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I honestly do not know how to ask this question. I am a Graphic Designer for one of my clients, however I am more than capable of building websites. The client I am working with specifically has gotten a website built from one of his clients (not me), and he is getting it hosted by the same person. After the website was built, however, he told me he hated it and wanted me to build a new website. I asked him how he wanted to host it, and he said that because of his website developer offering very cheap hosting rates, He wanted to host with this person.

I see this as potentially being an issue; Is it not very rude to have someone build a website for you and host it for you, then go to someone else to have a new website built, but expect it to be hosted by the original developer?

I've tried to bring this up with my client however he is confident that it will not be an issue. How can I explain to him that it may be an issue, if it is, and possibly steer him away from doing this?

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  • Is the website hosted on a private server of the previous dev or a hosting like Go Daddy? It's very rare to see real private servers for this even though some dev like to say "my server", they don't own them at all. If it's on a reseller account, you shouldn't be so worried, it's not in the interest of the "reseller" to sabotage elements that are legally in the property of your client. There's law against this. And no it's not rude at all to use a hosting from a previous dev/designer. You should change hosting for technical reasons (eg. speed, ram, cpu, bandwith) and costs only.
    – go-junta
    Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 11:26

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I would iron it out in detail with a Scope of Work and a proper contract. Define that it will NOT be released onto his friend's server until you are paid up 100% of the cost. I wrote a blog entry (link in my profile) about making a "dev" server for this type of use.

Essentially, create a separate area of a server only you control. Upload all your work-in-progress there, and invite the client to connect to your server until he's satisfied, and has paid you. Upon receiving the FULL payment for your work, it will live on your server, in your control. Once you've been paid, offer to migrate it for free to his choice of a hosting provider.

Again, do NOT put it on someone else's server until you are paid IN FULL. I hope I stressed that enough for you.

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That happened to me a few times. All you need to do is keep contact with your client, is not your worry if he wants to keep the old hosting as long as he gives you the proper access, ftp, etc. You go on and develop the work and put it online, you don't have to deal with the web hoster.

The problem comes if you are afraid that the third person will somehow steal your software, because he will have access to that stuff, script and solutions that he can resell or use for his own projects without paying you.

You can still use your web hosting and tell to the other person to put your DNS in his configuration so you will not have this problem and your client will keep staying in the same hosting.

Also I take for granted that you will protect yourself with a contract and with proper pre-payments before publishing the final work.

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