What web design agencies should check before handover
What to confirm before a website project can genuinely be taken over safely.
Website handover often looks tidy on the surface. The site is live. Screens were signed off. Someone shared a folder of exports. But the risky part is rarely the visible deliverable. It is the control layer underneath.
Many agencies only discover the real gaps later, when a change needs to go live and they realise the working files, hosting route, or CMS access still sit with someone else.
What looks safer than it is
Website projects often look settled once the launch is done, even when the underlying control model is still vague.
The site is live, so the team assumes hosting and deployment are already safe.
The agency received exports, so everyone assumes the design source moved too.
Someone can log in, so the team assumes the admin route is properly owned and documented.
Project record
Client website build
Control gap
Figma source files still external
The agency has exports, but not the true editable source of the design work.
Must resolve
Hosting access missing
The site is live, but there is no confirmed path for the agency to administer deployment.
The common mistake is assuming the project is safe because the visible output exists. But having screenshots, exports, or a published site is not the same as having control.
Worth checking before sign-off
These are usually the first places a website handover still falls short, even when the live site already looks finished.
Editable design files and the workspace that owns them
CMS admin access and deployment routes
Domain and DNS control
Analytics and tag manager ownership
The final copy or content source used to publish the site
Pressure test
If the person who built the site disappeared this week, could your team still design, edit, publish, and measure it?
If the answer is uncertain, the handover is not finished. Website projects only feel safe when the agency controls both the resources and the routes needed to keep them moving.
That usually means checking the control layer with the same seriousness as the visual output. Otherwise the project may be polished, but still hard to take over.
How Custody helps
Custody helps agencies turn handover into a visible record of what is missing, what is still externally held, and what has actually been verified.