Website Handover Checklist for Web Designers (With Template)

A website handover checklist lists everything the client must own or know once their site is live: the domain in their name, the DNS records, who owns and pays for the hosting, where form messages go, analytics access, backups and rollback, logins, licences, legal pages, training, the support agreement and what happens if they leave. Work through the twelve items below, copy the template into your own handover document, and send it with the launch note. If you keep running the hosting yourself, the last section shows how to hand over access instead of the account.

Disclosure: this guide is published by Statpio, one of the tools compared. We link every competitor fact to its official source.

What should a website handover checklist include?

Twelve items, roughly in the order they come up. Each one answers a question the client would otherwise ask you months later, when the answer is harder to find.

1. The domain, in the client's name. The client should be the registered name holder at the registrar, with their own login and their own email address on the contact record. If you need access, ask to be added as a user rather than holding the account. It matters most at renewal time: under ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy, registrars send the registered name holder a renewal reminder about a month and again about a week before a generic domain such as .com expires (as of November 2026). If the domain is in your name, those reminders reach you, not the client.
2. The DNS records, written down. Note where DNS is managed (the registrar, Cloudflare, a previous host or elsewhere), who has that login, and every record with its purpose: the website, email (MX and the TXT records that go with it) and any verification codes. Keep a screenshot of the zone from launch day. For a site on Statpio that's two CNAME records, www to cname.onstatpio.com and _acme-challenge.www to the validation value the dashboard shows, with the root domain forwarded to www at the registrar. Write "leave both in place" next to them: the second record is what lets the SSL certificate renew on its own.
3. Who owns and pays for the hosting. Either the hosting account is the client's (they pay the host and you're a user on it) or it's yours and you bill them, for example inside a maintenance plan. Write down which, the renewal date, what the fee covers and what happens to the site if payments stop.
4. Forms, and where the messages go. List every form on the site, where its submissions are stored, who is notified and how, and how to export them. Send a test message together on handover day and watch it arrive. On Statpio, messages land on the Messages tab under Forms & Leads with spam protection already on, new ones arrive as browser notifications on each device where someone has turned them on, and Download CSV exports them.
5. Analytics access. The client should own the analytics account, or hold an admin role on it, rather than borrow a login to yours. Note which tool runs, where its code is added and who can change it. Whether the site needs a consent banner depends on the tools it uses and the client's jurisdiction, so record what was decided and by whom. Statpio's analytics is added to every page for you, with no script to paste and no cookies; clients you invite to the portal see it under their own login.
6. Backups and rollback. Say what is backed up, where, how often and who can restore it. Keep the source in a repository you could hand to the client, and keep each build you publish. On Statpio every publish is kept as a version, and Rollback on the Deployments page puts an earlier one live again at once (50 versions are kept on Agency Pro). Rollbacks cover the website's files, not its form messages, so export the messages if the client wants their own copy.
7. Logins, shared safely. List every account: registrar, DNS, hosting, analytics, the email provider, and any booking, payment or form service. Send passwords through a password manager, never in a plain email or chat message. As of November 2026, 1Password can share a copy of an item with anyone through a link that expires, and Bitwarden Send passes on text, and files on Premium or a paid organisation plan, through temporary links that last at most 31 days. Ask the client to change each password once they're in, and to turn on two-step sign-in wherever a service offers it.
8. Licences for fonts, images and plugins. For each font, photo, icon set, theme and plugin, note where it came from, whose name the licence is in, and whether it still covers the client once you step away. A licence bought on your account may not pass to the client; if it doesn't, either the client buys their own or you replace the asset before handover.
9. Legal pages. The privacy policy, the terms, a cookie notice if the site uses one, and any notice the client's country requires. They are the client's documents: note who wrote them, when, and what the site collected at the time (forms, analytics, embedded maps or videos), so the client knows when to have them reviewed.
10. A short training session. Show the client the few things they will actually do: read and answer messages, look at their visitor numbers, ask you for a change and, if the site has a blog, publish a post. Record the call, with their permission, so new staff can watch it later.
11. The support or maintenance agreement. Write down what's included each month, how to ask for a change, how quickly you reply, what costs extra and how either side ends it, and whether bigger changes are shown to the client first (on Statpio, at the website's staging address on Solo Pro and up). Our guide to website maintenance plans has three tiers and a plan template to start from.
12. What happens if the client leaves. Agree it now, not when it happens: the notice period, what you hand over (source, built files, the repository, exports of messages and subscribers), how long you keep the site live, and who moves the DNS. A client who holds their own domain can point it at a new host without waiting for you; one whose domain sits in your account can't.

When should each item be handed over?

Most of the list is easier before launch than after it. A workable order:

1. Before you build: agree the hosting ownership (item 3), the support agreement (11) and the exit terms (12), and register or move the domain into the client's name (1).
2. Before launch: review the site with the client behind a password, so nobody else sees it early (on Statpio a password covers the whole website, on every plan), and collect the licences (8) and the legal texts (9).
3. Launch day: switch the DNS (2), send a test message through every form (4), check that the analytics counts a visit (5) and that the version you published is kept for rollback (6).
4. Handover call: share the logins (7), run the training (10) and walk through the handover document together.
5. A few weeks later: check that the client changed their passwords and can still sign in everywhere, and remove any access of yours they don't want you to keep.

What goes in a website handover document? (template)

A handover document is the checklist filled in: one page the client keeps and can pass to whoever looks after the site next. Copy this template, delete what doesn't apply, and send it as a PDF or a shared document. Passwords never go in it; it says where each login is shared.

WEBSITE HANDOVER DOCUMENT
Client:                       Website:
Launch date:                  Prepared by:

1. DOMAIN
   Domain name:
   Registrar:                 Registered name holder:
   Registrar login held by:   Renewal date:
   Auto-renew on (yes/no):    Renewal reminders go to:

2. DNS
   DNS managed at:            Login held by:
   Type  | Name                | Points to | Purpose
   CNAME | www                 |           | website
   CNAME | _acme-challenge.www |           | SSL certificate (keep)
   MX    | @                   |           | email

3. HOSTING
   Host:                      Account owner:
   Who pays:                  Renewal date:
   What the fee covers:
   If payments stop:

4. FORMS
   Form | Page | Stored in | Who is notified | How to export

5. ANALYTICS
   Tool:                      Account owner:
   Client access:
   Consent banner decision (what, who, when):

6. BACKUPS AND ROLLBACK
   Source code kept at:       Built files kept at:
   What is backed up:         How often:
   Who can roll back or restore:

7. LOGINS (shared through the password manager, never by email)
   Account | Address | Owner | Shared on | Password changed?

8. LICENCES
   Asset | Source | Licence holder | Covers the client's use?

9. LEGAL PAGES
   Page | Written by | Date | Review by

10. TRAINING
    Date:                     Recording kept at:
    Covered:

11. SUPPORT AGREEMENT
    Plan:                     Price and billing:
    Included each month:      Reply time:
    How to ask for a change:
    Not included:

12. IF THE CLIENT LEAVES
    Notice period:            What we hand over:
    Site kept live until:     Who moves the DNS:

Signed (client):              Date:
Signed (agency):              Date:

How do you hand over a WordPress, Squarespace or Framer site?

Hosted builders can move a whole site from your account to the client's, so the platform does part of the handover for you, though each one treats the paid plan differently. As of November 2026, their own help pages describe it like this:

Source: each platform's official help pages, linked in the table, checked 9 November 2026; Statpio's row from the product.

Whichever platform it is, the checklist still applies: a transfer moves the site, not the knowledge of where the domain, the logins and the licences are.

Can you hand over a website without handing over the hosting?

Yes. The client gets their own login and sees how their site is doing, while you keep the account that publishes, renews and bills. On Statpio that's the white-label client portal on Agency Pro. The client sees what you grant them, such as messages, visitor statistics, change requests and, if you allow it, writing blog posts. Deploys, rollbacks, domains, settings and billing stay with you, the account owner, whatever role they have.

1. Brand the portal once. In Agency Branding (under Account & Platform), add your agency's name, logo, colour and support email, and the portal's address. Clients then sign in under your brand, and the invitations and change-request emails they receive carry it too.
2. Invite the client. Open their website, then Collaborators, and click Invite Collaborator. Choose the Client role and send the invitation email, or create a link to send yourself (it works for 48 hours). Each website takes up to 50 people, clients and your team together.
3. Hand over through the portal. On the handover call, the client signs in, sends a test message through the site's form and sees it arrive, turns on browser notifications on their own devices, and asks for a first change with Request a Change.

The help center shows how to give a client the portal, screen by screen, and our guide to hosting client landing pages has a launch check and a short message you can send the client's IT contact about the DNS records.

Two honest limits. Statpio can't transfer a project into a client's own account, so a client who wants everything gets the built files or the repository and hosts them on any static host. And there is no page editor: clients ask you for changes, or write blog posts if you give them that permission. What a white-label portal has to hide, and what to do when a client leaves, is in our guide to white-label website hosting for agencies.

If you hand over static, hand-coded or AI-built sites, you can try Agency Pro free for 7 days, no card needed: brand the portal, publish one client's site, invite the client and run this checklist against it. The trial covers up to 5 websites and everything except custom domains (the portal's own domain included), which start when you choose a plan, and nothing is charged when it ends.