{"head":{"title":"Who Pays for Hosting After Launch? Accounts and Bills","description":"After launch the client normally pays for hosting and third-party services, ideally on accounts in its own name. How to set it up and what to agree.","canonical":"https://oceanlab.in/questions/who-pays-for-hosting-after-launch"},"crumbs":[{"name":"Home","path":"/"},{"name":"Questions","path":"/questions"},{"name":"Who pays for hosting after launch?","path":"/questions/who-pays-for-hosting-after-launch"}],"question":"Who pays for hosting after launch?","answer":["Normally the client, because the software and its data are the client's. The cleanest setup is for the hosting, domains and third-party services to be on accounts in the client's name, billed to the client, with the vendor added as a user. Agree this in the contract before the build starts."],"sections":[{"heading":"Why the accounts should be yours","body":[["Whoever holds the hosting account controls the system. If the vendor opens it in their own name and re-bills you, you depend on them to move it later. Holding the accounts yourself makes ownership, handover and switching vendors simple, and it shows you the real running costs."]],"bullets":[]},{"heading":"What to agree","body":[],"bullets":[["Which accounts exist: cloud hosting, domain and DNS, email, app stores, payment providers, monitoring, AI APIs."],["Whose name and card each one uses, and who gets admin access."],["A budget and alerts for usage-based services, so a bug or a spike does not cause a surprise bill."],["Who watches costs and suggests savings after launch."],["What happens to access when the contract ends."]]}],"faqs":[{"question":"Can the vendor host it for us?","answer":"Yes, as a managed service, if the contract says so. Make sure you can export the code, data and configuration, and move the system if you need to."},{"question":"Who pays for hosting during the build?","answer":"Agree it up front. Often the client opens the accounts at the start, so development, staging and production costs are visible from day one."},{"question":"How do I estimate hosting costs?","answer":"Start from expected users and traffic, then add storage, data transfer and per-use services. Our cloud and hosting tools give a first estimate."}],"terms":[{"href":"/glossary/total-cost-of-ownership","label":"total cost of ownership"},{"href":"/glossary/mvp","label":"MVP"}],"tools":[],"links":[{"href":"/glossary/vendor-lock-in","label":"Vendor lock-in","detail":"Glossary"},{"href":"/glossary/handover","label":"Handover","detail":"Glossary"},{"href":"/pricing","label":"Pricing library","detail":"Software and API prices, each with its source and date."}],"related":[{"href":"/questions/who-owns-the-code","label":"Who owns the code when you hire a software agency?","detail":"Question"},{"href":"/questions/how-to-avoid-vendor-lock-in","label":"How do I avoid vendor lock-in?","detail":"Question"},{"href":"/questions/how-to-hand-over-a-software-project","label":"How do I hand over a software project?","detail":"Question"},{"href":"/compare/ai-agent-vs-workflow-automation","label":"AI agent vs workflow automation","detail":"Comparison"},{"href":"/compare/rag-vs-fine-tuning","label":"RAG vs fine-tuning","detail":"Comparison"},{"href":"/glossary","label":"Glossary","detail":"Every term, in plain words."}],"sources":[],"legal":false,"updatedAt":"2026-10-25"}