This is a growing concern amongst many business owners. Does your web design company own you? This may be possible if you've allowed them to host your web site for you and also register your domain name for your company.    

Web design companies have a lot of control over their clients. The sad reality is that most of their clients don't even know they are stuck in this potentially painful predicament. This power is usually exercised when a client of a web design company finds a better deal on hosting for their web site and they simply want to switch their hosting provider, or when the "client" wants to upgrade their web site for a better rate than their current web development provider is offering. Here's what usually happens to so called "traitor clients":

Current web Design Company sends their client a hefty bill for switching. The web design company cancels their client’s account. They may point the domain name to another place. They sometimes take down the entire website until further notice

Too much power is given to the web design company. It is your right to shop for better prices and it is your right to own your domain name even if you didn't have a hand in registering your domain name.  If you are in the process of searching for a web design company, ENSURE that you have a contract drafted, outlining everything you are entitled to and that you have sole rights to your domain name.

 Better register your domain name before you hire a web design company. This ultimately gives you the power over your domain name. At any given time, you can go back and log into your "domain name registrant" in order to switch your web site to any hosting company you choose.

When searching for an "all around" package for your web design project, make sure that your hosting is suitable for your needs. The most you should pay for your hosting in this case is around $100.00 a year. You only need a large hosting package if your web site is 1000+ pages in size, you’re going to buy traffic in the 1000's every month and you need over 25 email accounts setup

Ask few more questions when shopping for a web design company before you sign any contract such as, if you are late making payments; is it design company policy to cancel the account?; does it state within the company’s contract that you cannot switch to a different hosting company later on?; and Going forward, are you going to be able to hire any web developer for your website updates, if you can negotiate better prices?

Make sure your web design company gives you the "FTP (File Transfer Protocol)" access to your website. The FTP allows you to hire another web design company to go in and update your website at any time. Without the FTP information, no one can update your website besides the original web development company or hosting company that you hired.

In Conclusion, be weary of web design companies that don't provide contracts for all of their projects. Be careful with your domain name; make sure that in the end, you own all rights to your domain name, not someone else