Website ownership map
Who holds the keys to your website?
Your website runs on half a dozen accounts: the domain, its DNS, the hosting, the email, the admin login, the backups. TotalHostNow maps who holds each one and flags the lock-outs before they happen.
Start your map Open the worked example
- No sign-up
- No passwords, ever
- Nothing looked up: it reads only what you type
The business (owner) 4
- Web hosting Fix soon
- Email Fix soon
- Backups Host's nightly copies Fix soon
- Payments or online shop
A former staff member or volunteer 1
- Website admin login Site builder Fix first
Our web designer or agency 2
- Domain registration Fix first
- DNS Same as the registrar Fix first
4 to fix first · 8 to fix soon · see every finding
How it works
- 01
List the pieces
Domain, DNS, hosting, email, admin login, certificate, backups, payments. Provider names only.
- 02
Say who holds each
The business, a staff member, the designer, someone who left. Which kind of address it logs in with. How many people can get in.
- 03
Run the Map Check
Eleven plain rules, all printed on the rules page. Each finding says why it matters and what to do.
- 04
Fix, print, hand over
A Handover Sheet for the office drawer, a renewal timeline, and polite hand-back wording for anything held outside.
What the check catches
The lock-outs that take small websites down
From the worked example: the designer registered the domain in 2019, and the domain renews in a few weeks with auto-renew off.
-
Fix first R1
Domain registration is in your designer's or agency's account
The domain and its DNS are the two pieces everything else hangs from: whoever holds them decides where your website and email point.
What to do Ask for it to be moved into an account in the business's name, or for the business to be added as owner. Keep the designer as a helper, not the owner.
-
Fix first R7
Domain registration renews in 24 days and auto-renew is off
Nothing will renew it unless somebody does it by hand in time.
What to do Renew it now, or turn on auto-renew with a business card.
-
Fix first R1
DNS (Same as the registrar) is in your designer's or agency's account
The domain and its DNS are the two pieces everything else hangs from: whoever holds them decides where your website and email point.
What to do Ask for it to be moved into an account in the business's name, or for the business to be added as owner. Keep the designer as a helper, not the owner.
-
Fix first R2
Website admin login (Site builder) is in a former staff member's or volunteer's account
Someone who has left can renew, change or lose it, and nobody else can step in when it breaks or lapses.
What to do Ask them now, while they are easy to reach, to move it into an account in the business's name (the hand-back request on the map page has the wording).
The one most people miss
The circular lock-out
If the account that renews your domain logs in with an address at that same domain, a lapsed domain takes the email down with it, and the renewal notice and password-reset mail that would fix it can never arrive. The Map Check flags it as "fix first".
Pricing
The check is free. The Keyring Pass keeps the whole portfolio.
Free
$0
- Unlimited Map Checks (nothing stored)
- A Keyring with 1 saved map of up to 12 pieces
- Printable Handover Sheet
- Hand-back request wording
Keyring Pass
$1.95/month or $19.50/year
- 25 saved maps of up to 30 pieces: every client or every site
- Renewal calendar (.ics) with reminders 30 and 7 days before
- CSV export of any map
- Duplicate a map as a starting point
Free during preview: nothing is charged and every Pass feature is on.
Plainly
- Does TotalHostNow sell hosting?
- No. It sells no hosting, domains or email and recommends no provider. It has no affiliate links.
- Does it want my passwords?
- Never. It asks which kind of address an account logs in with, not the address, and tries to refuse anything that looks like a password, card number or recovery code.
- Does it check my domain?
- No. It makes no lookups; it works only from your answers, so it is only as current as they are.
- Is this legal advice?
- No. It is a checklist with reasons. Ownership disputes are for a lawyer.