Who owns what.

Every byte of your website touches one of two buckets: yours from day one, or ours under a subscription license. There is no third bucket. Here is exactly which is which, sourced verbatim from Article VIII of your 12-month Services Agreement.

  • Yours from day one Data · vendor accounts · content · domain
  • Licensed during the Term Website code · Pre-Existing Materials
  • Yours via lump-sum buy-out Perpetual code license · right to sublicense
See the ownership matrix Calculate the buy-out

Asset by asset, who owns it.

Article VIII, Services Agreement

The principle: what you brought and what you produce is yours, in the normal-business sense of the word. We hold the code. Until you buy it out.

Asset Owner Operative section What this means
Client Content (text, images, copy, branding inputs you upload) You 8.2 (a) Always yours. TechTailors gets a limited license to use it for performing the Services, nothing more.
Domain names and registrations You 8.2 (a) Yours, registered in your name. We don’t broker or hold domains.
Product / service data (catalog, pricing, descriptions, customer records) You 8.2 (a) Yours. Fully exportable, no extra cost, at any time.
Vendor accounts (Cloudflare, Cloudinary, Strapi, BigCommerce, GA4, Typesense, etc.) You TechTailors architecture standard Created in your name from onboarding. TechTailors added as Admin collaborator only.
Website source code (HTML, CSS, JS, Astro components, custom logic) TechTailors 8.1 Licensed to you for use during the Term under the subscription model. Convert to ownership via lump-sum buy-out.
Pre-Existing Materials (frameworks, templates, methodologies, general know-how) TechTailors 8.1 (c) Retained by TechTailors. Reusable across all client projects. Confidential info isolated.
Deliverables (compiled site artifacts, downloadable assets) TechTailors (licensed) 8.3 Used by you under license during the Term. Perpetual license after lump-sum buy-out.
Third-Party Services and components (vendor SaaS, libraries, paid integrations) Third party 8.5 Subject to each provider’s own terms. Mostly already in your name. After buy-out, TechTailors identifies any non-transferable components for you to license directly.

Every section number above maps to your countersigned Services Agreement. If your signed copy differs in any material way, your copy controls.

Why your vendor accounts are yours from day one.

Most agencies create vendor accounts in their own name and add the client as a viewer. When you leave, you lose access, pay a transfer fee, or fight a support ticket. TechTailors does the opposite, as a standing architecture rule: every service account your website depends on is created in your name from onboarding day one, and TechTailors is added as an Admin collaborator with the permissions needed to manage the service. Nothing more.

The full list lives in your onboarding checklist and in the per-service offboarding playbook at /policies/offboarding.

The license you grant us: minimal and time-limited.

Per Section 8.2 (b), you grant TechTailors a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, display, and modify your Client Content solely for the purposes of performing the Services. The license lasts during the Term plus any reasonable additional period needed for offboarding handoff. After offboarding ends, our license to your Content terminates.

What our license covers

  • Displaying your content on your live site
  • Optimizing images via Cloudinary transformations
  • Adapting copy for SEO meta tags, OpenGraph cards, structured data
  • Performance optimization (compression, format conversion, responsive sizing)
  • Integration with third-party services as needed (CMS sync, search indexing, etc.)

What our license does not cover

  • Marketing your Content in TechTailors materials without your prior written consent
  • Sublicensing your Content to other clients
  • Using your Content in any way after offboarding ends
  • Modifying meaning or substance (we handle formatting and technical integration only)
  • Anything outside the explicit purposes of performing the contracted Services

What you can do with the code while subscribed.

Per Section 8.3, during the Term TechTailors grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide license to use the Website and Deliverables. Subject to timely payment and continued compliance with the Agreement.

You can

  • Access and use the Website as deployed
  • Publicly display the Website to your end users
  • Internally reproduce and use the Deliverables for legitimate business purposes
  • Deploy downloadable assets to third-party platforms for internal use (for White Tie integrations)

You can’t (without a buy-out)

  • Sublicense, rent, lease, lend, or transfer the Website code to any third party
  • Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble object code (except where non-waivable law permits)
  • Remove or obscure proprietary notices or attributions
  • Continue using the Website after the subscription ends without exercising the buy-out

This is the same model used by every subscription web platform: WordPress.com, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow. The difference is the transparent, capped, one-time path to full ownership documented in the next section.

The path to perpetual code ownership.

Section 7.6, Services Agreement

Pick your plan, enter your monthly Website Plan cost, and set how many subscription anniversaries you’ve completed. The buy-out is that plan’s projected annual cost (add-on services are excluded from the formula) times a multiplier that starts at 2× on Smart Casual and 2.5× on Professional and Black Tie, then drops by 0.25× at every completed anniversary, down to a floor of 1.25× on Smart Casual and 1.5× on Professional and Black Tie. Rounded down to the nearest $100. Per Section 7.6 of the Agreement, you can exercise it at any time during the Term or within 90 days after it ends; the sale itself closes in a separate written purchase agreement. White Tie buy-outs are priced in the custom agreement. Your contract names these plans Launch, Scale, Enterprise, and Custom.

Buy-out multiplier by completed anniversary and plan
Anniversary Smart Casual Professional & Black Tie
At signing 2× 2.5×
1st anniversary 1.75× 2.25×
2nd anniversary 1.5× 2×
3rd anniversary 1.25× (floor) 1.75×
4th anniversary on 1.25× 1.5× (floor)
  • The multiplier steps down at completed anniversaries only; nothing prorates between them.
  • The anniversary price applies while your account is in good standing; otherwise the at-signing multiplier applies.
  • Rounded down to the nearest $100, and add-on services are never part of the formula.
  • A buy-out ends the subscription by default. You’re welcome to return later, and we sync your code to our latest standards for free if you do.
Plan
Annual subscription$0
Multiplier2.5×
Raw amount$0
Buy-out total $0
Your buy-out price at signing and after each anniversary
Anniversary Multiplier Price

The anniversary price applies while your account is in good standing. Buy-out does not include ongoing support, maintenance, hosting, or updates. You’re welcome to come back and subscribe again later. If you do, we sync your site to our latest standards for free.

What you get after the buy-out

Per Section 8.4, upon receipt of the buy-out payment TechTailors grants you a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive license (with the right to sublicense) to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, and create derivative works of the Website source code and associated Deliverables, solely as they pertain to your website and digital properties. The transaction itself is consummated in a separate written purchase agreement signed by both parties.

Plain English: after the buy-out, the code is yours to use, change, and build on for your website and digital properties, forever. The purchase itself is signed as its own short agreement.

The teardown-client.sh tool inlines the shared component library (@techtailors/astro-core) directly into your repository and rewrites every import to a local path. The result: a fully self-contained Astro project with zero TechTailors runtime dependency. You can hand it to any developer, hire in-house, or self-host.

Two things stay with us.

Section 8.4, Services Agreement

Pre-Existing Materials remain ours

Per Section 8.4 (c), TechTailors retains ownership of its Pre-Existing Materials and general know-how even after a buy-out. You receive full rights to use them in your specific website. We retain the right to keep using them in other client projects, provided we never incorporate your confidential information or proprietary content into that other work.

Third-party components

Per Section 8.4 (b), TechTailors will not transfer or assign licenses for Third-Party Services or proprietary Pre-Existing Materials that cannot be legally or practicably assigned. We will identify any such components to a commercially reasonable extent; you would obtain your own licenses where necessary. In practice, most third-party relationships (Cloudflare, Cloudinary, Strapi, BigCommerce, GA4) are already in your name from onboarding day one, so this rarely creates new work.

Specific questions about ownership.

  1. Why does TechTailors retain the source code under the subscription model?
    Same reason WordPress.com, Wix, Squarespace, and Webflow do. The subscription model bundles design, development, hosting, support, and ongoing maintenance into one ongoing relationship. The code is the operational core of that bundle. If we gave away ownership the day you signed, every cost we recover over the 12-month term evaporates the moment you cancel and self-host. The buy-out exists so the path to full ownership is open. It's priced transparently, not buried behind a sales-team negotiation.
  2. Can I see my source code while subscribed?
    Yes. Ask and we'll walk you through it. That's a TechTailors practice, not a contract right: the Section 8.3 subscription license covers accessing and using the Website as we deploy it, and reviewing the code with us for security or planning fits inside that. What the subscription license doesn't grant is the right to deploy the code on your own infrastructure independent of TechTailors. That right requires the buy-out.
  3. Is the buy-out price negotiable?
    No. The formula in Section 7.6 is fixed: your annual Website Plan cost (add-ons excluded) times your plan's multiplier, starting at 2.0 on Smart Casual and 2.5 on Professional and Black Tie, stepping down 0.25 at every completed anniversary to floors of 1.25 and 1.5, rounded down to the nearest $100. White Tie buy-outs are priced in the custom agreement. We don't do back-channel negotiation on this number. The formula is transparent and the same for every client, which is the point.
  4. If I buy the code out, can I rehire TechTailors to maintain it?
    Yes, under a separate written agreement. The buy-out terminates the subscription relationship by default. Continuing maintenance, hosting, or new development would be priced as a standalone engagement (our Alterations service: SOW-scoped at $175/hour for sites we built). Plenty of buy-out clients do this. Plenty don't. Either is fine. There's also a third path: returning to a monthly plan. Returning works like joining fresh: you sign a one-time, 12-month initial contract (whether or not you completed one before), then you become a month-to-month client who can leave at any time, like other month-to-month clients.
  5. What if I exercise the buy-out and then decide to come back to the subscription?
    Welcome back. Returning post-buy-out is a new engagement: new 12-month term, current pricing, and we sync your owned code to our latest standards for free (see offboarding for the “coming back” specifics). The buy-out license you previously received stays valid; you retain perpetual rights to that code version independently of any new subscription.
  6. Where in my contract are these provisions written?
    The full ownership framework lives in Article VIII of your 12-month Services Agreement, with buy-out price calculation in Section 7.6. The relevant sections referenced on this page:
    • Section 8.1:Works Created by Company; Pre-Existing Materials
    • Section 8.2:Client Content and Works Created by Client
    • Section 8.3:Revocable License to Website and Deliverables (Subscription Model)
    • Section 8.4:License upon Lump-Sum Buy-Out
    • Section 8.5:Third-Party Services and Components
    • Section 8.6:Reservation of Rights
    • Section 7.6:Buy-out price formula
    • Section 3.5:Improvement Services (post-buy-out maintenance pricing)
    If you don't have your countersigned copy handy, email hello@gettechtailored.com and we'll send it over.

Questions about your specific ownership situation?

We’ll walk through your exact contract, your specific assets, and what changes if you exercise the buy-out. A real conversation, not a script.

Talk through your situation Browse all policies