Should the client own the domain name — what happens if the agency buys it under their own name?

The agency we worked with four years ago shut down out of nowhere. The domain was on the owner's personal account, and we couldn't reach the guy for two months. The site went down, corporate emails stopped working. We spent weeks gathering notarized company documents to prove ownership to the registrar just to get it back.

Just open a company account with a well-known registrar right away and register it yourself in 5 minutes. Tell the agency: 'We bought it, send over the DNS records to point it to.' If they push back, don't work with that agency at all.

Pre-contract checklist: 1) Ownership and admin email must remain with your company. 2) Annual renewal tracking must be tied to your corporate card. 3) The agency should only be granted DNS management or technical contact permissions.

Even if your registered trade name is protected under the Turkish Commercial Code and trademark law, arbitration or court proceedings in domain disputes take months. To prevent any loss of rights, registering directly under the corporate entity right from the start is essential.

The agency might not have bad intentions; they might just want to make life easier for a non-technical client. But good intentions aside it's a commercial risk. If you have a dispute over maintenance fees down the road there's zero guarantee they won't use that domain as leverage.

Why don't they just put the title deed to your office building in the agency's name too, then they can handle the utility bills easier. Registering your domain under someone else is literally the same thing.

The domain is your company's digital property. Both the invoice and the registration certificate should be issued directly to your company's tax ID.

There's a common mistake people make when doing this. The real issue isn't the number, but what it's based on.

Of course, it varies if your situation is different.

There's also a measurement aspect to this. Every "we'll look at it later" in a meeting means unbilled work.

Hope this helps.

Saved. In legacy systems, the most expensive thing is unknown dependencies.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Let me clarify the technical side. The cheapest quote is usually the least thought-out one.

If scope grows, either time or budget must grow. There is no third option.

We experienced almost the exact same thing last year. If acceptance criteria aren't written, when the work is done is open to debate.

Generally correct, but one part is missing. Don't hesitate to ask; those who don't ask always pay more.

If I were you, I'd go this route.

I'd say don't rush. If acceptance criteria aren't written when the work is done is open to debate.

If you post the result here it will help others too.

There is something to watch out for. Mistakes made on the domain name client ownership side are usually reversible but expensive.

Let me share what happened to me; it might be useful. When you try to change everything at once, nothing settles.

Let me share what happened to me; it might be useful. Hasty decisions become decisions you have to fix six months later.

I'll argue the opposite, don't get mad. If acceptance criteria aren't written, when the work is done is open to debate.

That's all, sorry if I went on too long.