6 Useful Web Design Contract Templates You Wish You Had Sooner

Putting together a successful project means getting everyone involved and managing all data the proper way. The customer will have high expectations and syncing with them should be your main goal. At Amelia (probably the best WordPress bookings plugin), we strive to help our clients provide their customers with the best experience possible.

A web design contract involves just the same. The first step you will need to tackle has to do with finding the perfect person for the job. This person will influence how everything goes from that point forward.

A web design contract is a document detailing the legally enforceable agreement between a designer and their client. The contract defines the business relationship between the parties and sets forth the project scope including the cost of website designing, deliverables, timelines, and other pre-agreed items relevant to the project.

A comprehensive web design contract is supposed to clarify the purpose of the project, the client’s expectations, copyright issues, scheduling and so on. This short guide will teach you more about it so that you can say goodbye to worrying about your web design contract.

Table of contents

• What elements a web design contract should have?
• Free web design contract templates you can us
  
• More tips for your web design contract

What elements a web design contract should have?

Many people don’t exactly know what a web design contract involves. Not all website development contracts are the same, but most of the elements they contain are similar.  They can vary from one party to another, but it’s best to take an example from a good design contract template that proved to be useful in the long run. After gathering the necessary information and inspiration, you should be ready to design your very own simple web design contract.

The essential elements of a web design contract are:

• A summary: what the project involves
• The scope of the project
• Stating the conditions for each party involved in the contract
• Design elements that are covered by the contract
• Specifying whether the text content is involved in the project or not
• Details regarding the providers of services such as photography or video media. This should also contain issues related to copyright and licenses.
• Naming the person or team who will program the code
• Naming the person or team who will perform browser testing
• Naming the person or team who will provide responsive browser testing and who will make the necessary changes.
• Specifying whether the project involves or not support. If yes, the period must be included, as well as potential charges that may appear on the way.
• Naming the person or team responsible for revisions
• Including all legal elements that may influence the intellectual property of the code/design. The website development contract terms and conditions can’t miss from the contract.
• Specifying how the information will be handled between the parties
• Specifying how the payments will be made
• Signatures

Free web design contract templates you can use

If you are currently looking for a web design contract template, the list below will definitely help you and put an end to your search. Check these out:

Contract Killer

To get a good web design contract sample, you should use Contract Killer. It is an open-source contract which appeared in 2008 and is dedicated to web designers and web developers. The website design contract draft is very easy to understand and it includes the essential elements mentioned above.

Free contracts and templates for design business

If you want a custom web design contract template, you can create one of your own based on the information provided by Jason Vaughn. The author included all the details you need to respect to design your website contract agreement the professional way.

On the website, you will find printable questionnaires, several Terms, and Conditions templates, SEO submission forms, BID spec sheets, and many others.

Andy Rutledge’s Design Project Contracts

Creating a web design contract was never easier. Andy Rutledge put together the information you need to compose your website design agreements.

The long list you will find here includes details regarding the scope of work, budgeting details, payment methods and many other. The collection is complete enough to come up with your own web design contracts.

AIGA Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services

AIGA is an elaborate website design contract template. It covers almost anything you could think of when designing your web design contract. AIGA comes with two different modules, one that has to do with basic terms and conditions, and another that is mostly related to copyright issues.

AIGA has supplementary modules for people who are interested in certain elements that are not usually included in the form of agreement. AIGA should definitely be considered when setting up a web design contract between multiple parties.

BidSketch’s Web Design Contract Template

This is a sample template offered by BidSketch. It is a web design contract template that can be easily used by people who want to get the job done fast. It is recommended for web developers rather than web designers, as it includes details related to coding, testing, content, and licenses.

Webdesignlaw’s Design Contracts for Freelance Web Designers

This is a bundle of web design contract templates that every person in the field can use without any issues. It has two sets of terms and conditions – the detailed one and the summary. It comes with samples for agreement letters, project proposals, and more. As an extra, it offers an invoice template.

More tips for your web design contract

Mentioning the fees

Many people omit including the fees in the contract. It’s best to include them to make the contract clearer. Specifying the fees is a detail that must be purposefully included in the web design contract to inform the other parties about everything related to the project. Give the final version of the web design contract a read before sending it to the parties.

Retainer agreements

If you got a retainer for your work, you need to put together a simple contract. The contract should specify all the relevant details for the two parties included.

For instance, the agreement should contain the amount required for the retainer fee, the monthly hours involved in the project, and other additional services that may be included here. Retainer work is still supposed to be under a web design contract, so it is not advisable to skip this step.

Independent/Freelance work

No matter whether you work with a freelancer or an agency, you need to put together a web design contract because you might need to outsource your work to other contractors.

Having the contract in place will solve all copyrighting issues. Contracts that have to do with development services should contain a rate-per-hour or a project fee, depending on the requirements of it. Mention that all intellectual property will be transferred to you.

Ending thoughts on using web design contracts

Considering all of the information mentioned above, you should be able to create a transparent, complex web design contract. Whether you use a template from the Internet or you create one yourself, make sure to include all the details related to the project in the contract to avoid any conflict of interest. And if things don’t work out as planned, you can settle everything using online legal services.

If you enjoyed reading this article on web design contracts, you should check out this one about free landing page templates.

We also wrote about a few related subjects wireframe examples, web designer resume, website mockup, coming soon page, sketch plugins, dummy text generator, portfolio website templates, and website design questionnaire.

Author Ivan Zdravkovic

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