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The Handover Test
One question exposes the true nature of your website deal: if you parted ways with your developer tomorrow, what would you actually keep?
YOURS.
Documented and handed over
Plenty of businesses discover who really owns their website on the day the relationship with their web company ends. That's the most expensive possible moment to find out.
There's a simple test for any website arrangement: a build, a subscription, a retainer. Ask: if we stopped working together tomorrow, what would I keep? If the honest answer is "a logo file and some screenshots", you don't own a website. You're renting one.
What ownership actually means
The domain is registered to you, in an account you control
Hosting is in your name, or can be moved without anyone's permission
You hold the source code and content, in a form another developer could take over
Admin access to everything (site, analytics, integrations) belongs to you
There's documentation: what was built, how it works, where things live
How the rental trap happens
It's rarely malicious. A proprietary site builder makes the work quick to produce but impossible to export. The domain gets registered under the agency's account because it was easier that day. Credentials accumulate in someone else's password manager. Each choice is small; together they mean leaving your provider means starting from zero, which quietly changes the balance of every future conversation about price.
Questions to ask before you sign
Whose name will the domain be registered in?
If we leave, can we take the site with us, and in what form?
Do we get the source code and a copy of the content?
What documentation comes with the handover?
Is there anything here we'd have to rebuild from scratch elsewhere?
A good developer answers these without flinching. Hesitation is information.
A handover is a deliverable
Ownership shouldn't arrive by accident at the end of a project; it should be specified at the start. The keys and the manual are part of the work: accounts in your name, credentials transferred, documentation written, and a walkthrough of how to change the everyday things yourself.
Why builders should want this too
The irony is that ownership is good for the relationship. When a client stays because leaving is impossible, that's a hostage situation with invoices. When they stay because the work is good, that's a business. Insist on passing the handover test, and be wary of anyone who would rather you didn't ask.
Scoped, priced and agreed before anything starts. Built properly from day one.
Send one email and we'll reply within a working day with whether we can help, roughly what it costs, and what we'd do first. No sales call required.
You do. Every build is documented and handed over: you get the keys and the manual. No hostage-taking.
It depends on scope. Every build starts with a written proposal that sets out a clear timeline before work begins, and if it changes, we tell you.
Every build includes a 30-day defect warranty: if we broke it, we fix it free. It's in our terms, in writing.
No. We handle the technical side end to end and explain everything in plain English. Documentation and handover come as standard.