Checklist · 5 min read ·
What you should own when your website project ends: the handover checklist
The most common dispute we are asked to untangle is not about design or price. It is about who owns the website after the agency relationship ends. This checklist is what you should hold on the day the project closes.
By the IITWares Editorial Team, Jeddah
At handover you should own, in your company’s name: the domain, the hosting account, the source code, the design files, the CMS admin account, the analytics and Search Console properties, every licence the site depends on, and the documentation needed for another team to maintain it. Put this list in the contract before work starts.
| When to agree it | In the proposal, before signing |
|---|---|
| Whose name | The company’s, never an employee’s or the agency’s |
| Accounts to hold | Domain, DNS, hosting, CMS, analytics, Search Console, email sending |
| Files to hold | Source code, design files, fonts and image licences, content |
| Proof | Log in yourself before the final invoice is paid |
Why this goes wrong so often
Most ownership problems are not malicious. A developer registers the domain on their own account because it was faster. The hosting is on the agency's reseller plan. Analytics was set up under someone's personal Gmail. Five years later that person has left, the agency has closed or the relationship has soured, and the business discovers it cannot change its own website.
The fix is boring and completely effective: write down what you will own, in whose name, and check it before you pay the final invoice.
Accounts that must be in your name
| Domain registration | Registered to your company with your company email as the administrative contact. For Saudi domains this means your national address and a local contact. |
|---|---|
| DNS | Wherever the DNS is managed — registrar, Cloudflare or the host — you should have an owner-level login. |
| Hosting | The hosting or cloud account billed to you. If the agency hosts it, you need the right to move it, and a documented way to do so. |
| CMS | An administrator account for a named person in your company, separate from the agency's accounts. |
| Google Analytics / GA4 | Your company is the property owner. The agency can be added as a user. |
| Search Console | Your company verified as an owner, not just a user, for every version of the site. |
| Google Business Profile | Owned by the company. Agencies should be managers, never primary owners. |
| Email sending | Whatever sends the contact-form emails — mail server, SMTP service — set up on your domain. |
Use a shared company mailbox such as web@yourcompany.sa for these accounts rather than an individual's address, and keep the passwords in a company password manager.
Files you should receive
- Source code — the complete, current version, in a repository you control (GitHub, GitLab or similar), not a ZIP file emailed once.
- Database export if the site has one, plus the steps to restore it.
- Design files — the Figma or equivalent files for every template, in both languages.
- Brand assets — logo in vector format, colour values, and the fonts or their licence details.
- Content — every page's text and image in a form you can reuse, in Arabic and English.
- Licences — fonts, stock photography, paid plugins, map and payment APIs: who holds each licence, what it costs and when it renews.
Font and image licences are the item most often forgotten. A paid Arabic typeface licensed to the agency rather than to you can turn into a surprise bill, or a forced redesign, the day you change suppliers.
Documentation that lets someone else take over
A site is only truly yours if another competent team could maintain it without calling the people who built it. That needs a short handover document — five to ten pages is enough — covering:
- How the site is built and where it runs.
- How to deploy a change, and how to roll one back.
- Where the forms send their messages, and how to test them.
- Every third-party service the site depends on, with its account owner.
- Backups: what is backed up, how often, where, and how to restore.
- SEO settings that must not be lost: redirects, robots rules, sitemap, structured data.
Put it in the contract
The time to agree ownership is in the proposal, when both sides are keen to start. Ask for a clause that says, in plain words, that on payment all source code, design files and content created for the project transfer to you, and list the accounts that will be in your name. If the agency uses its own reusable components or a licensed framework, it should say which, and grant you a perpetual licence to use them on this site.
A reasonable agency will agree without fuss. Reluctance here is one of the clearest warning signs you will get — see our guide to choosing a web design company for others.
Verify before the final payment
On handover day, log in to each account yourself, from a company device, with your own credentials. Check that you can see the owner settings, not just the dashboard. Clone the repository. Open the design files. Submit the contact form and confirm the email arrives. Only then pay the final invoice.
This takes an hour. It is the most valuable hour in the whole project.
At IITWares every project closes with the source code, design files, domain, hosting and analytics in the client’s name, and a written handover document. Ask us about your project.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Who should own the website domain?
Your company, registered in its name and with a company email address as the administrative contact. An agency or an employee should never be the registrant, even temporarily.
Is it normal for an agency to keep the source code?
It is common but it should not be. For a site built for you and paid for in full, the source code should transfer to you. If the agency reuses its own components, it should give you a perpetual licence to use them on your site.
What if our current agency registered the domain in its own name?
Ask in writing for the domain to be transferred to your company. Domain registrars have formal transfer procedures; for Saudi domains this goes through a SaudiNIC-licensed registrar. Do it while the relationship is still cooperative.
Do we need the design files if we have the website?
Yes. Without the design files every future change has to be reverse-engineered from the live site, which is slower and more expensive, and the Arabic and English layouts tend to drift apart.
What documentation should we receive at handover?
A short document explaining how the site is built and hosted, how to deploy and roll back changes, where forms send messages, which third-party services it depends on, how backups work, and which SEO settings must be preserved.
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