Why I Never Build a Site
in My Own Account

The most common web design horror story I hear from contractors goes like this: a web designer builds the site, it goes live, the contractor is happy, money changes hands. Eighteen months later the relationship sours — prices go up, communication goes dark, something goes wrong. The contractor tries to take their site elsewhere. And discovers they can't. Not easily, anyway. Because the site lives in the designer's account, and getting it out is a fight.

This scenario is entirely preventable and happens constantly. Here's why it occurs, what it costs, and how to make sure it never happens to you.

Why Designers Build In Their Own Accounts

It's not usually malicious. Most web designers who keep sites in their own accounts do it because it's operationally convenient — one Netlify account with all their client sites, one Google Analytics property, one domain registrar, everything in one place. It's easier to manage from their side. They don't think of it as creating a dependency. They think of it as efficient.

But convenience for the designer creates fragility for you. The moment that designer's business changes, their priorities change, their pricing changes, or the relationship goes sideways in any way — your website is caught in the middle.

The Single-Point-of-Failure Risk

When all your digital infrastructure lives in one vendor's account, you've created a single point of failure. If that vendor:

• Goes out of business
• Raises prices beyond what you're willing to pay
• Loses interest in small clients
• Has a personal crisis that takes them offline
• Simply decides they don't want to work with you anymore

...your website, your analytics history, your email list, your domain — all of it is caught in a negotiation you didn't expect to have. In the best case, you get everything transferred after a difficult conversation and some delay. In the worst case, you're rebuilding from scratch.

What Correct Account Structure Looks Like

Every tool and platform your website depends on should be in an account that you own, with credentials that only you possess. The web designer is added as a collaborator, administrator, or team member — with access to do their work, but without being the account holder.

This applies to: your hosting platform (Netlify, Vercel, or whichever is used), your domain registrar (Cloudflare, Namecheap, Google Domains), your analytics platform (Google Analytics, Plausible), your email marketing platform (Mailchimp, ConvertKit), your CMS if applicable, and your form and lead capture tools.

When the designer's access is as a collaborator rather than an owner, you can revoke that access at any time without losing anything. The relationship ends and the asset remains entirely in your hands.

The Retainer Relationship Distinction

There's a version of ongoing web design support that's healthy and appropriate. You pay a monthly retainer and the designer maintains your site, makes updates, monitors performance, and provides strategic counsel. They have access to your accounts to do that work. That's a service relationship, and it's fine.

The distinction is that the account ownership doesn't change based on the retainer. Whether you're paying monthly or not, you own the accounts. The designer's access is conditional on the relationship continuing — it doesn't create a structural dependency that outlives the relationship.

Why I Built My Business This Way

Every client account at Scott Gray Digital lives in the client's own name from day one. I'm added as a collaborator. When a project ends, I remove my access. The client has everything.

The practical result is that I have to earn the ongoing relationship by being genuinely useful — because there's no structural reason a client has to keep paying me. That's the right incentive structure. It's better for the client, and honestly, it's better for me: the clients who stay do so because the work is worth it, not because leaving would be painful.