A website contract should turn a proposal into a clear operating agreement. It should explain what will be built, what each party must provide, how work will be approved and what happens after launch. Without that detail, a project can appear agreed while important assumptions remain unresolved.
This website development contract checklist for Malta businesses is a practical review tool for buyers. It is not legal advice, and significant agreements should be reviewed by a qualified legal professional. Its purpose is to help you identify commercial, technical and operational questions before signing.
Confirm the legal or trading names of both parties, their contact details and who can approve scope, designs, content, changes and launch. If a developer uses subcontractors, the agreement should clarify which party remains responsible for delivery and communication.
Set one project owner on each side. A clear approval route prevents informal comments from multiple stakeholders being treated as conflicting instructions.
2. Attach a precise scope of work
List the pages, templates, functions and integrations included. Describe expected behaviour, not only feature names. For example, “contact form” should specify fields, recipients, confirmation behaviour, spam protection and whether submissions are stored.
- Number and type of page templates
- Content migration and data-entry limits
- Forms, payments, booking or account functions
- Third-party systems and responsible integration owners
- Languages, currencies and market variations
- Analytics, consent tools and advertising tags
- Accessibility, SEO and performance deliverables
Use DCP’s website development brief for Malta businesses to define the requirements that should feed into the contract.
3. Record what is excluded
Exclusions are as important as inclusions. State whether copywriting, photography, translation, product entry, legal text, paid plugin licences, hosting, email configuration, ongoing SEO and post-launch support are outside the quoted price.
A buyer should not have to infer an exclusion from silence. If an item is expected but not included, decide whether it will be supplied by the client, priced separately or removed from the launch plan.
4. Define client inputs and dependencies
Specify what the client must provide and by when, including approved copy, brand assets, product data, access credentials, legal wording and feedback. Link delays to an agreed process rather than leaving the schedule open-ended.
The contract should explain how a delayed dependency affects dates, resourcing and any third-party bookings. It should also identify assumptions, such as an existing system having a usable interface or imported data being supplied in an agreed format.
5. Use milestones and acceptance criteria
Break the project into reviewable stages such as discovery, sitemap, design, development, content population, testing and launch. For each stage, define the deliverable, review period and person authorised to accept it.
Acceptance criteria should be testable. “Works correctly” is vague. Better criteria describe supported browsers and devices, required form behaviour, agreed integrations, approved content, broken-link checks and the absence of specified critical defects.
A milestone plan should distinguish approval from silence. If the agreement treats a missed review deadline as acceptance, the wording and consequences should be prominent and understood by both parties.
6. Agree how changes are controlled
Define what counts as a correction, a revision and a change of scope. State how change requests are documented, estimated and approved before work begins. The record should cover the requested change, its price, its schedule effect and any related risk.
A practical process protects both sides. The client can make informed decisions, while the developer avoids performing substantial extra work based on an informal conversation.
7. Make the payment structure understandable
Connect payment stages to dates or clearly described milestones. State what taxes, payment-provider charges, licence fees, hosting and other third-party costs are included or excluded. Record the payment method, invoice period and consequences of late payment or a paused project.
Check whether deposits are refundable, whether completed work is payable after termination and whether final files or administrative access depend on settled invoices. These terms should match the delivery and ownership sections of the contract.
8. Clarify intellectual property and licences
Separate custom deliverables from pre-existing tools, open-source software, fonts, stock media, themes, plugins and hosted services. State what the client owns, what is licensed and when any transfer takes effect.
WordPress itself is licensed under GPLv2 or later, and many themes and plugins have their own licence or service terms. The contract should not promise ownership of third-party software that is only licensed for use. It should identify who purchases renewals and what happens if a licence expires.
Require the client to confirm that supplied text, images and brand assets can lawfully be used. The developer should likewise identify the source and licence basis of third-party assets included in the project.
9. Keep the domain and core accounts under business control
The business should understand who is recorded as the domain registrant and who controls the registrar, hosting, WordPress administration, analytics, Search Console and other essential accounts. ICANN explains that the registrant is the individual or entity holding the rights to a domain name and manages it through the registrar.
Where an agency needs access, use named accounts and appropriate permissions instead of transferring sole control. Include an obligation to return or remove access at handover or termination. DCP’s website handover checklist provides a fuller account inventory.
10. Address personal data and security responsibilities
Identify what personal data the website will collect, where it will be stored and which parties may access it. If a supplier processes personal data on behalf of the business, determine whether appropriate controller-processor terms are required.
The European Commission states that a processor’s duties to a controller must be specified in a binding contract or other legal act. Relevant terms can include documented instructions, confidentiality, security measures, subprocessors, assistance, deletion or return of data and what happens when services end.
The development contract should also allocate responsibility for backups, software updates, vulnerability handling, administrator accounts and incident communication during the project. Avoid broad statements such as “fully secure”, which no responsible supplier can guarantee.
State who prepares test cases, who carries out user acceptance testing and how defects are prioritised. Agree which issues block launch and which can be scheduled after launch. The client should provide explicit launch approval after reviewing the agreed acceptance criteria.
If the project replaces an existing website, include URL mapping, redirects, analytics checks, Search Console access and rollback planning. Google’s site-migration guidance recommends preparing and testing the new site, mapping old URLs to new destinations and implementing redirects when URLs change.
12. Separate warranty from ongoing maintenance
Define a post-launch period for correcting defects in the agreed work, including its duration, response process and exclusions. Then describe any continuing maintenance service separately.
- Software and plugin updates
- Backups and restoration testing
- Security monitoring and incident response
- Content changes and development hours
- Support hours, channels and response targets
- Licence and hosting renewals
Our website maintenance checklist can help define the recurring service after launch.
13. Plan termination and an orderly exit
Describe when either party may terminate, what notice is required and how completed work is valued. Specify what the client receives on exit, including source files, database exports, media, credentials, documentation and information needed by a replacement supplier.
Include a timeline and format for data return or deletion, revocation of supplier access and transfer of third-party accounts where permitted. Clarify whether transition assistance is included, limited or charged separately.
14. Review legal and dispute terms
Check confidentiality, liability, warranties, indemnities, force majeure, governing law, notices and dispute procedures with qualified legal advice where appropriate. These clauses can materially affect risk and should not be treated as generic boilerplate.
Make sure the contract, proposal, scope, change requests and data-processing terms work together. Include an order of precedence so it is clear which document controls if two provisions conflict.
Questions to answer before signing
- Can both parties describe the final deliverables in the same way?
- Are exclusions and client responsibilities explicit?
- Can each milestone be accepted using objective criteria?
- Is every third-party fee and renewal owner identified?
- Does the business control its domain and essential accounts?
- Are data protection and security roles documented?
- Is post-launch support separate from defect correction?
- Can the website be handed to another supplier without avoidable lock-in?
Turn expectations into verifiable commitments
A strong contract does not need to predict every possible event. It should make the main deliverables, decisions, dependencies and responsibilities understandable enough that both parties can manage the project consistently.
Before requesting proposals, review DCP’s website quotation checklist. If you need help defining or delivering a new website, explore our web design services in Malta or contact Digital Consulting Pros.
Authoritative references
