Platform guides · sources verified 2026-09-03
What your website platform lets you take with you
Most business owners assume they own their website. Often they own the words and the photographs, and not much else. Below is what each major platform actually says about this, quoted from their own terms and documentation, with the sources linked so you can check us.
We rebuild sites from every one of these platforms. But read the page for yours first, because on a few of them the honest answer is that you are fine where you are.
Website builder
Fast to launch, and built so that leaving is difficult. Export options range from partial to none at all.
Wix
Wix documents it plainly: there is no way to export your site, and their content may not be migrated off Wix.
Read the Wix pageSquarespace
The export is a content dump, not a website. Squarespace publishes the list of what it leaves behind.
Read the Squarespace pageGoDaddy Websites + Marketing
GoDaddy’s own agreement says the websites created with Website Services belong to GoDaddy, and may not be migrated.
Read the GoDaddy Website Builder pageWeebly
Still running, but Square now steers new customers to Square Online. A platform on maintenance is a platform to plan around.
Read the Weebly pageWebflow
The most portable builder on this list — genuinely. But the export drops your CMS, your forms and your commerce.
Read the Webflow pageShopify
Excellent for commerce. For a service business, a missed bill locks both your customers and you out of the site.
Read the Shopify pageVistaprint (Vista x Wix)
Vistaprint websites are Wix sites now — and their earlier builder, Webs.com, was retired in August 2023.
Read the Vistaprint page
Agency-managed / subscription
Someone else builds and holds it. Read the termination clause before you need it.
Duda
If an agency built your Duda site, the agency holds the account — and Duda will not hand it to you.
Read the Duda pageHibu
Hibu’s Smart Sites terms state the domain they provide for your website is registered to Hibu.
Read the Hibu pageThryv
Thryv’s terms state the composition and design of the website they build is their sole and exclusive property.
Read the Thryv pageTownsquare Interactive
Their terms say it plainly: on termination you have no access to, or ownership rights in, the website.
Read the Townsquare Interactive pageWeb.com / Network Solutions
Their terms are clear on two things: third-party design assets do not transfer, and they will not move your site for you.
Read the Web.com page
Self-hosted CMS
You own the software and the files. What you also own is the maintenance obligation that keeps it safe.
Legacy or unsupported
Running software that no longer receives standard support, usually with nobody left who understands it.
Joomla
Joomla 3 reached end of life in August 2023. If you are still on it, you are running unsupported software.
Read the Joomla pageDrupal
Drupal 7 lost community security support on 5 January 2025. A great many small-business sites never left it.
Read the Drupal pagea custom or abandoned site
Built years ago by a developer you can no longer reach. No documentation, no updates, and nobody who understands it.
Read the your custom site page
Not sure what your site is built on?
Most people are not, and there is no reason you should be. The free scan identifies the platform, what is slowing it down, and what search engines and AI answer engines can actually read.
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