Can You Leave Your Software Vendor and Keep the Code?

Code Ownership · Vendor Dependency · You Can Leave

What Happens to Your Software If You Stop Working With Us?

The honest fear when you hire a development firm is not that the software will not work. It is that it will work, and you will not be able to change it, host it or hand it to anyone else without the firm's permission. That is vendor dependency. It is a real risk, it is the reason people ask about ownership before they ask about price, and it deserves a straight answer. Here is ours. Once your fees are paid, you own the code we write for you. You can take it to another team on any day you choose.

Schedule Free Consultation See What You Own

“

Do we own the code even if we stop paying you?

Can another firm work on the code we own?

What do you keep, exactly?

What if the people who built it leave Razoyo?

Is This the Right Page for You?

This is for you if: you are about to hire a software firm, or already have one, and you want to know whether you could leave without starting over.

This is not for you if: you are looking at AutomaticFFL. That is Razoyo's own subscription product, and the arrangement is the opposite: we own and run the code, you subscribe. The rest of this page is about custom work we build for you.

Ownership, in writing

What Do You Own?

Once fees are paid, you own:

Yours Once Fees Are Paid

The code we write for you

Every original component of what we deliver.

The documents

The product brief and the PRD from a System Spec are yours outright, whoever builds from them.

The repository

The full history, not a snapshot.

The infrastructure

The hosting and cloud accounts the product runs on.

Ownership on paper is not the same as ownership in practice. The test we hold ourselves to is simple: could another competent team pick this up on Monday? That is why documented ownership is the seventh dimension on our production-readiness scorecard, next to security, data integrity, architecture, tests, monitoring and a repeatable deploy path.

The short exclusion list

What Does Razoyo Keep?

We keep what we had before we met you: our own libraries, tooling and know-how. Where a piece of that ends up inside your product, you get a license to use it as part of your product, for your own business, with no expiry and no royalty. You cannot lift it out and use it separately.

Razoyo Zoy shaking hands on a clear agreement

Yours, once fees are paid

The code we write for you
The documents, the repository and the infrastructure
Anything we have not named in writing as ours

Ours, licensed to you only inside your product

Our pre-existing libraries and tooling
Our know-how
Lifting them out to use separately

Anything we have not named in writing as ours before the work starts counts as original work, and it is yours. The exclusion list is short and it is agreed up front, not discovered later.

If you ever leave

What Happens on the Day the Relationship Ends?

You give notice. Retainers end on 30 days notice. You keep everything above and we hand over what is needed to run it.

Step 1

Code and Repository

Already yours

With full history.

Step 2

Access

Credentials rotated

Hosting, cloud and third-party accounts, with credentials rotated so we no longer hold the keys.

Step 3

Documentation

How it all works

How it is built, how it is deployed, how to run the tests.

Step 4

The Board

What was done, what was planned

The epics, issues and priorities from the project system, so the next team sees what was done and what was planned.

Step 5

A Working Deploy Path

Routine, not a favor

Shipping a change is a routine step, not a favor.

Schedule Free Consultation

You Can Leave Before Anything Is Built

Your team can also leave earlier and cheaper than that. The System Spec is $2,500 fixed and the document is yours whether or not you hire us to build it. You can take the Spec to any firm.

Two places where you can see it

Why We Can Afford to Say This

Firms that lock clients in are usually protecting a business model that depends on being hard to leave. Ours depends on being worth staying with. The same senior team stays with the product after launch, so you have no reason to leave, and you have a clear way to if that changes.

Women's POWER Pickleball League

A $5,000 fixed-price Spec gave her a complete specification. She took it to a partner who could fund the build. We were not involved after that, and the document worked. Read the case study.

Lighthouse and Spider

We have been the engineering team behind the platform for six years, by choice on both sides. Read the case study.

Questions We Get Before the Call

Ownership passes once the fees for the work are paid. Ongoing support is a separate monthly arrangement and can end on 30 days notice.

Yes. That is the point. The repository, the documentation and the deploy path are set up so another competent team can take over.

Our pre-existing libraries, tooling and know-how, licensed to you as part of your product for internal business use. If we plan to reuse something of ours in your build, we name it in writing before the work starts.

No. AutomaticFFL is our own subscription product. We own and maintain the code, and customers subscribe to it.

The code, the documentation and the project board are yours, so context does not live in one head. Every change is also reviewed by a lead developer before it merges.

Prototype to production, software rescue and how a Spec becomes a system. Weighing up the whole commitment first? See what each phase costs and where you can stop.

Pick your next step

Start With a Conversation. It Costs Nothing.

Every engagement begins the same way, with a free consultation. You will leave it with an honest recommendation, including the recommendation not to build.

1 Free

Free consultation

A working session with a senior person, not a sales rep. Always the first step.