As a small business owner, you need to have control over your website and web hosting. You can’t rely on someone else to host your website for you. You need to be able to access your website whenever you want, and make changes as needed. Having your own web hosting gives you that control.
When you have access to your own hosting you have the ability to,
1. Change your Web Developer.
2. To manage your own website files
3. To troubleshoot website issues
4. To install or update website software
5. To back up your website data
6. Knowing how to access your web hosting is an important part of being a responsible website owner.
I have seen instances where web developers go away on holidays, become ill or worse, and their clients are left will either limited or no access to their website
So what should you request from a developer
Always buy your own domain name and give the developer access to it if needed. Have a contract that outlines any work to be done and who owns what. If decide to host with your developer, make sure you receive access to your hosting account (cPanel) when your website launches. If you get hosting, make sure it is in YOUR NAME and then you can provide limited access to any developer or designer to prevent them from taking over your account.
As a web developer I used to put all of my clients sites on my shared hosting account and create extra income by doing so, this now is bad practice, that is like a builder building you a house on his land. It may be economical for everyone, until he/she decides not to allow modify anything, or worse.
