The domain name
It's registered in the name of the website's owner, not the provider's. When this one is set up wrong, it's the most expensive thing to get back.
Best practices
A website that stays transferable.
The real risk for a website isn't that it costs too much, it's that nobody else can take it over. Here's what keeps a website transferable, whatever tool built it, and whoever looks after it tomorrow.
What must stay with the website's owner
The hosting credentials
The hosting account belongs to the client. The provider has access to it, but doesn't own it.
The source files
The project, the original images, the text. A website you can't reopen is a website you have to rebuild.
The content, in a readable format
HTML pages, images, text. Not a format that only one tool can read.
What that asks of each side
If someone builds your website for you
- Ask for the domain to be in your name, from day one.
- Ask for the hosting credentials, even if you never plan to use them.
- Ask for a copy of the project and the original images at delivery.
- Ask the awkward question: what happens if we stop working together?
If you build websites for others
- Register the domain in your client's name, and explain why.
- Hand over the project and the source files at the end of the job, without being asked.
- Put in writing what happens at the end of the contract, before the contract starts.
- What you give up in lock-in, you gain back in referrals.
What we hold ourselves to
With the software, the question doesn't come up. The project is on your disk and the website is with your web host. With the online service it would come up, if we hadn't settled it: the export button is part of the subscription, and it hands your website back to you as pages you can host elsewhere.
We'd rather be chosen every year because the product fits than kept because leaving would cost too much.