What to include in your web design agreement?
A web design contract or agreement is a legally binding contract between you, the client, and the web designer. The agreement should include everything from the terms of payment to quality assurance to intellectual property rights.
Table of Contents
Contractual obligation
The contractual obligation is a must-have of any web design contract. It can be described as a promise made by one party to another, which binds the former to perform certain tasks or services for the benefit of both parties. A contractual obligation is legally binding, and if one fails to fulfill it, he/she may be liable for breach of contract.
The benefits of having a contractual obligation include:
- It helps you define what you are supposed to do;
- It ensures that all parties know exactly what they need from each other;
- It holds people accountable for their actions; and
- It sets forth your responsibilities in detail so that there isn’t any room left for confusion or misinterpretation on either side.
Costs and Timelines
Your web design contract should clearly define the costs, timelines, and milestones of your project. Include a breakdown of all associated costs such as:
- The cost for any team members involved in the project (designer, developer, etc.)
- Flat rate for hosting services or domain name registration
- Monthly retainer fee to cover ongoing support and maintenance of your website after launch
Payment terms and conditions
You should also include payment terms and conditions, including the schedule of payments, due dates, late fees, and penalties.
Ownership of the website content
The scope of this web design agreement should specify who owns the content, trademarks, copyrights, and domain name. It should also detail how changes made by either party will affect ownership of these elements.
Disclaimers / Warranties
- What is a disclaimer?
- What is a warranty?
These two terms are often used interchangeably but they have very different meanings. A disclaimer is an exclusion of liability, whereas a warranty covers the product or service being provided in your agreement. If you want to ensure that you’re protected if anything goes wrong with your website design, then make sure your contract includes warranties from both parties.
Signoff and signatures
In addition to the specific terms, you will want to ask your client for their sign-off on a few things.
Signing off on the agreement is one of them. All parties must agree in writing to the terms of the web design agreement. Not only does this make it easier for everyone involved if there is any confusion later on, but having approval from each party makes it more legally binding as well.
Signatures are another important part of any contract and web design agreements aren’t different in that regard.
Why Using HelloBonsai?
When you’re a web designer, time is money. You have a lot of clients and projects, and you have to get them all done on time. If you can’t do that, it’s going to be a problem for your freelance web design business and your clients.
That’s why we love using Hellobonsai for all of our admin work. You can spend more time working on your clients’ projects, rather than spending hours creating web design proposals and agreements from scratch. HelloBonsai already has plenty of templates for you to choose from, so when you create an agreement or proposal, it takes less than five minutes. That way, you can spend more time doing what matters—helping your clients grow their businesses!
Conclusion
We hope this article has given you some ideas about what should be included in your web design contact. Remember, it’s not about the length of time you spend on creating an contract, but rather how much money and time you save by having one.
