Why you want to own the code of your own software
Plenty of agencies hold on to the code, the hosting or the admin account. That feels like service, until you want to leave. What to check before you sign.
I regularly sit down with companies that are not unhappy about their software, but about their position. They want to move to another party, or simply get a second opinion, and discover they are not free to. Usually it comes down to one of four things.
1. The code is not in your name
The agency has the repository, you have the invoices. In a clean handover that is a matter of granting access. In a less clean one it becomes a negotiation. Put it in the contract that the code is your property and that you can request a full copy at any time, and request that copy once to see whether it holds up.
2. The hosting runs on the agency's account
This is the quietest version. Everything works, until you leave and it turns out your site, your database and your domain sit on three accounts that are not yours. Migrating is always possible, but it costs you downtime and a bill you had not budgeted for. Hosting on your own account costs you nothing extra and saves you that entire discussion.
3. There is no documentation
You have the code, only nobody knows how to get it running. A new party then starts with two weeks of figuring it out that you pay for. Ask for a readme that says how to start the project locally, where the environment variables come from and how a deploy works. That is half a page and it saves you thousands of euros.
4. There is a licence on your own software
Some parties build custom work on their own platform and charge annually for it. That can be a perfectly good deal, as long as you know you are renting that software rather than owning it. What you want to know before you sign: what happens if you stop paying, and what can you take with you then.
A party that makes it easy to leave is confident that you will stay.
How I handle it
The code is yours, the repository can be in your name and hosting runs on your account, or with me if you prefer that. There is no licence on it and you can cancel each year. Not because I enjoy losing clients, but because I would rather you stayed because it works.