Hosting and domain names: why they should be in your name

Domain name, hosting: what are we talking about?

Your online presence rests on two subscriptions that are often confused.

The domain name is the more sensitive of the two. A website can be rebuilt. An address printed on your vans, your quotes and your business cards, known to your customers and to Google, cannot be replaced.

What happens when they are not in your name?

Afnic, the body appointed by the French State to run .fr, is clear on this point: the registrant of a domain name is the person listed as such in the Whois database, and that person holds the associated rights. In its practical guide for registrants, it cites precisely the case that concerns us here: an IT provider that registers the domain name in its own name instead of its client's, « par souci de simplicité ou de facilité » (for the sake of simplicity or convenience).

It is almost never malicious at the start. The problem comes later, in one of these three situations.

The provider disappears or stops replying

They close down, change careers, stop answering emails. Your domain sits in their account, paid for with their card. You cannot change the address it points to, hand it to someone else, or even easily prove that it belongs to you.

A commercial dispute

You want to change agency, or you dispute an invoice. To transfer a domain from one registrar to another, you need an authorisation code called “auth-info” (ICANN's future transfer policy renames it TAC, for Transfer Authorization Code). ICANN's rules for generic extensions such as .com require the registrar to give it to the registrant within five calendar days of the request, and only the registrant can approve a transfer. These rules protect the registrant. If the registrant is your agency, they protect the agency.

A forgotten renewal

A domain name is registered for a limited period: from one to ten years for a .fr, according to Afnic. Renewal reminders go to the registrant's email address. For generic extensions, ICANN requires at least two reminders before expiry, roughly one month and one week beforehand. If that address belongs to a former provider, nobody on your side reads them.

When a .fr expires, Afnic provides a 30 day “redemption period” during which the deletion can still be reversed. After that, the name becomes available again on a first come, first served basis. Afnic warns that if someone else registers it before you do, you are into a negotiation, or even a dispute, which can be expensive, especially if the site ranked well.

And the hosting?

The risk is the same, and more tangible. If the hosting account is in the agency's name, your files, your database and your backups sit with the agency. The day the account is closed, or suspended over an unpaid invoice between the agency and the host, your website goes dark, even if you have always paid your provider.

How do you check who the registrant of your domain is?

Allow two minutes.

1. For a .fr, open the Afnic Whois (in French) and type in your domain. Look at the registrant, the registrar and the expiry date. If the registrant is a company, its name is displayed. If it is a private individual, Afnic replaces their details with the words « Diffusion restreinte » (restricted disclosure): if you see this for your company's domain, there is a good chance it is in an individual's name rather than the company's.
2. For a .com, .net, .org or another generic extension, use the ICANN lookup tool. Since 28 January 2025, this data has been served through the RDAP protocol, which replaced the old Whois. The registrant's name is often hidden to protect privacy, but you will see the registrar and the expiry date.
3. The most reliable test: can you log in, with your own credentials, to the registrar account where the domain sits? If the answer is “you'll have to ask the agency”, the domain is not really yours.
4. For the hosting, ask two questions: whose name is on the host's invoice, and who receives its emails?

What should you ask your provider for?

Whether you are starting a project or your site already exists, here is the list to send in writing.

• The domain name in your company's name, with your email address as the registrant contact.
• The registrar and hosting accounts opened in your name, paid with your own payment method.
• Access for the provider through shared access that you can revoke yourself, rather than your login details.
• Where to find your domain's auth-info code, for the day you want to change registrar.
• Auto-renewal switched on, and the expiry date noted in your calendar.
• An administrator account on the website in your name, and access to your backups.

If the domain is already in the provider's name, ask for a change of registrant. For a .fr, the registrar updates the registrant once both the old and the new registrant have confirmed. For generic extensions, a change of registrant can trigger, depending on the registrar, a 60 day lock on transfers to another registrar (an ICANN rule currently under review): do it before you plan a move.

How we do it at Aurem

The rule is not up for discussion: our clients' domains and hosting are in their name. Never in the agency's account.

In practice, you open your hosting account in your name and invite us in with shared access. The day you want to stop working with us, you remove that access from your own dashboard, without having to ask us for anything. At handover, we show you how to change a piece of text, manage your email and renew your domain on your own.

We are a Hostinger partner. If you open your account with Hostinger (affiliate link), we earn a commission on your first subscription; the account remains yours. You can also keep your current host: the rule is the same.

It is also what we did for BMB Group 38, a building company in Isère, in the French Alps: after building its website, we moved it to its own hosting and its own domain name. Today, both are in its name.

What we would do for you

During the free 30 minute audit, we check with you whose name your domain, your hosting and your administrator account are in, and what is due to expire soon. If something is not yours, we tell you how to get it back, whether or not you work with us afterwards.

The audit is free: book 30 minutes.

Frequently asked questions