Who should own the code, accounts and data when an agency or freelancer builds your software?

---
title: "Who Should Own the Code an Agency Builds?"
description: "Your company should. The contract should assign the code and related intellectual property to you, and the repository, cloud accounts, domains and app store listings should sit in company accounts from day one, with the vendor added as a user. That way a change of vendor is a handover, not a recovery project."
url: https://lidvizion.ai/answers/who-should-own-the-code-an-agency-builds/
site: Lid Vizion
index: https://lidvizion.ai/llms.txt
---

[Direct answers](https://lidvizion.ai/answers/)

# Who should own the code, accounts and data when an agency or freelancer builds your software?

Your company should. The contract should assign the code and related intellectual property to you, and the repository, cloud accounts, domains and app store listings should sit in company accounts from day one, with the vendor added as a user. That way a change of vendor is a handover, not a recovery project.

## What this means in practice

- Put code and IP assignment in the contract, including work by subcontractors.
- Create the repository, cloud, domain and app store accounts in the company’s name, with at least two company admins.
- List third-party and open-source licences the product depends on.
- Ask for build, deploy and architecture notes as part of each milestone, not only at the end.

## How Lid Vizion approaches it

We start with the business decision and operating context, define ownership and measurable milestones, then use configuration, integrations, automation, or custom software only where each earns its place.

## More on Product & milestone delivery

- [How should a company write a request for proposal for software development?](https://lidvizion.ai/answers/how-to-write-a-software-development-rfp/)
- [How can a team run a short product discovery sprint before committing to build?](https://lidvizion.ai/answers/how-to-run-a-product-discovery-sprint/)
- [How can a product team produce release notes from shipped work without extra effort?](https://lidvizion.ai/answers/how-to-write-release-notes-from-shipped-work/)

[Compare services](https://lidvizion.ai/services/) · [Use a planning tool](https://lidvizion.ai/tools/) · [Explore workflow use cases](https://lidvizion.ai/use-cases/) · [More direct answers](https://lidvizion.ai/answers/)

Talk it through

## Have a version of this question inside your company?

Bring the decision, the constraints, and what a good outcome looks like.

[Talk through the decision](https://lidvizion.ai/contact/?need=milestone-delivery&from=%2Fanswers%2Fwho-should-own-the-code-an-agency-builds%2F#write) · [Book a call](https://calendar.app.google/bB26LdA9e2gmGFp69)