Hosting Custody Risk

Hosting Custody Risk is the exposure an agency takes on when the AI builder also holds the domain, DNS, SSL, and site runtime. Generation speed is a one-time gain; custody is a recurring liability that shows up as renewal friction, migration cost, and blame when the platform changes terms. Agencies should separate who generates the site from who holds the client's infrastructure. A white-label builder such as Duda or Kopage can carry the agency's brand while the agency keeps the registrar and DNS account, so a platform price change or model swap does not become a client conversation. The same logic applies when a vendor shifts its underlying model: Meta's September 29, 2026 move from open Llama weights to the closed-weight Muse Spark model removed the self-hosting option some cost-conscious agencies relied on for data control, which is exactly the kind of change that turns a hosting decision into a retention event.