You do – with a few conditions. Once the project is fully paid for, the final website and all its deliverables become yours to use for your business. PixelKraft’s policy is that we retain ownership of the work until full payment is received, then at that point we grant you a license to use the final deliverables for their intended purpose. In practice, this means after you’ve paid the final invoice, you have the rights to your website’s content and code.
A few details to clarify ownership and licensing:
- Website Code & Design: After payment, you’re free to use the website we created for you. You can host it anywhere, modify it, etc. The codebase is essentially yours. PixelKraft does retain the underlying intellectual property rights until payment (mostly as a protection – this is standard in the industry). But post-payment, it’s your site. If the website uses any proprietary plugins or third-party software, you’ll have whatever license rights come with those (we’ll inform you if any such component exists).
- Graphics & Branding Assets: If we did a logo or custom graphics for you, those final files are delivered to you and you own them upon project completion. We’ll typically provide common file formats (PNG, JPG for web use; and vector/SVG or AI files for print use) for any branding assets created.
- Content: Any content you provided (text, images, videos from you) remain yours of course. Content we created (like copywriting or photography we did) becomes yours to use on the site. If there’s stock photography or premium fonts used, we’ll make sure the licensing is properly transferred or explained (usually we license them to use on your site).
- Third-Party Licenses: We might use third-party tools, plugins, or libraries to build your site. Those components are subject to their own licenses. For example, if we use a premium WordPress plugin, you’ll have a license to use it on your site, but not necessarily to redistribute it. Generally, this doesn’t affect normal site ownership, but we mention it so you know there are parts of any website that come with their own terms. PixelKraft will handle procuring those licenses and inform you of any important restrictions.
- Portfolio Rights: We reserve the right to showcase the finished project in our portfolio or case studies, unless you request otherwise. It’s a common practice for agencies to display work done as examples. If your project is confidential or you prefer it not be publicized, just let us know in advance and we can accommodate that.
In summary, once the project is done and paid, it’s your website. We don’t lock you in – you’ll have all the access and files needed to run it. Prior to full payment, the work is licensed to you but technically owned by PixelKraft (again, just a formality to ensure payment). After that, consider it 100% yours to grow and evolve as you see fit.