I have a contract to build a website for a client, and I used ghost for the build. Now I’m done, and I’m wondering what the best handoff method is for web developers to hand off the project to their client. Am I overthinking this? Do I simply add them as a co-manager or assign them the admin privileges? I looked at the FAQ to see if they had anything, but I’m wondering what’s the best way. They want me to handle the domain purchasing, and basically the beginning to end set up, all they wanna do is just add articles and have access to the analytics.
Seems to me like that depends quite a bit on what your contract says. Are they paying you and you’re paying wherever they’re hosting? Or is it their responsibility to establish a hosting account, and you just need to get them set up?
What follows is just my personal opinion, based on working for clients on their Ghost sites. [I don’t work for Ghost.org. Don’t let the cute avatar fool you.] Your desired setup might be totally different.
In my opinion, clients should always own their own domains, without exceptions. That domain name represents their brand, and they should be responsible for it. I’ve had too many clients with problems, when their previous developer owned the domain and was not responding, or didn’t renew it and they lost it, or… Seriously, your client should do their own domain registration. It isn’t hard, and if they don’t feel like they can, then you do it together on zoom call where you help them figure out where to click.
Unless you are going to be providing regular services for your clients, I’d have them also responsible for setting up their own hosting accounts, with their own credit cards. You could collect payment from them and then pay for their hosting, but you’re going to lose a couple percent in processing fees by doing that, and if there’s a change in pricing, the client is going to blame you if you pass it on. And again, you’re setting up a situation where you own it and they don’t. What’s the benefit? I generally tell clients to set up an account wherever they want to host, and then send me an admin invite. As the site admin, you can do everything except set up the DNS and make payments for hosting, so there’s not really much reason to be the owner.
I guess we might conclude from this that I like the transparency of the client owning their hosting. If you’re providing a value added service (whether just once to set them up, or every month to help with posting new content), then bill them for that. But if their site is down, there’s almost certainly nothing you can do about it, so better that they can directly contact the hosting provider, rather than complaining to you. Sometimes, the best thing we can do as developers is get out of the way! :)