fails one of them, you have portability to win back, and it is better to do it calmly than in an emergency.

The Voren approach

A website you pay for is a website that belongs to you, entirely, from the day it is delivered. In practice:

The source code is handed over to you. It lives in a Git repository that we transfer to you. You can copy it, entrust it to another developer or take it back in-house. Nothing is held back.

The content can be exported. We work with open CMSs and standard formats. Your texts and images come out cleanly, without depending on us.

The domain stays in your name. We register it for you if needed, in your company’s name, and we hand over the access. You are the holder, not us.

The access is handed over to you, documented. At delivery, you receive the complete list of accounts and logins, with a note explaining what each one is for.

We do not build in lock-in because we would rather our clients stayed by choice. A client who is free to leave and decides to stay makes for a better relationship than a client held prisoner.

Going further

See our Business website service: code handed over, exportable content, domain in your name.

See our Maintenance package: support with no clause that ties you in.

Request an audit of your current website: we test your website’s portability for you (domain, code, export, access) and tell you where you stand. Free, with no commitment.