How I'd choose a web designer

If I were choosing a web designer, I'd ask whose name the domain goes under before I opened a single portfolio. A portfolio shows me what they can make. That one answer shows me what happens on the day we stop talking.

These are the four questions I'd send first, by email, so the answers exist somewhere:

1. Whose name will the domain be registered in, exactly as it appears on the registration?
2. Who holds the logins, and will I have my own for the domain, the hosting and the site?
3. What do I get at handover, file by file?
4. What happens to my site in the month I stop paying you?

I'd guess most people start with the portfolio. It's a fair place to look, because taste is real and you'll live with theirs. I'd give it ten minutes on my phone, after the emails.

The name on the domain

MYNIC, which runs .my, defines the registrant as the person or organisation that applied, "as stated in the application form".¹ Its Registrant Policy also says a domain is "not absolutely owned", only held as long as it's active and renewed.¹ So nobody quite owns one, and all you can do is make sure the person holding it is you.

If a designer applies in their own name, then as I read that policy, they're the holder and you're a customer of theirs. For a .com.my, a registered company or business can apply, so a designer's firm would qualify as easily as yours.¹

The policy does let a domain move to another registrant, subject to verification.¹ That's useful if both of you are still on speaking terms.

I couldn't find a number for how many small businesses have their domain in a designer's name. My guess is that it's usually laziness, not plotting: the client doesn't want the admin, the designer has an account open, and nobody thinks about it for years.

The cheap fix

It's a cheap thing to get right. GoDaddy, which sells domains, puts one at around RM30 a year.² I'd pay that myself, on my own account, with my company's email address, and give the designer access to work on it.

A .com sits outside MYNIC's policy, which covers .my names only.¹ I'd ask the same question anyway.

Why the email address matters

Renewal is where this bites. MYNIC says the renewal reminder goes from the registrar to the registrant, so if that's your designer, the warning goes to them.¹ Here's what follows if nobody acts.

What happens to a .my name nobody renews

The middle box is the one I'd think about. During redemption the policy says the website and email address "will cease to function", and getting the name back costs an extra fee.¹

Lost email is a much worse morning than a lost website, because it's the invoices and the customers too. And after that last box, the name goes back to first come, first served.¹

Logins, and who can lock whom out

Paying someone to look after hosting is perfectly reasonable, and for most small firms it's money well spent. GoDaddy's guide treats designer-built sites as carrying a separate hosting bill and perhaps a monthly maintenance fee, somewhere from RM50 to RM500 or more.² What I'd want is my own login at the top level, and theirs added under it.

If someone tells me I can't have one "for security", I'd ask what the risk is. There may be a good answer, such as a shared server with other clients on it. Then I'd ask how I get a full copy of the site out, how often, and whether it restores.

What the contract gives you

Here's something I didn't expect. Malaysian copyright law generally moves ownership of a commissioned work to the person who commissioned it, and a law firm's note on section 26 says that "can be excluded by agreement".³ The same note says the commission has to come before the work.³

So I wouldn't look only for a line saying I own it. I'd look for what's carved out. The note suggests providers exclude third-party works and their own pre-existing material, which on a website could mean the theme, the plugins and the stock photos.³

That's a sensible clause for a designer to have. I'd just want a list of what's excluded, and to know which licences stop working when I leave. On a big job, I'd pay a lawyer to read it.

The contact form nobody thinks about

A contact form collects names and phone numbers, so I'd ask where the entries are stored and who can read them. Since April 2025 processors have been directly regulated on security, and since June 2025 controllers have had to report data breaches.⁴

My reading is that you're the controller and your designer's the processor, but your lawyer can tell you for your own case. Either way, I'd want the answer before there's a problem, and I'd want old entries deleted from their side at handover.

What's a fair price?

I can't tell you. The only figures I found come from a company selling a cheaper way to build the thing, so hold them loosely: GoDaddy puts a professional site at RM2,200 to RM30,000.²

A range that wide is telling you the word "website" doesn't mean much. I'd compare two quotes by what's written in them: pages, rounds of changes, who writes the words, and the handover list. If a quote is much cheaper because it's silent on those, it's probably not cheaper.

When I'd walk away

• The domain is "taken care of", and nobody will put the registrant's name in writing.
• I can't have a login of my own, and there's no reason beyond habit.
• The handover answer amounts to sorting it out when the time comes.
• They've got no past client from a few years back who'd take a call.