📝 Contract Template

Freelance Web Dev Contract Template

Website development agreement with scope, milestones, hosting handover. IP transfers on final payment.

What a web development contract should pin down

• The scope, by feature, with an explicit list of what is out of scope
• The technical stack, hosting environment, and who owns each account
• Milestones, the deliverable at each, and the payment attached
• Acceptance criteria, and how long the client has to test before a milestone is deemed accepted
• Third-party costs: licences, plugins, APIs — who pays and in whose name
• Browser and device support, stated as a list rather than “modern browsers”
• When IP and credentials transfer, and what warranty period follows launch
• What ongoing support costs after launch, if any is included at all

Handover is a deliverable, not a courtesy

The end of a build is where freelance web projects go wrong: the site is live, the invoice is out, and there is an undefined tail of “just one more thing” that nobody priced. Making handover an explicit milestone — credentials transferred, documentation supplied, a defined warranty window for genuine defects — converts that tail into something with edges.

• Define a defect (it does not work as specified) against a change (it works, but they want something else)
• Set the warranty window in days and say what it covers
• Transfer domain, hosting and analytics ownership at handover, in writing

Protecting both sides

• Tie IP transfer to final payment, and say so plainly
• Agree a deemed-acceptance period, or milestones sit unapproved indefinitely
• Include a clause for client-caused delay, so a stalled project does not become your scheduling problem

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General information only — not legal, tax or financial advice. For contracts and tax documents, confirm your obligations with a qualified professional or the relevant authority.