The failure this prevents
An agency builds a site under its own Webflow account, its own domain registrar login and its own analytics property. The relationship ends — amicably or otherwise — and the client owns a design they cannot edit, on a domain they cannot move, measured by an account they cannot open.
Nobody plans this. It is the default outcome of doing things in the fastest order, and by the time it matters, the person who opened the accounts has left.
It is also entirely preventable with a conversation in week one, which is the only reason this post exists.
Who should own each account
**The domain: you, always.** Registered to your business, with your billing details, in an account you can log into today. Everything else can be transferred; a domain held by someone who stops replying is the one genuinely hard problem.
**Webflow: your Workspace, agency invited.** The site should be built in a Workspace your business owns, with the agency added as a member. Sites can be transferred later, and it is simpler to never need to.
**Analytics and Tag Manager: your Google account.** Agencies routinely create these under their own login because it is one click faster. Then the history is theirs. Make the property under your account and add them.
**Anything with a card attached: your card.** Hosting, email, the scheduling tool. A subscription paid by an agency is a subscription that lapses the month after the relationship does.
What handover has to include
A written list of every account, what it is for, and who owns it. One page. Most projects never produce this and it is the single most useful artefact of the whole engagement.
A short recording of how to do the three things you will actually do — edit a page, add a blog post, change a form recipient. Written documentation gets skimmed; a four-minute screen recording gets watched.
Confirmation that redirects, sitemap and analytics survived launch. Ask specifically. “The site is live” and “the site is live and nothing that was ranking now 404s” are different claims — moving without falling is what happens when only the first is checked.
And a clear answer on what happens next: who fixes something at 9pm, what a small change costs, and whether there is a retainer or an hourly rate.
The question to ask before signing
“If we part company after launch, what exactly do we hold and what would we need from you?” The answer separates agencies faster than any portfolio, and a good one has it ready because they have been asked before.
It is also fair to ask it without implying distrust. Every competent agency expects the question; the ones who bristle are telling you what the answer would have been.
Ask it alongside the other five in how to choose an agency — ownership belongs in the same conversation as scope and exclusions, before anyone is invested in the outcome.
Questions we get asked
Who should own the Webflow account, the client or the agency?
The client. Build in a Workspace your business owns and invite the agency as a member. Sites can be transferred afterwards, but it is simpler never to need the transfer — and the same applies to the domain, analytics and anything with a card attached.
What should a website handover include?
A one-page list of every account and who owns it, a short screen recording of the three things you will actually do, written confirmation that redirects and analytics survived launch, and a clear statement of what support costs afterwards.
What if my agency owns my domain?
Move it before you need to. A domain registered to someone else is the one part of this that is genuinely hard to recover if a relationship ends badly — everything else can be rebuilt or transferred, and the domain is the thing your email and rankings depend on.