Why ownership matters more on a course site
A course site holds student accounts, payment links and recurring revenue. If the hosting account belongs to a contractor, the contractor can be the only person able to restore a backup, renew the plan, change DNS or close the account. That is fine while the relationship works and expensive when it ends, especially if the contractor is unreachable on a renewal or outage day.
The fix is simple to describe: the business owns the accounts and pays the bills; the contractor is invited as a user. The work is in getting there cleanly when the site was built the other way round.
Who should own what
| Account | Owner | Contractor access | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain registration | Business, in its own registrar account | Usually none; DNS access if needed | Losing the domain loses everything else |
| DNS hosting | Business | Edit access during build and migration | Controls where the site and email point |
| Hosting account | Business | Administrator or developer role | Backups, renewals and restores |
| Payment method on hosting | Business card | None | Prevents service lapse when an invoice is disputed |
| Payment processor (Stripe, PayPal) | Business | Developer access if supported | Money and customer data |
| Premium plugin licenses | Business account at each vendor | License key shared for activation | Renewals and support entitlement |
| Email sending service | Business | Developer access | Receipts and resets depend on it |
| WordPress admin | Business administrator account | Separate named administrator account | Remove the contractor later without losing access |
Moving a site from a contractor's Kinsta account
Kinsta documents a site transfer between companies in MyKinsta. Company Owners and Company Administrators can initiate a transfer, and the recipient must be a Company Owner or Company Administrator in the destination company. If the destination does not accept within 72 hours, the request is cancelled automatically; until it is accepted, the sender can revoke it.
The transfer carries SSH and SFTP settings, caching configuration, SSL certificates, domain settings and DNS records managed in MyKinsta. PHP, Redis and Premium staging add-ons transfer with the site; Kinsta says all other add-ons are disabled on transfer. If your plan has no free site slot, you are prompted to upgrade after accepting.
Changing who owns a whole Kinsta company is a separate process: only the Company Owner can start it, the recipient must already be a Company Administrator in that company, and the previous owner becomes an administrator afterwards. For a contractor-built site, moving the site into your own company is usually cleaner than taking over the contractor's company.
Moving a site from a contractor's WP Engine account
WP Engine's transfer process needs Owner or Full (with billing) permission on both the source and destination accounts. If the contractor does not have that on yours, you enable transfer codes in your account settings and send them the code; they enter it when transferring. Sandbox sites cannot be transferred and must first be converted to billable sites.
A transfer moves all of a site's environments: production, staging and development. Users you select keep access, and selected users who have no access on the destination become Partial users limited to that site. WP Engine says enabled product extensions must be reactivated on the destination, and some lose settings or historical data.
WP Engine also has transferable sites, which a developer builds without using their own site slot and then hands over with a code that expires 30 days after it is generated. They cannot have SSL added and are password-protected until accepted, and WP Engine says the feature will be deprecated in favour of the self-serve transfer process, so ask your contractor which route they are using.
The domain: get it into your name early
ICANN's registrant FAQ says you cannot transfer a domain to a different registrar within 60 days of changing the registrant name, organization or email, although some registrars offer an opt-out.
So put the domain in the business's name at the start of the project, not at handover. If a contractor registered it in their name, ask them to change the registrant to you now, at the same registrar, and move registrars later if you want to.
Handover checklist
- Domain registered to the business, in a registrar account the business controls, with auto-renew on a business card.
- Hosting site moved into a hosting account the business owns, with the business card on file.
- Contractor invited as a named user with the least access they need; their account removed when the work ends.
- Separate WordPress administrator accounts for the business and the contractor.
- Premium plugin licenses purchased under business accounts, or transferred, with renewal dates noted.
- Payment processor, email service and video host owned by the business.
- Off-site backup copy stored in a location the business controls.
- Written list of every account, owner and renewal date kept outside the hosting account.
Questions before you decide
Can my developer keep the hosting account and bill me?
They can, but then they control backups, renewals and DNS changes. If you accept that, get written terms covering handover on request and keep an off-site backup you control. Owning the account and inviting the developer avoids the dependency.
How long does a Kinsta site transfer take to accept?
The destination company has 72 hours to accept before Kinsta cancels the request automatically. The recipient must be a Company Owner or Company Administrator, and the sender can revoke the transfer until it is accepted.
What do I need to receive a WP Engine site transfer?
Owner or Full (with billing) access on both accounts, or a transfer code generated in your account settings and given to the sender. Sandbox sites must be converted to billable first, and product extensions must be reactivated afterwards.
Sources & verification
Product details and prices can change. Check the linked provider before buying.
- Kinsta: transfer company ownership and transfer a site to another company Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- WP Engine: transferring a site to another account Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- WP Engine: transferable sites and environments Accessed 30 Oct 2026
- ICANN: domain name registrant FAQs Accessed 30 Oct 2026
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