Ask who owns the API keys

There is a single question that sorts web and automation vendors into two piles, and you can ask it in the first meeting.

When this engagement ends, who owns the API keys?

Ask it about the domain. Ask it about the hosting account. Ask it about the CRM, the email sending, the phone number, the analytics. Ask it about anything that has a login.

There are two answers.

The first is: you do. The domain is registered to you. The hosting is your account with your card on it. When we are finished you have every credential, and if you want to hire somebody else next year, they log in and get to work.

The second answer comes in many shapes and means the same thing. It is on our platform. It is included in your plan. We manage that for you, do not worry about it. Sometimes it is dressed up as a service. It is a lock.

Neither answer is dishonest. Plenty of good vendors run the second model and plenty of clients are happy in it. But you should know which one you are buying, because the second one has a property the first does not: leaving costs you the asset.

The tell is what happens to your work when you stop paying. If the answer is that it disappears, you were not buying a website. You were renting one, and the rent was disguised as a service fee.

I build the first way. Not because I am generous. Because the second way makes me responsible for a client's business forever, and I do not want that job.