The details.
What does owning a website actually mean?
Three things: the domain name, the site files, and the hosting account. You own your site when all three are registered to you, in accounts under your email address, and you can log in to each one without asking anyone's permission.
If any of the three lives in someone else's account, you are renting, even if you paid for the build.
When do you not own your site?
When a company builds your site on its own platform, inside its own account. The monthly fee feels like hosting, but leaving means starting over, because the design only exists inside their system.
Ask one question before signing anything: if I leave, what do I take with me? The answer tells you who really owns the site.
How does it work with Sitewhip?
Your domain is registered in your name, in your own registrar account. Your site is deployed to a hosting account you own. The finished files are yours, full stop.
If we part ways the day after launch, everything keeps running and you keep the keys. The Care Plan is cancel-anytime for the same reason.
What if someone else already bought the domain?
It should move into an account in your name. A domain sitting in a builder's or a friend's account is the single most common way small businesses lose their site, usually after a falling out or a closed business.
A transfer between accounts usually costs about one year's renewal and finishes within a few days.