Website Development Contracts: Who Owns the Code?

Short answer: In the US, the person who writes the code owns the copyright by default, and paying for it doesn't change that. If you hire an outside developer or agency, you only own the code if your contract contains a signed, written assignment of copyright; "work made for hire" language alone often fails for websites because commissioned work only qualifies in nine narrow categories. Insist on an assignment, a license for anything the developer reuses, a list of third-party code, and full handover of domains, hosting and repository access.

Why paying for a website doesn't make you the owner

The US Copyright Office's Circular 30 explains that a work is "made for hire", meaning the hiring party is the author and owner, in only two situations:

It's created by an employee within the scope of their job, judged by common-law agency factors such as who controls the work, who supplies the tools and how the person is paid.
It's specially commissioned, falls into one of nine listed categories (a contribution to a collective work, part of an audiovisual work, a translation, a supplementary work, a compilation, an instructional text, a test, answer material for a test, or an atlas), and both parties sign a written agreement saying it's a work made for hire.

A freelancer or agency isn't your employee. And custom website code doesn't sit comfortably in any of the nine categories. So a contract that only says "all work is a work made for hire" can leave the copyright with the developer.

The fix is a plain assignment. Under 17 U.S.C. § 204(a), a transfer of copyright is valid only if it is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights. An email saying "sure, it's yours" is a risky substitute.

The clause-by-clause checklist

Use this when reading a developer's proposal or your own template. Each item says what to look for and what goes wrong without it.

1. Assignment of custom work

Look for: "Developer assigns to Client all right, title and interest, including copyright, in the deliverables." Many contracts add a work-made-for-hire sentence too, with the assignment as the fallback. That's fine. Without it: you may have only an unwritten permission to use the site, and arguments about how far that permission goes.

2. When ownership moves

Look for: whether the assignment takes effect on signature, on delivery, or on final payment. Transfer on final payment is common and reasonable for the developer; just make sure "final payment" is clearly defined so a disputed invoice can't hold your site hostage.

3. Developer's pre-existing tools

Good developers reuse their own frameworks, components and snippets. They won't hand over ownership of those, nor should they. Look for: a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license for you to use, modify and host the pre-existing parts as part of your site, including if you change developers.

4. Third-party and open-source code

Look for: a list (or a commitment to provide one at handover) of the main libraries, themes and plugins with their licenses. Permissive licenses such as MIT only require keeping copyright and license notices, according to choosealicense.com. Strong copyleft licenses are different: the same source describes the AGPLv3 as requiring the source code of a modified version to be made available when it's used to provide a service over a network. That's not automatically bad, but you should know before it's in your product. Also check: paid themes or plugins are licensed to you, not to the agency's account.

5. AI-generated code

Many developers now write part of a project with AI assistants. The Copyright Office's report published on January 29, 2025 concluded that generative AI output is protected only where a human author has determined sufficient expressive elements, and that prompts alone aren't enough. Look for: a short disclosure of how AI tools were used and a warranty that the developer has the right to assign what they deliver. You can't own a copyright that doesn't exist, but you can make sure you aren't paying for something that turns out to be someone else's.

6. Accounts, domains and credentials

Domain registered in your business's name, with you as the account holder
Hosting, analytics, Search Console and app-store accounts in your name, with the developer as a user
Access to the code repository, plus a final export at handover
A written credentials handover at launch and again when the relationship ends

7. Acceptance and handover

Look for: objective acceptance criteria (which pages, which features, which browsers) and a defined handover package: source code, database export, build instructions, license list. Without these, "done" is whatever the last invoice says.

8. Portfolio and confidentiality

Most developers want to show your site in their portfolio. That's normal. If your project is confidential, say so; if not, a portfolio clause costs you nothing.

9. The 35-year footnote

An assignment by an individual author can, under 17 U.S.C. § 203, be terminated by that author during a five-year window starting 35 years after the grant; works made for hire are excluded. For a website that will be rebuilt several times before then, it's a curiosity rather than a risk, and it's one reason lawyers keep the work-made-for-hire wording alongside the assignment.

A hypothetical example

A hypothetical bakery pays a freelancer to build an online ordering site. The contract says "client owns the website" but has no signed assignment, the domain sits in the freelancer's registrar account, and the theme license was bought on the freelancer's account. Two years later they fall out. The bakery can keep using the site, but moving it to a new developer means negotiating for the domain, buying a new theme license and arguing over whether "owns the website" covered the code. Every one of those problems is a sentence in the checklist above.

This is general information, not legal advice; for a large or unusual project, have a lawyer read the final contract.

FAQ

Can I ask for the source code even if I don't own the copyright?

Yes, you can ask, and a contract can require delivery of source code separately from ownership. Without a clause, a developer can lawfully refuse to hand over code they own.

Does a website builder like Wix or Squarespace change this?

Hosted builders generally don't hand you exportable code, so the question shifts to what their terms let you take with you (usually your content and images). Code ownership matters most for custom-built sites and apps.

Is "work made for hire" useless for websites, then?

Not useless, but not enough on its own for contractors. Keep it and add an assignment as the fallback.

What if my developer is an overseas company?

Copyright law is national, so name the governing law in the contract and keep the assignment explicit. A written, signed assignment is the safest common ground.

If you'd like a developer who puts the assignment and the account handover in writing from day one, tell us what you're planning to build.