No Lock-In, Explained: Ownership, Cancellation & What Happens After Month 12

“Will I be trapped?” is a fair question to ask any provider that charges monthly — especially if you’ve been stuck in an agency retainer before. So here’s the straight answer for Agile One, our premium web subscription, up front and without the small print: there’s no lock-in. This piece sets out exactly what you own and when, what happens if you leave, and what happens after month 12.

The honest summary up front

There’s no minimum term and no tie-in: you can cancel any time with 30 days’ notice, and you own your content, brand assets and domain from day one. The website itself becomes yours, free, after 12 months — and if you ever want to leave before then and keep the site, you simply settle the remaining cost of the build we provided up front. That’s the whole of it.

Everything below is just that summary, explained — because on a question like this, you deserve the detail, not a reassuring line.

Why there’s no lock-in (and why most clients stay anyway)

There’s no lock-in because the model doesn’t need one — Agile One keeps clients by staying worth it, not by tying them in.

A binding contract is what a provider reaches for when it worries you’d leave the moment you could. We’d rather earn the next month, every month. If you’ve run a marketing or operations function in a law or financial-services firm, you’ll recognise the opposite pattern: a 12-month agency contract that auto-renews, a notice window you have to diarise months ahead, and the quiet sense that actually leaving will be made awkward. Agile One is deliberately built to be the reverse of that. The £500 fee buys an ongoing premium service — managed hosting, security, maintenance, monthly technical SEO and AI optimisation, and dedicated support — that keeps delivering the entire time you’re on it. It isn’t a build repayment that winds down, and it doesn’t drop over time, because the work doesn’t stop.

That’s also why most clients stay well beyond the first year. Bought from separate providers, the same services cost more — so for a typical firm, staying on the full plan simply remains the best value available. The point isn’t that you can’t leave. It’s that you keep choosing not to, because it keeps being worth it.

What you own, and when

You own your content, brand assets, media library and domain from day one; ownership of the website build itself transfers to you, at no extra cost, after the first 12 months.

It helps to separate the two. From the start, everything that is recognisably yours — your words, your images, your logo, your domain name — is yours, and it’s always portable. The one thing that isn’t immediately yours is the website build, and only because we provided it at no upfront cost. After 12 months on the plan, that transfers to you too, free, with one month’s notice to take it. In practice that means moving the finished site onto hosting of your choice, with the code and design yours to keep.

We mention the transfer not as a finish line you’re working towards, and certainly not as a reason to leave — most clients simply stay because the service keeps earning its place. We mention it because you should know there’s no version of this where you end up permanently dependent on us to keep control of your own site.

Leaving before month 12

If you leave within the first 12 months, there are two clean paths: keep the website by settling the remaining unrecovered build cost, or walk away owing nothing and leave the build behind.

Keep the site. Because the build was free up front, the only thing to settle is the portion of that build cost we haven’t yet recovered through your monthly fees. The longer you’ve been with us, the smaller that figure. It’s the mechanism that makes “no upfront cost” possible in the first place — fair recovery of a real investment, not a penalty for leaving.

Don’t keep the site. Cancel with 30 days’ notice and there’s nothing further to pay. Your content, brand and domain are already yours; the website build stays with us. You leave with everything that was ever recognisably yours.

A quick example. Suppose you launched and then, at month seven, your direction changed. If you wanted to keep the site, you’d settle whatever portion of the build cost remained unrecovered at that point — a single, transparent figure we’d set out for you in advance, not a multiple of your monthly fee or a surprise. If you didn’t want the site, you’d give 30 days’ notice and pay nothing more. Either way, there’s no argument to have and no exit fee dressed up as something else.

After month 12 — your three options

After 12 months you have three options, and most clients choose the first: stay on the full plan, downgrade to a lighter maintenance plan, or take ownership of the site and move on.

• Stay on Agile One (recommended). The plan keeps doing everything it always did — hosting, security, maintenance, monthly SEO and AI optimisation, support — and remains the best value against buying those separately. Nothing about the value changes at month 12, which is why this is what most clients do.
• Downgrade to Maintenance (£200/month). A lighter option if your needs shrink: it keeps the site hosted, secure and maintained, but drops the proactive SEO and AI work and reduces support. Available if you want it — bearing in mind you lose the ongoing optimisation that keeps the site competitive.
• Take ownership. The website is yours to take, free, with one month’s notice. Available, though it means taking on hosting, security and maintenance yourself or through someone else.

There’s no pressure either way. Staying is the natural default because the value carries on; the other two are simply there if your situation changes.

Frequently asked questions

Questions about the terms? Just ask

We’d much rather you understood exactly how this works than signed up unsure. If anything about ownership, cancellation or the month-12 transfer isn’t clear, ask us — you’ll get a straight answer, not a sales line.

Questions about the terms? Just ask — we’ll be straight with you →