Owner- of- record.
Owner-of-record is the legal and technical control of the assets behind your website: the domain, the data, the hosting, and the code. It is the single most important question in any agency contract, and most agencies answer it vaguely on purpose. At Mule the answer has two parts. Your domain and your data are yours on every plan, always. The project itself is yours outright if you buy it once, and ours until you buy it out if you pay monthly.
Who actually owns your website right now?
Many agencies register your domain in their name, set up hosting on their own account, and keep the source code in a private repository you have never seen. You are paying them to rent your own business presence, and most of the time nobody has ever said so out loud.
When you try to leave, the keys are not yours. The agency holds them. Your only options are to keep paying or to start over from scratch. The tell is that nobody will give you a straight answer to a simple question.
The honest answer at Mule, including the awkward part
We are going to answer this the way we wish an agency had answered it for you, which means telling you the part that is not flattering to us.
Your domain is yours. Registered in your name, on your card, in your account, on every plan, and we will walk you through setting it up that way. Your data is yours. Your customer records, your content, your analytics. On every plan, whatever happens, including if you stop paying. Ask and we hand it over. We do not hold either of those as leverage, ever, and there is no circumstance in which we would.
The project, meaning the code we write for you, depends on how you pay. If you buy it once, from $600, it is yours on completion. It runs on your own accounts, you get the source, and we keep only a limited right to fix bugs, patch security, and make changes you ask for, which you can end in writing at any time.
If you subscribe, from $29.99 / mo with nothing down, then Mule owns and runs the project until you buy it out. You hold a licence to use it while the plan is paid. This is the trade for us carrying the build cost instead of you writing a cheque, and we would rather put it on this page in plain words than bury it in a clause. If you cancel before you have bought it out, the licence ends and the project comes down, because it is still ours.
So how do you end up owning it?
The buyout, and the useful thing about it is that it is always getting cheaper.
Part of every monthly payment pays down the build itself. The buyout price is the build value minus everything you have already paid toward it, so it falls every single month. Eventually it reaches zero, and at that point the project simply becomes yours, for nothing. Your quote names the month yours hits zero. Nobody has to remind us and there is no final invoice to negotiate.
Two details we will not hide. Buying out inside the 12-month minimum term also settles the rest of that term. And finishing the term is not the same thing as owning the project: the build is spread over a longer period than the minimum term, so when the term ends there is usually still some build value left. Finishing the term ends your commitment to keep paying. It does not hand you the code.
And if we never built it, we never own it. If you already have a site and we are only hosting and maintaining it, nothing changes hands and there is nothing to buy out. It was yours and it stays yours.
What questions should you ask any agency before signing?
Six questions decide it. Who is the registered owner of the domain? Whose name is on the hosting account? Do I get the source code, and when? Will my analytics property be transferred to my account? If I pay monthly, do I own the site or am I licensing it? And the one that flushes out everything else: what happens to my site, exactly, if I stop paying you?
There is nothing wrong with an agency that answers 'you are licensing it until you buy it out'. That can be a fair deal, and it is ours. What is not fair is an agency that will not tell you which one you are in, or that lets you believe you own something you do not. If they hesitate, dodge, or charge a fee to hand over assets that should have been yours from the start, you have your answer.
About owner-of-record.
What if my current agency has my domain in their name?
You can transfer it. Every registrar has a transfer-out process and the current registrant has to approve it. If they refuse without legitimate cause, you can escalate to ICANN. Domain hostage situations are a real category of complaint and registrars take them seriously.
If I subscribe to Mule, am I the owner of record?
On your domain and your data, yes, absolutely and always. On the project itself, no, not until you buy it out. Mule owns and runs it while you subscribe and you hold a licence to use it, which is the trade for paying nothing up front. The buyout price falls every month until it reaches zero, and then the project is yours for free. We would rather you knew this before you signed, which is why it is on this page rather than only in the terms. If you want to be the owner from the first day, buy the project once instead, from $600.
What happens to my site if I cancel a subscription?
If you have bought the project out, or you bought it once outright, nothing happens to it. It is yours, it stays up on your accounts, and we do not take a project you own offline over a billing question. If you are still subscribing and have not bought it out, your licence ends and the site comes down, because it still belongs to us. Your domain and your data come with you either way, and we hand them over on request.
Did Mule used to promise day-one ownership on monthly plans?
Yes, and the people who signed up on that promise keep it. If you subscribed under the original Care Plan terms, you are owner of record from day one exactly as we told you, there is nothing for you to buy out, and we are not changing your deal or asking you for anything. The terms described on this page apply to subscriptions sold under the current contract, not to yours.
Does owner-of-record cost more than the alternative?
Owning the project outright costs more up front than subscribing with nothing down, and that is the entire trade rather than a hidden fee. What should never cost extra is your domain, your data, or an account being registered in your name in the first place. Some agencies charge a premium to 'transfer' assets that should have been yours from the start. That fee is a tell, and you should treat it as one.
Can I keep my existing CMS or hosting if I work with Mule?
Usually yes, and if you already own the site, working on it does not transfer it to us. We audit case by case. If you are on a proprietary platform and the lock-in is genuinely severe, we will recommend a clean rebuild on portable infrastructure and explain the trade-off in writing first.
Is owner-of-record the same as 'we own the code'?
It is broader, and the distinction matters more than ever now. Code ownership is one part of it, but a domain you do not own, or customer data held in someone else's account, leaves you just as stuck. Owner-of-record covers every account, file, and credential behind your site, and the honest answer at Mule is split: the domain and the data are yours on every plan, and the code is yours once you have bought it, whether that is up front or through the buyout.
Work with a studio that means it.
Send a short brief. Same-day reply. Own it outright from $600, or subscribe from $29.99 / mo with nothing down.