Based on Contract Killer, an open-source contract for web developers.
I’ll always do my best to fulfill your needs and meet your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong. In this contract you won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. I have no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. What I do want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.
So in short;
You ([CLIENT COMPANY]), located at [CLIENT ADDRESS] are hiring me ([DEVELOPER]) located at [DEVELOPER ADDRESS] to design and develop a web site for the total price of [QUOTE] as outlined in our previous correspondence.
You: You have the authority to enter into this contract on behalf of yourself, your company or your organization. You’ll give me everything I need to complete the project as and when and in the format I need it. You’ll review my work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work two ways, so you’ll also be bound by dates we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this contract.
Me: I have the experience and ability to do everything I’ve agreed with you and I’ll do it all in a professional and timely manner. I’ll endeavor to meet every deadline that’s set and I'll maintain the confidentiality of everything you give me.
I create look-and-feel designs and flexible layouts that adapt to the capabilities of many devices and screen sizes. The code that I write adheres to modern best practices and is readable and maintainable. I create designs iteratively; regardless if I am coding from scratch or using a previously-agreed-upon framework, I won’t waste time mocking up every template as a static visual. I may use visuals to indicate a creative direction (colour, texture and typography.) I call that ‘atmosphere.’
During development I'll create a testing version of your site, hidden from search engines, so you can see the site as it comes together. The specific details of your project are outlined at the end of this document.
Being in contact is very important. We both agree to reply to each other's communications in a timely manner, and we also agree to respect each other's time and adhere to basic email etiquette.
You’ll have opportunities to review my work and provide feedback.
You will provide me with the text content for your site in final form; I won't be doing any writing or editing. Unless agreed separately, I'm not responsible for inputting text or images into your content management system (i.e. a blog).
You should supply graphic files in an editable, vector digital format. You should supply photographs in a high resolution digital format. If you choose to buy stock photographs, I can suggest stock libraries. I can search for photographs for you create new graphics, but we'll need to agree on this beforehand. If what we decide on requires a new estimate, I'll let you know this at the time that the additional items are discussed.
Browser testing no longer means attempting to make a website look the same in browsers of different capabilities or on devices with different size screens. It does mean ensuring that a person’s experience of a design should be appropriate to the capabilities of a browser or device.
This means that your site will work in IE8, but it certainly won't look the same as it does on an iPad or a modern web browser.
I test my work in current versions of major desktop browsers including those made by Apple (Safari), Google (Chrome), Microsoft (Internet Explorer), and Mozilla (Firefox).
I won’t test in older browsers unless we have agreed to this separately. If you need an enhanced design for an older browser, I can provide a separate estimate for that.
Testing popular small-screen devices is essential in ensuring that a person’s experience of a design is appropriate to the capabilities of the device they’re using. I test my work using either original devices or emulators in:
iOS: Safari, Google Chrome Android 4.x: Google Chrome and Firefox
I currently don’t test Blackberry, Opera Mini/Mobile, Windows Phone or other mobile browsers. If you need me to test using these, I can provide a separate estimate for that.
While I welcome suggestion and input, I must approve the inclusion of other developers, graphic designers, graphic artists, writers, SEO specialists, or anyone else involved in the project and may choose to include others at my discretion. In addition I have the freedom to choose which development products and services are used in the creation of the website.
I'm not a website hosting company so I don’t offer support for website hosting, email or other services relating to hosting. You may already have professional hosting and you might even manage that hosting in-house; if you do, great. If you don’t, I can recommend one of my preferred hosting providers. I can set up your site on a server, plus any statistics software such as Google Analytics, and I can provide a separate estimate for that. Then, the updates to, and management of, that server will be up to you.
I don’t guarantee improvements to your website’s search engine ranking, but the web pages that I develop are accessible to search engines.
I don’t want to limit your ability to change your mind. The price at the beginning of this contract is based on the amount of time that I estimate I’ll need to accomplish everything you’ve told me you want to achieve, but I'm happy to be flexible. If you want to change your mind or add anything new, that won’t be a problem as I’ll provide a separate estimate for the additional work.
Just to be clear, “Intellectual property rights” means all patents, rights to inventions, copyright (including rights in software) and related rights, trademarks, service marks, get up and trade names, internet domain names, rights to goodwill or to sue for passing off, rights in designs, database rights, rights in confidential information (including know-how) and any other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications (or rights to apply) for, and renewals or extensions of, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or shall subsist now or in the future in any part of the world.
Yikes.
First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either owned by your good selves, or that you’ve permission to use them. When you provide text, images or other artwork to me, you agree to protect me from any claim by a third party that I'm using their intellectual property.
I guarantee that all elements of the work I deliver to you are either owned by me or I’ve obtained permission to provide them to you. When I provide text, images or other artwork to you, I agree to protect you from any claim by a third party that you’re using their intellectual property. Provided you’ve paid in full for the work and that this contract hasn’t been terminated, I’ll assign all intellectual property rights to you as follows:
You’ll own the website I design for you plus the visual elements that I create for it. I’ll give you source files and finished files and you should keep them somewhere safe as I'm not required to keep a copy. You own all intellectual property rights of text, images, site specification and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.
I’ll own any intellectual property rights I’ve developed prior to, or developed separately from this project and not paid for by you. I’ll own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design and I’ll license its use to you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only, unless we agree otherwise.
WordPress is licensed under GPL (General Public License) which really means either of us can do whatever we want with the code without asking the other person. Now of course it would be pretty stupid of me to sell your website to someone else and you'd look pretty stupid if you sold something I wrote as your own work. We can agree that neither of us like looking stupid so let's just agree to be civil about it all.
I love to show off my work and share what I’ve learned with other people, so I reserve the right to include either parts or the entirety of your web site as part of my portfolio, and to discuss your project on other websites, in magazine articles, in books, or on podcasts. I also reserve the right to publish, distribute, reuse the code used in this project.
All of your business processes are protected and neither of us will ever release any code or files that expose business processes of the other party.
I'm sure you understand how important it is that you promptly pay the invoices that I send. Invoices are due 15 days after receipt, and payment can be made via e-transfer, PayPal, or another previously agreed upon method. You agree to stick to the following payment schedule:
- 50% of estimate paid before work starts
- Remainder of estimate paid after site is considered 'feature-complete'
You agree to pay a monthly late payment fee equal to 15% of the unpaid balance for invoices that are over 30 days late.
Final files will be provided and site will be pushed live upon receipt of final payment.
If, at any stage, you’re not happy with the direction my work is taking, all you need to do is submit notice via email and we will consider this contract to be cancelled.
If I decide that I'm no longer able to work on this project, I'll provide you with everything I've created up to that point.
Any unpaid work that I've completed will be my own loss, but you won't be entitled to a refund on payments you've already made.
Just like a parking ticket, you can’t transfer this contract to anyone else without my permission.
We both agree that we’ll adhere to all relevant laws and regulations in relation to our activities under this contract and not cause the other to breach any relevant laws or regulations. This contract stays in place and need not be renewed.
I can’t guarantee that my work will be error-free and so I can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised me of them.
Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
Although the language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of Ontario courts in Canada.
Since we're all friends, you can simply reply to this email stating that you agree to the contract and are ready to get started.
I'm creating for you:
- One website
that consists of:
- Five pages:
- Home
- About
- Services
- Contact (includes contact form)
- Blog template
for a cost of [COST].
This cost includes:
- Two different options for creative direction (colours, typography) and two different wireframe layout options
- One layout/design built in WordPress on my staging site
- Two opportunities to provide feedback on the layout/design
- Transfer of final design files to your domain
- Making site live and active on your domain
Before I can start any work, I'll need to have all your content (photos, graphics, text) and 50% of the project estimate total. When these things are received, I will be able to give you a target completion date in writing.