Website development agreements for New Zealand projects

A general services contract is often too broad for a website build because web projects usually involve specific issues that need clearer treatment. These can include design approvals, staged deliverables, content supply responsibilities, testing or acceptance points, ownership of code and assets, third-party tools, and post-launch support. If those points are vague, disagreements can arise even where both sides thought the commercial deal was clear. A dedicated website development agreement is used to match the contract to the actual build structure, rather than forcing a technical project into generic wording.

Most website development agreements deal with the project scope, deliverables, timeline assumptions, fees, change requests, client dependencies, review and approval steps, intellectual property ownership or licensing, confidentiality, and any support or maintenance after launch. Depending on the project, the contract may also need to address hosting arrangements, third-party plugins, content responsibilities, access to systems, and how personal information is handled during the build. How you collect, use and disclose information will shape both the drafting and the advice, so data-related clauses need to reflect what will actually happen during the project.

The drafting usually turns on the commercial setup of the project. Important details include whether the work is fixed scope or iterative, whether the developer is building from scratch or customising an existing platform, who supplies content, whether third-party software is being used, and what happens after launch. Ownership settings also matter because some projects involve full assignment of deliverables while others rely on licences or carve-outs for pre-existing tools. If the website collects user information, the agreement may also need clauses that reflect how information is accessed, stored, shared or processed during development.

It can be. Templates often use broad wording that does not match the actual project, especially around deliverables, acceptance, change requests, ownership of code, and support boundaries. That mismatch can create problems if the build runs over time, the client expects extra functionality, or there is confusion about who owns reusable components or third-party integrations. A template may be a starting point, but it often misses the commercial detail that matters most once work begins. Legal review helps test whether the document reflects the real arrangement rather than just the label on the project.

Timing depends on whether you need a fresh agreement or a review of an existing draft, and on how complex the project is. Once we have the relevant project details and any existing documents, we can assess the work involved and move into drafting or review. In practice, delays often come from missing information about scope, ownership expectations, or support arrangements rather than the document itself. After the legal work is completed, you can use the agreement in negotiations or as the working contract for the project. Ongoing contract administration is not included unless separately arranged.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Website Development Agreement service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.