Who Owns Your Website After Launch? Questions to Ask a Development Agency Before You Sign

A website proposal covers design, templates, a CMS, and a launch date. It rarely says who holds the code repository, the hosting account, and the CMS project once the site is live, and those details decide whether you can change suppliers or hire an in-house developer later.

The questions below cover four assets (code, infrastructure, content and knowledge) and what support should look like if you stay with the same team. Have them sign before asking them, and record their responses in the contract.

Why ownership questions usually come too late

The ownership issue is raised if something breaks down. An agency goes out of business, a key developer moves on, or a new marketing manager gets in the door and desires a second opinion. When an agency’s business folds, a key developer quits, or a new marketing manager enters the door, they want a second opinion. By that time, the repository is housed in the agency’s organization, the domain renews its card, and all changes must be theirs—one email for asking before signing, negotiating power after.

99% of agencies are in good faith, and convenience is the cause. It’s faster during build time, and there’s no push to move until you have a need for it when it’s in a repository in the agency’s GitHub organization or a CMS project on their billing plan.

Code and repository: whose account holds the keys

The source code should be hosted on a repository that your company owns, and with the agency’s developers as collaborators. Ask if they will give you the IP on payment, the license for reusing the parts that they did use, and whether you receive the full commit history or just a zip file. History tells the next team why the code changed.

Agencies tend to create on an in-house starter. This is normal, and will make delivery quicker, but a written license must be obtained, which will allow you to continue running and changing that code if you end up splitting up.

Hosting, domains and CMS accounts

Register all accounts dependent on the site under a company email account you control, billed to your company: domain registrar, DNS, Hosting, CMS project, Analytics, Error tracker, Form service. The agency becomes a member of each account and has a membership you can terminate.

Documentation and handover: could another team take over tomorrow?

A good idea test is whether a developer with no idea of what the project did could deploy a change and restore the content in a day, and only on the basis of the repository? That requires a README that explains how to setup it, all environment variables that are used and documented and a list of third-party services and short notes on decisions that the code does not explain.

Request a handover pack from the previous project (with client details redacted), and inquire about content and media leaving the CMS. Content model (Document types & fields) is the first thing a new team needs to learn, and should be documented as well.

What support looks like when you decide to stay

When the owner makes it clear, a long relationship is easier to maintain, as both parties are aware that the client might depart and the agency continues to generate business. Good long-term support has a written scope – response time for incidents, an allowance for small changes, dependency and security updates, and a meeting on a regular basis; you set the priorities.

Long partnerships are built up in increments, not one big contract. Since 2020, Pagepro has partnered with Proofed on a website audit, and this partnership is now a dual-track (time and materials for the React/Next application, an SLA for the website). That’s its longest-running active customer engagement, which is 6+ years!

The gaps in ownership are first apparent in re-platforming, as code and content need to be moved. Within 2 years of the platform’s relaunch, Pagepro increased organic traffic to GP Notebook – a 100,000+ subpage medical reference platform used by UK GPs – by doubling their organic traffic.

A short checklist to send before you sign

Include these questions with your request for a proposal and request written responses. The responses illustrate agency thinking about ownership and provide you with contract language you can use almost verbatim. If you don’t get a clear response on any line, call back to clarify before shopping around.

1. Will the repository sit in our organization from day one, with full commit history?
2. Does the contract assign intellectual property to us upon payment, and which license covers your reusable code?
3. Which accounts (domain, DNS, hosting, CMS, analytics) will be registered and billed in our name?
4. What does the handover pack contain, and can we see an anonymized example?
5. How do we export all content and media from the CMS, and in what format?
6. What notice period and exit assistance apply if either side ends the contract?

If your site is already active, conduct an account audit this week. Write down all the services that the site uses, and the email address provided; note that if it’s not registered through your company, move it to the top.