What to check before you pay a web developer in India

Most disputes between a business and its web developer are not about quality. They are about who owns what, discovered at the worst possible moment — when you want to leave.

The pattern is always the same. The site works, the relationship cools, and then you find the domain is registered in the developer's name, the hosting is on their account, and nobody will give you the code. You are not being overcharged. You are being held.

None of this requires a lawyer to prevent. It requires asking four questions before you pay.

1. Whose name is on the domain?

Your domain is the one asset you cannot rebuild. Everything else — design, code, content — can be made again. A domain your customers already know cannot.

Ask for the registrant to be your business, with your email as the registrant contact. Not the developer's email "for convenience". You can check any domain yourself at the registrar, or ask for a screenshot of the registrant details.

If the developer buys it on your behalf, that is fine, as long as the account is yours and you have the login. "I'll keep it in my account" is the sentence to push back on, politely and immediately.

2. Whose account is the hosting on?

The same logic, slightly less severe — hosting can be moved, though not always quickly.

A reseller account in the developer's name is normal practice and not automatically wrong; plenty of good studios host clients that way. What matters is the answer to: if we part ways, how do I get a full backup and move it? A studio that answers that question plainly is fine. One that gets vague is telling you something.

3. Do you get the source code?

Settle this at quoting stage, in writing, because "we built you a website" means different things:

• Custom build. You should get the full source and the right to use, modify and move it. Ask for a repository you can access, or a zip at handover.
• WordPress or similar. You should get admin access, the theme and any custom plugins, and a database export.
• Builder platform. If it is built on a closed platform, you cannot take the code anywhere, because there is nothing portable to take. That can be a perfectly sensible choice — just know you are renting the house, not buying it.

Ask the question directly: at the end of this project, what exactly do I receive?

4. What does handover actually include?

A complete handover is boring and specific:

• Domain registrar login, or confirmed transfer to your account
• Hosting control panel login
• CMS or admin login with an owner-level account
• Source code, or an export of the site
• Google Analytics and Search Console access, owned by your Google account
• Any third-party accounts opened for you — payment gateway, mail service, SMS

That last one catches people. Analytics set up under the developer's personal Gmail means your traffic history leaves with them.

How to structure the money

Nobody should ask for the full amount before starting, and nobody should be expected to build everything before seeing any money. Milestones solve it:

• A deposit to begin
• A payment when design is approved
• The balance at handover, before or at launch

Tie the last payment to handover, not to "live". It is the only leverage that reliably gets logins handed over, and a studio that intends to hand them over will not mind.

Insist on a GST invoice if you are claiming input credit, and check the GSTIN is real — you can verify any GSTIN on the GST portal in a few seconds.

Red flags worth walking away from

• The domain must stay in their account. No good reason exists for this.
• No written scope. "We'll figure it out as we go" ends in an argument about what was included.
• 100% payment before work begins, from someone you have not worked with.
• No named person responsible. If you only ever speak to a sales number, there is nobody to escalate to.
• A price far below everyone else with no explanation of what is different. Something is being left out, and it is usually the parts you cannot see: speed, security updates, the handover.

What to put in writing

It does not need to be long. One page covering: what is being built, what it costs, the payment schedule, the launch date, what you receive at handover, and who owns the domain, code and accounts. An email both sides have agreed to in writing is better than nothing and good enough for most projects of this size.

How we work

Your domain goes in your name, the accounts are yours, and handover includes the source and every login. It is written into the quote rather than discussed at the end, which is the point — the time to agree who owns what is before anyone has leverage.

If you are comparing quotes right now, ask each one the four questions above. The answers will sort them faster than the prices do.

Tell us what you are building and we will send a fixed-price quote with the handover list attached.