If I move to my own hosting or self-manage, do the plugin and software licenses transfer to me?

The short version, made crystal clear

This is the one piece of “do I own my site” that trips people up, so we want it stated plainly: no, the premium plugin and software licenses your site runs on do not transfer to you. They’re licensed to True Mtn, not to you and not to your site itself. While you’re on a monthly Platform & Hosting subscription, we cover all of these licenses for you as part of that fee, so you never have to buy or manage a single one yourself. But that coverage runs through us, not through the site, which means it doesn’t travel with the site if you leave.

This is separate from owning your site. The site itself, the design and the build, is yours permanently once the Design & Development fee is paid in full. The tools currently keeping that site running are a different thing entirely, the same way canceling a software subscription doesn’t hand you a personal copy of the software.

What happens if you move on

If you ever move to your own hosting or decide to self-manage, the site goes with you exactly as it is. What doesn’t come with it are the licenses. At that point you’d need to license the equivalents yourself, in your own name and at your own expense, starting with your own hosting account.

Depending on your plan, that generally means picking up your own versions of: managed hosting, a CDN and security layer, SMTP email delivery, a forms plugin, SEO tooling, a caching solution, malware protection, spam filtering, uptime monitoring, and your page builder. Core sites also rely on privacy and consent compliance software, SMS alert delivery, and automation tooling. Every build also uses licensed stock imagery, so replacing or licensing that separately matters too if you want to keep using those images.

The tools behind that, by name

To be specific rather than vague about what “premium licenses” means in practice, the software we most commonly use includes Cloudways for managed hosting, Cloudflare for CDN and edge security, Mailgun for SMTP email delivery, Gravity Forms for forms, SEOPress Pro for SEO, FlyingPress or WP Rocket for caching, MalCare for security and malware protection, CleanTalk for spam filtering, WP Umbrella for uptime monitoring, and a page builder with its add-ons. Core sites also use Termageddon for privacy and consent compliance, Twilio for SMS lead alerts, and Zapier for automations. On top of all of that, every site uses licensed stock imagery from iStock and Envato, which is also part of what’s covered while you’re subscribed.

Why we can’t just hand you a final list up front

This is a general picture of what’s typically involved, not a fixed or final list, because every site ends up a little different depending on what was built for it. A site with a Custom Post Type, an ecommerce buildout, or an extra integration will have licenses the general list above doesn’t capture.

That’s why, when you do decide to cancel or move off our hosting, we give you the exact list for your specific site rather than making you guess from a general one. You’ll know precisely what you need to replace, so you can set up your own licensing with a clear checklist instead of trial and error.