I get asked a lot about website ownership. The short answer: if you have paid for your website in full, you should be free to do with it as you wish. Check your contract, though, as in the UK copyright stays with whoever made the work unless the contract hands it over.
Recently, a new client wanted to move to Yazaroo from another web agency for website hosting and support. I quoted, and the quote was accepted. Straightforward stuff.
Unfortunately, when the old web agency was told the client would be leaving, they informed the client that they could not leave without paying them £6,000, as they did not own the website and would need to pay for it to take ownership and move it.
Surprisingly, this is actually relatively common. I have come across a few agencies that attract people with a monthly fee and no upfront build cost. This is certainly an attractive proposition: no upfront cost and a “free website”, just pay monthly. But as anyone who has been through this will tell you, this comes with a cost of its own.
You are locked in. If you get great support, then you are incredibly lucky, and that would certainly be a great deal.
Let’s assume you have been savvy enough to navigate past this style of outfit and have found a more reputable agency. Do you own your website, or does the agency?
When a website, or in the way we work any creative asset, is built, made, written or designed, it is the property of that creative or agency until it is paid for in full. That’s how it works in our terms at Yazaroo. Once it’s paid for, it’s yours.
Platforms like WordPress are open source, meaning the licence is free to use. You can distribute and customise it as much as you like. Some sites will have themes that are built and owned by the agency. This is another trick to lock you in: you can leave, sure, but the site will not work properly as it’s built on a custom stack. I have come across this about five times, with clients still having to pay for sites to be rebuilt because the website was handed over but the theme was locked down.
If you have a site that is being held to ransom, or restricted in an effort to lock you in, you have my sympathies. Any agency that needs to do this to keep customers is really not adding value. Agencies that add value keep their clients despite them being able to leave.
I have had clients leave and come back. There are always people who think they can get a cheaper deal and take their website and go. That’s cool. They can do that. And yes, there are people who will host a website for less than our £20/month and offer support for below our £99/month, but in my experience you won’t get the same level of support for the price.
If you find yourself in the situations listed above, get in touch with me through Yazaroo, as I’m sure we have seen it before, and I’m confident we can help you.