Don’t be fooled by your web designer, website contracts matter!

One of the most absurd arguments I’ve heard in my career as a professional web designer and developer is that website contracts aren’t needed.

What are website contracts?

A website contract is a legal document established between a web designer and a website client that provides the work structure of a website project, the timeline and what is to be included and expected.

To be clear, not all web designers use contracts, some argue that it is not needed. I on the other hand, completely disagree.

The reasoning behind website contracts and why they are important

Most web designers charge upfront cost; whether they charge 100% of the website project upfront or a percentage (50% upfront, then 50% after project completion). In addition, most websites aren’t launched (or go live) until a web designer is fully paid for his or her services. Meaning, that regardless of if a contract exists or not, a web designer or developer is covered by the mere fact that they have already been paid in full or that they hold control over your website until that last payment is made. This in itself is reason enough not to enforce a contract on our end if a client refuses one.

There are those that would argue that a website contract only benefits the web designer
This is completely untrue, and I would seriously reconsider doing business with any designer that backs that statement.

False Reasoning: website contracts aren’t needed

As a website client, you are reliant on a web designer keeping his or her word if there isn’t an established contract to protect you. While you can leave negative comments or reviews on behalf of a designer, none of those things would help you in the case of a web dispute. Contracts, however, are 100% legally binding and enforceable in court.

While we all love the idea of the perfect designer or the perfect website client, the truth is that in most cases, we are all doing business with complete strangers and a disagreement can arise from something as simple as an expected delay in launch date.

I can’t tell you the amount of posts and comments I’ve read in my lifetime of unsatisfied website clients that got taken advantage of or in the end didn’t receive what they were promised or paid for. Others, that waited around for over a year for a website to be finish only to end up with an unfinished product in the end.

Some designers may fool you into believing you don’t need a contract, and assuming everything goes as planned they may even be right. But would you pay a mortgage on a house or a lease on a car without a contract? So why would you do it with your business?

False: Website contracts are a horrible way to start a relationship
Fact: Website contracts establish trust between a designer and a web client, assuring both parties are informed and in agreement of what is to be expected.

False: If you do it right, website contracts are unnecessary.
Fact: Even if you do everything right, there is still a possibility for you and your web designer to disagree or find yourselves at odds about something.

Let’s build a hypothetical situation: A designer has an unexpected family emergency and pushes the website deadline (by no fault of their own). The client has no contract but was promised a delivery date for launch and has invested in marketing around this launch date.

What then is likely to happen? What are the terms of the agreement, and can it be enforced? Can the client get his or her money back in order to try and salvage the deadline with a different web designer?

That decision now becomes completely up to the designer. Even if the designer decides to partially charge you for work done and refunds you the difference. Did you know that most web designers will charge you more money to work on an unfinished product than if they were to start a website from scratch? This is because every designer codes differently and working on someone else’s websites requires review and sometimes correction of previous work done.

Don’t let a designer fool you into not establishing a contract just because it is more convenient for them not to have to provide one. At the end of the day, the main person that a contract protects is you. All too many times I see freelance web designers failing to meet their client expectations. I have also seen what that in turn does to public trust in the web industry and other web service providers.

For more information on my services and how I can help you get started the right way, schedule a call with me today.