How do I find out who owns my dental practice's domain?

Run your domain through a WHOIS lookup (for example lookup.icann.org). If the registrant organization is your website vendor rather than your practice — or you don't have login access to the registrar account — you don't control your own address on the internet.

What happens to my website when I cancel with a dental marketing company?

With most template-lease vendors the site is taken down and the design, content, and images stay with the vendor. If the vendor also registered your domain, transferring it out can add weeks of friction. Check your contract's termination clause for the words 'license', 'lease', or 'platform'.

Do I own the photos and content on my dental website?

Only if your contract says so. Work-for-hire language should assign you the copyright to custom photography and written content. Stock photos are licensed, not owned — and template copy usually belongs to the vendor.

What should a dental website contract say about ownership?

In writing: the domain is registered in the practice's name and account; all design files, code, written content, and commissioned photography are assigned to the practice on final payment; and on termination the vendor will hand over a complete copy of the site within a stated number of days.

Guides · Ownership

Who owns your dental website? Check before you cancel.

By Justin Souyias · SiteAligners · Updated July 2026 · 6 min read

The short answer

If your site came from a dental marketing company on a monthly plan, there's a good chance you're leasing it — and the design, content, photos, and sometimes even the domain stay with the vendor when you cancel. Ten minutes of checking now beats finding out during a switch. Here's the audit.

The lease you didn't know you signed

The dominant business model in dental websites is the platform lease: low or no up-front cost, a monthly fee, and a site that lives on the vendor's system. Nothing about that is illegal or even hidden — it's in the contract. It's just rarely read. Practices discover the arrangement at the worst possible moment: when they try to leave.

What walking away can actually mean: the site goes dark, the procedure pages and patient-education content you "had" disappear, the photography was stock you never licensed directly, and — in the worst version — the domain your patients know was registered by the vendor, so even your address on the internet needs to be negotiated back.

The ten-minute ownership audit

The domain. Run your address through a WHOIS lookup (lookup.icann.org). Is the registrant your practice — and do you have the registrar login? If the vendor is the registrant, flag it today, not the week you switch.
The contract. Find the termination clause. The words to search for: license, lease, platform, upon termination. "Customer receives a license to use the website" means you own nothing.
The photography. Custom shots of your office: does the contract assign you the copyright? Stock imagery: licensed to you, or to the vendor's account?
The content. Who owns the procedure pages and blog posts — and can you export them?
The access. Do you have admin logins for the domain registrar, the hosting, and Google Business Profile? "The agency handles that" is the most expensive sentence in dental marketing.

Why ownership shows up in marketing results, not just principle

This isn't only about exit risk (though the five-year cost math is sobering). Ownership compounds:

Search equity accrues to an asset you keep. Every year of content, links, and reviews builds value — into your asset or the vendor's.
Leverage. A vendor who knows you can leave cleanly prices and behaves differently than one who knows you can't.
Continuity. Redesigns become upgrades to what exists instead of starting from zero every time you change vendors — which is how practices end up with four "first websites" in a decade.

What to demand in any new contract

None of this is exotic; a good vendor will already work this way. In writing:

Domain registered in the practice's name, in an account the practice controls.
All design files, code, written content, and commissioned photography assigned to the practice on final payment.
On termination, a complete copy of the site delivered within a stated number of days.
Month-to-month maintenance with no penalty for leaving.

Our bias, stated plainly: SiteAligners builds this way by default — the practice owns the design, code, photography, content, and domain, and the care plan is month to month. We think it should be the industry default, which is why this guide exists.

Quick answers

How do I find out who owns my domain?

WHOIS lookup (lookup.icann.org). If the registrant is your vendor, or you have no registrar login, you don't control your address.

What happens to the site when I cancel?

On most template leases: it goes dark, and design, content, and images stay with the vendor. Check the termination clause for "license," "lease," or "platform."

Do I own my photos and content?

Only if the contract assigns them to you. Stock photos are licensed, not owned; template copy usually belongs to the vendor.

What should a contract say?

Domain in your name and account; files, content, and photography assigned on final payment; a full copy of the site delivered within a stated window on termination.

Site consultation — 20 minutes, no drill

Not sure what your contract says?

Bring it to a site consultation. We'll tell you what you own, what you don't, and whether it matters for your situation — no charge, no obligation.

Book a site consultation