Website Development & Hosting

Having a web presence is now an essential part of almost all businesses.

If you are a website development company or are looking to engage a website developer for your business’s website, we can guide you through the elements of the web development and hosting contractual process.

Website Development

A website development agreement should clearly set out (as a minimum):

• what is being provided;
• who is responsible for the supply of materials including web design and content;
• configuration; and
• who will own the intellectual property rights in the various elements of the website.

The nature and complexity of the website will have a significant bearing on the contract that needs to be in place between the developer and the customer. This can vary significantly from standard template contracts, to complex bespoke contracts. We regularly advise both web developers and companies in relation to the creation of their websites.

Website Hosting

Website hosting is necessary for any website, as it makes it possible for visitors to visit your website to view your site’s content.

You can host your own website or appoint a third-party web hosting provider to do this on your business’s behalf. Web hosting service providers maintain the server where the data associated with your website is located and also manage the technology that makes your website connect to the Internet.

When looking to appoint a hosting provider, businesses should consider the following issues:

• up time and availability of your website;
• website maintenance;
• service levels;
• service credits
• security and data protection;
• business continuity and disaster recovery;
• testing; and
• audit rights.

Whether you are a hosting provider or are looking to appoint one, we are able to assist in reviewing and drafting the necessary documentation.

Recent examples of our work in this area include:

• advising a software developer on the development of a new platform interface for a consumer and trader facing website and portal;
• drafting and negotiating the terms of the development, hosting and maintenance agreements and advising on escrow arrangements;
• acting on behalf of software houses in the development and hosting of websites;
• e-commerce terms and conditions for the supply of procurement services to businesses and consumers for a leading procurement provider;
• Advising a leading website developer on its contracts, including the re-platforming of a large wine suppliers ecommerce site to Episerver;
• Advising digital agency in putting new web design and development agreements and hosting and support agreements in place;
• e-commerce terms and conditions for the supply of goods and services b2b and b2c;
• drafting complex privacy policies and website terms of use for a service provider’s website;
• drafting b2b and b2c terms and conditions for the supply of company formation (and related) services over the internet in compliance with the distance selling regulations.

We provide practical, commercial and coherent advice and are able to deliver a complete service with support from our Property, Employment, Commercial, Dispute Resolution and Private Client teams.

Our ethos is to provide our clients with an alternative to the major regional and national firms by offering high quality legal advice from highly experienced, specialist solicitors, but on a much more cost-effective basis.

We work closely with our clients to ensure that we meet their expectations both in terms of their objectives for a particular piece of work and in relation to costs. We are easy to deal with, clear in our advice and understand that a common sense approach is often required.

As standard practice, we give our clients an estimate of the costs involved in undertaking any piece of work at the outset. We can then provide costs updates on a regular basis. In addition, where appropriate, we are happy to discuss other pricing models (for example, fixed fees and retainer arrangements) if that is helpful to you.