Almost everyone asks me this, though not everyone dares to in the first conversation. So I answer it straight away: the site stays yours. If you ever decide to work with someone else, or to run it yourself, you take it and go. Leaving itself costs nothing, and there is nothing to negotiate. Everything I write here is in the contract; how it is signed you can see on the Contract and deposit page.
What exactly is yours
- The code. The site’s program, its design and layout, the texts I wrote and the images I made. I transfer the property rights in what I made for you to you, with no separate fee: it is already in the price.
- The data. A database export and the files: bookings, guests’ contact details, texts, photographs. I hand them over in a standard format and delete my own copies.
- The domain. I register it in your name from the deposit, in your own registrar account. You are the owner, and you pay the renewal straight to the registrar.
- The accesses. Accounts with other services (the registrar, payments, Google and the like) are created in your name from the start. I get only the access the work needs, and I use it for nothing else.
One condition: the rights in the work pass to you once the full price is paid. If you pay the balance in instalments, they pass on the day the site launches.
Why do it this way
A site you cannot take with you is a rental. When you rent, someone else sets the price and the terms, and they change when it suits them. I want you to work with me because it suits you, not because leaving is too expensive.
A site you cannot take with you is a rental.
That is also why there is no trap in the term. Hosting is agreed for twelve months, but you can end it at any time, and I return the paid but unused part of the period, counted by the day. It runs the other way too: if I could no longer work, the contract obliges me to give you at least 90 days’ notice and to help move the site.
What leaving looks like
You write to me that we are finishing, and give the day. You pay for the build and for what has been done up to that day, nothing more. If you end the build before accepting the work, you pay at most the deposit you have already paid. If you were paying the balance in instalments, it stays due: it is the price of work already done, not a penalty for leaving.
Within 14 days I prepare the package: the code, the database export, the photographs and other files, the settings, a list of the open-source components used, a short installation guide, and the handover of the accesses. My own secret keys and passwords do not go into it; you change them for yours.
- Codethe whole site program
- Dataan export in a standard format
- Accessesa list of your accounts, keys changed
What I cannot hand over
My own components. The booking engine, the admin and the template, which I also use for other sites, stay mine. You get a non-exclusive licence, for good, to use and change them and to let another developer or host do the same. You can pass it on together with the site, for instance when you sell the property. What you cannot do is distribute or sell them apart from the site.
The server. The site runs on my own virtual server, so what you receive is a copy that can be installed anywhere. The handover itself is free; help installing it with another host is separate work.
Other people’s accounts. Mailboxes I ordered under my own account I move to yours, or export. The DNS zone I pass on as well, if it is kept in my account. And if some third-party licence, a font or a photo library, cannot be handed over, I tell you in advance and suggest something else.