The Short Answer
It depends entirely on your contract, and a surprising number of Ottawa firm owners have never actually read theirs closely enough to know. Some web agencies build and hand over a site the firm owns outright, with full access to hosting, domain, and code. Others operate on a model where the site technically stops functioning — or reverts to a stripped-down version — the moment a monthly payment stops, because the firm never actually owned the underlying platform or hosting.
The Three Common Ownership Models
Full ownership: You own the domain, hosting, and all code outright. If you stop paying for ongoing maintenance or updates, the site keeps running exactly as it is — you simply stop receiving new work from that agency.
Platform lock-in: The agency built your site on a proprietary platform or template system they control. Stop paying, and the site can be taken offline entirely, because you never had a portable, ownable version of it to begin with.
Hosting lock-in: You may own the code, but the agency controls hosting and domain registration. Stop paying, and the site goes dark even though the underlying content technically belongs to you, until hosting is sorted out elsewhere.
If you don't know which of these three describes your current website, that's worth finding out before you need to know — not after a dispute with your agency forces the question.
James Harmiden · Founder & CEO, Lexscale.ai
How to Check Your Own Situation Right Now
Ask your current agency directly for the domain registrar login, the hosting account access, and a full export of your website's code and content. A reasonable agency should be able to provide this without friction, or clearly explain the ownership terms in your contract if the answer is more complicated. If they're evasive or the answer reveals you don't actually own your own website, that's important information — regardless of whether you plan to switch providers any time soon.
When Lexscale.ai builds a site for an Ottawa firm, full ownership — domain, hosting access, and code — stays with the firm from day one. See AI website design for Ottawa law firms for how ownership and access are structured on every engagement.
Related Questions Ottawa Firms Ask
Firms asking this usually end up asking a handful of related questions too — Is Your Ottawa Law Firm's Website Mobile-Friendly Enough for Clients?, SEO Agency vs. AI Website Agency: What Does an Ottawa Law Firm Need?, Should Your Ottawa Law Firm Build Content for Federal Public Service Employees?, and How Much Does SEO Cost for a Law Firm in Ottawa? all sit close to this one. A few steps further out, How Long Does It Take to See SEO Results in Ottawa?, How Do I Get My Ottawa Law Firm to Show Up in ChatGPT and AI Search?, and What Is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) for Ottawa Law Firms? round out the picture. If you'd rather see how it all fits together as one system, the Ottawa hub is the place to start, with AI Website Design for Ottawa Law Firms and AI SEO for Ottawa Law Firms covering each half of the work in depth.