It's one of the most sensible questions any business owner can ask before hiring a web agency. It is a scary thought, and it is understandable that many website agencies or hosting providers wouldn’t answer it – mainly because the vision of their company going under does little to raise confidence with a prospective customer.

But companies do ‘go under’ and we have rescued websites for small businesses in those situations, so we can answer.

Does your domain name belong to you?

This is, arguably, the thing that is more important than the website itself, as if you aren’t listed as the registrant, you could be at risk of losing the domain name. And if you lose the domain name, you’re going to lose access to a key part of your brand identity, as well as the link you would have listed across your marketing materials. It also causes IT issues – especially if you use an email connected with the domain name, including with Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, but it also often impacts CRM systems, invoicing systems and other things connected to your domain name.

We wrote a full article on who should manage, register and renew a business’s domain name which you can find here:

How do we manage it? Well, your website belongs to you. Your domain name belongs to you and every page, every image, every word on it - yours. Not ours and not held in some proprietary system that only we can access or edit and not locked behind a contract that makes leaving feel like escaping a mobile phone deal from 2009.

We make sure you continue as the registrant on the system, and we do manage the domain name for you – including the renewal fee and DNS management as part of our WordPress hosting plans. It takes the weight of that technical management off your shoulders, without preventing you from leaving if you wish.

If you came to us tomorrow and said, “we're moving on”, for whatever reason, no reason or a reason you'd rather not share - you could take your website with you. No penalty. No ransom fee. No awkward conversation about “transition costs.”

Your new supplier would get in touch, transfer the domain name and do anything needed at their end to take on the website and web hosting management.

That's how we think it should be, and that's why we do it that way.

Do you have full, administrator access?

If you don't have full administrator access to your WordPress website, then you don't truly control it. You may own the design, pay the hosting invoices and rely on the website to generate enquiries, but if someone else controls the administrator account, they ultimately control what happens next. They can decide who can make changes, who can access the website files and who can manage key settings such as backups, security, users and integrations. In extreme cases, a business can find itself locked out of its own website at the very moment it needs access most.

Asking for administrator access doesn't mean you have to manage the website yourself. Most clients never need to touch the technical settings, and lots of website hosts are perfectly happy to handle the updates, maintenance, security and day-to-day management. But the important thing is that the choice remains yours. If you want to add a new user, install a plugin, review settings or appoint another agency to help, you can do so because the website belongs to you.

Why does this even need saying?

Because not every agency works this way. Some build your site on a proprietary platform: a system they invented, they control and only they can work on. Others use obscure or niche content management systems that sound impressive in a pitch meeting but leave you stranded if the relationship ends.

Think about what that means in practice. You want to move andou find a new agency. They look at your site and say: "Sorry, we don't work with that system." Now you're not just changing agencies, you're rebuilding your entire website from scratch. That costs money, it costs time and it could damage the search engine rankings you've spent years building up.

We think that represents a trap more than a partnership.

We build on WordPress. Here’s why that matters to you.

WordPress powers around 40% of every website on the internet.  Not 40% of small business websites, 40% of the entire web. That number matters enormously to you as a client, because it means something very practical: if you ever want to leave us, you will have no trouble finding someone else to look after your site.

There are thousands of WordPress developers, designers and hosting companies competing for your business. Competing. Which means you have choice, leverage and options, not dependency.

You stay with us because you want to. Over 200 clients continue to stick with ThriftySites because the work is good, the service is reliable and the relationship suits them, not because they're stuck.

That's a very different feeling, and frankly, it's the only basis on which we believe a decent long-term relationship can be built.

What actually happens if we go bust, or you decide to leave?

Let's be blunt about this, because it deserves a blunt answer.

If we closed tomorrow - which we have no intention of doing, but you're right to think about it - your website would still be there. Your domain would still be yours and you can move it to a new supplier, find a WordPress developer you trust and carry on. The disruption would be minimal.

If you decide to leave - again, entirely your right - we hand everything over cleanly. The files, the login credentials, the lot. There's no exit fee buried in the contract and there's no “you must give us six months notice” clause designed to make leaving painful enough that you don't bother.

We'd rather you stayed because you're happy. We'd rather earn your loyalty than manufacture it through dependency.

Why bespoke website systems can cause problems

Some agencies will tell you a bespoke, custom-built system is better for your business. Sometimes that's true - for very large, very complex operations with specific technical requirements, a custom platform can make sense.

But for most businesses, a bespoke system built by a single agency creates a single point of failure. If that agency raises their prices, drops the ball on service, or simply closes their doors, you are in serious trouble. You can't easily move and you can't easily find someone new - you're dependent on one company for the continued existence of your online presence.

That's a risk most businesses shouldn't take, and it's a risk you don't have to take.

What happens if ThriftySites goes bust or I want to leave?

You own your website and your domain. Always. From day one.

We build on WordPress, the most widely supported platform on the planet, so you're never trapped with us or anyone else.

If we part ways, for any reason, the handover is clean and there are no penalties.

We want you to stay with us because the work is good and if that sounds like the kind of agency you'd like to work with, let's talk.