What a website agreement should include
A website design agreement does not need to be long or written in legal language. It needs to answer the questions that cause arguments later. I am a designer, not a lawyer, so treat this as a list of what to cover and have the wording checked by a qualified professional in your country.
Does a small project really need one?
Yes, because memory is the first thing two people disagree about. A written agreement is not a sign of distrust. It is a record of what was said while everyone still remembers it the same way. For a small site it can be a single page, or a clear email that each of you confirms. What matters is that it exists before the first payment.
How should the scope be written?
As a list someone outside the project could check. The pages by name, what each one does, the languages, the platform, and who supplies the text and images. Add a short list of what is not included. A scope that says "full website" protects nobody. A scope that says "contact page with a form that sends to this address" can be ticked off.
What should it say about approvals and changes?
It should say what you approve and when, for example the design before the build begins, and how many rounds of changes belong to each stage. It should also say what happens when you ask for something new after approval. Changes are normal. The agreement only needs to say how a change is costed and scheduled, so that neither of you feels ambushed.
What about payment and stopping the project?
Write down the stages of payment, what triggers each one, and the methods accepted. Then cover the uncomfortable part: what happens if either of you wants to stop. Is there a period in which you can leave and be refunded? What is owed for work already done after that? These lines are rarely used, and they are the ones that settle a dispute before it starts.
Who owns what at the end?
State in whose name the domain and the hosting or platform account are held, and what is handed over: admin access, the design file, the content. Themes, plugins and fonts usually come under their own licences, so the agreement should say who holds them. Ownership wording carries legal weight, so this is the section to have a professional read.
How should support be described?
With a length, a starting point and a scope. How many days, counted from which day, covering which kinds of problem, and through which channel. It should separate fixing what was delivered from building something new. Without that line, each party tends to assume the answer that suits them.
How I handle it
My terms fit in an agreement as they are. The design is made in Figma and you approve it before the build starts. You receive the dashboard and edit the content yourself. Support runs 180 days from the day the site goes live and covers anything that breaks, anything that behaves differently from what was agreed, and questions about editing. For the first seven days you can stop the project and get the payment back in full. Tell me about your project and ask me about these terms.
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