Do you own your code? What to demand from a dev agency
Who owns the code a dev agency builds? Why ownership matters, what to put in the contract, the red flags, and a checklist to run before you sign.
Why does owning your code matter?
It sounds like a contract detail. It's actually leverage over your own business.
- No lock-in. If you own the code and the accounts it runs on, you can change agencies, hire in-house, or pause work at any time. If you don't, you stay because you have to, not because you want to.
- Future hires can actually work. An engineer you hire next year needs the real repository — full history, not a zip file. Without it, they rebuild from scratch.
- Valuation and due diligence. When you raise money or sell, investors and acquirers check whether you own your IP. "The agency owns part of our product" is a deal-killer, or at least a discount.
- You can move and host anywhere. Owning the infrastructure accounts means no one can hold your live product hostage.
What should the contract actually say?
Get these in writing before money moves. Verbal "of course it's yours" doesn't survive a dispute.
- Full source code on delivery — the entire Git repository with history, not a final-build export.
- Complete IP assignment to you — copyright and rights transfer to your company on delivery, ideally on milestone payment so nothing is held back.
- No per-seat or per-user licensing on the work they built for you. You shouldn't pay again to use what you already paid to create.
- No proprietary black boxes — no closed components only the agency can edit or that stop working if you leave.
- Accounts and infrastructure in your name — hosting, domain, database, and third-party services (payments, email) on accounts your company owns, with the agency added as a collaborator. Not the reverse.
What are the red flags?
| Green flag | Red flag |
|---|---|
| You get the full repository with history | "We'll send the final files" |
| IP transfers to you on delivery | IP stays with the agency or is "licensed" to you |
| Apps live on accounts you own | Hosting and domains sit under the agency's account |
| Standard, inspectable stack | "Built on our proprietary platform" |
| You can hire anyone to continue the work | Only they can maintain it |
| Ongoing support is a choice | Support is the only way to keep the lights on |
The pattern behind every red flag is the same: a dependency you didn't ask for, designed so leaving is painful. A studio confident in its work doesn't need to trap you.
What should I ask before I sign?
Run this checklist on every proposal:
- Do I get the full Git repository, including history, on delivery?
- Is the IP assigned to my company in writing, and when — on delivery or on final payment?
- Are there any per-seat, per-user, or ongoing license fees to keep using what you build?
- Will hosting, the domain, the database, and accounts like Stripe and email be under my company's name?
- Is anything in the stack proprietary to you or impossible for another engineer to maintain?
- After launch, can I take this in-house or to another team without your involvement?
- What's the stack? (Mainstream tools like Next.js, TypeScript, React Native, and PostgreSQL mean any competent engineer can pick it up.)
How FastFlow handles it
You own the code and the IP. On delivery you get the complete repository — full history included — and the rights transfer to your company. We build on a standard, widely supported stack (Next.js and TypeScript, React Native or native mobile, PostgreSQL, Stripe, Resend, AWS), and your product runs on accounts in your name. If you ever want to continue without us, you can, cleanly. That's the point.
See how we work, read why owning your code matters alongside what's in a software proposal, or start a project.