When the project ends, what do you actually receive? Most businesses do not ask until delivery day; they notice only when they cannot change agencies after something breaks. Professional delivery is not design files alone — it is transferring control of the working system to you.
What belongs on the handover list: domain (registrar account in your name), hosting or Vercel/Cloud account access, source repository (GitHub/GitLab), database backup, CMS admin account, analytics ownership, SSL certificate management, third-party API keys bound to the client account.
Red flags: “code stays with us, you continue from the admin panel”, hosting in the agency’s name and not transferable, domain registered to the agency’s company. These models raise switching costs.
The contract must state ownership clearly: when payment is complete, source code and design files belong to the client, and portfolio display permission for the agency is noted separately. Licensed stock images and fonts are listed with their license terms.
At NYKSORA delivery, domain, hosting, source code and documentation transfer to the client. Post-launch maintenance is optional; there is no mandatory dependency. The handover checklist is shared with sign-off at project close.
When taking quotes, ask in the first meeting “when the work is done, who owns the accounts?” If the answer is unclear, risk is high regardless of price.