Website contracts for small trades are usually short, usually fair enough, and usually contain two or three lines that decide what happens the day you want to leave. Those lines are never the ones anybody reads, because on signing day nobody is planning to leave.
This is not legal advice, and contracts differ by country and by supplier. It is a list of the clauses worth finding before you sign, written by people who have seen what they do afterwards.
1. Who the domain is registered to
The most important line, and often not in the contract at all. Your domain should be registered in your business name, in an account you can log into, with your email as the contact. A supplier can manage it for you, that is normal and fine, but managing is not owning.
If it is registered to them, leaving means asking a company you have just fired to release the address printed on your van. Most will. The ones that will not are the reason this is item one.
2. Minimum term and auto renewal
Look for two numbers: how long the initial term is, and how much notice you must give before it rolls over. A twelve month term with a ninety day notice period means the decision to leave has to be made in month nine, and if you miss it you are in for another year.
Put the notice date in your calendar on the day you sign. That single habit prevents most of the trouble on this list.
3. What you own when it is over
Three separate things, and a contract can treat them differently:
- The content. Your photographs and the words about your business. Usually yours, but say so in writing if the supplier wrote the copy.
- The design. Frequently licensed to you rather than sold, especially on a monthly deal. That is normal; just know it, so leaving means a new design rather than a move.