what happens if we want to leave?
you leave. there's no lock-in: you own the code, the domains, the cloud accounts, and the analytics from day one. we hand over documentation and access, and we don't hold anything hostage. retainers are month to month.
leaving should be boring, and we set things up from the first day so that it is. the way most agencies make leaving expensive is by owning things on your behalf: the git repository, the hosting account, the domain registration, the ad accounts, the analytics property. then the handover becomes a negotiation. we don't do that.
what's already yours
- the source code, in your git account, under your name, from the first commit
- the hosting, domain, database, and analytics accounts, created in your name with you as owner
- google ads, meta business, GA4, and the pixel, with us added as a manager and removed the day you say
- the handover doc: how to update content, who to call, what runs where
we also pick boring technology on purpose: tools you can hire for and another team can pick up. no private framework, no licence terms, no hosting trick that only we know how to operate.
how the exit goes
for a project, there's nothing to exit: it was delivered with the docs and the keys. for a retainer, it's month to month with 30 days' notice. we hand over current documentation and access, and remove ourselves from every account. if you're moving to an in-house engineer or another agency, what we wrote down is there so they aren't starting from zero.
sometimes leaving is the right call and we'll say so: there's a company size at which having engineers on staff wins outright. the related answers are who owns the code? and who owns the ad accounts?