Website handover, done properly.
One form in. A client-ready manual out.
The domain, the hosting, who owns each account, what the retainer covers — written up in plain language for your client. A live link they can’t lose and that is never the old version, plus a printable PDF, in your branding rather than ours.
Why this exists
The build got commoditised. The retainer didn’t.
Websites stopped being one-off projects. AI builders commoditised the build, and the margin moved to the retainer.
A retainer is easier to sell when the client can see what they own, what you maintain, and what happens when something breaks. The document does the arguing for you.
Most agencies write that document by hand, in Google Slides, once per client — and then never update it.
And then it’s gone. The pack is emailed once, filed somewhere, and six months later the client is asking you where the hosting login lives — or worse, working from the version that was true in March.
The difference
A file is a snapshot. A link stays true.
A PDF is correct on the day you send it. Then the hosting renews somewhere else, the plugin gets swapped, the person who handled the account leaves — and nobody goes back to update an attachment.
Change the manual and every client holding the link has the new version. No resend, no v2-final.pdf, and nothing for them to lose. If they want paper, the PDF is one click away and prints from the same page.
And it is still there after the project ends, after the retainer ends, and after you stop subscribing — a manual you have published stays online and readable even if your account goes back to free. Client portals do live documents too, but their document is a tenant of the subscription. Yours isn’t.
How it works
Three steps, and the client keeps it forever.
Fill in the form
Eight sections, with a professional default sentence already written for every field — plus any fields or sections you add yourself. Autosaves as you go.
Send the link
Your logo, your colours, your typeface. On a paid plan the page carries no Handover branding at all.
They keep it
They bookmark the URL or print the PDF. Update the manual any time — the link never changes, so there is nothing to resend and nothing for them to lose.
And when it is time to talk about ongoing maintenance, four written client emails are waiting — before the sale, at launch, a month later, and at renewal. Edit them into your own voice, or write your own in any language.
What’s in a manual
Everything a client asks you six months later.
- Site & platform
- Domain & DNS
- Hosting
- Accounts & ownership
- How to edit your site
- What the retainer covers
- Files & assets
- Who to contact
- A record of the handover itself
And anything else this client needs. Add your own fields to any section — a CDN, a booking system, a print supplier — or whole sections of your own, with your own titles. They appear in the manual and in the printed PDF like everything else.
We never store passwords. The manual records which accounts exist and who owns them — your client keeps their own credentials. If Handover is ever breached, there is nothing in it to sign in with.
Pricing
Four plans. The only thing that changes is how many manuals are active at once.
Every plan has the same manual, the same branding and the same printable PDF. Drafts are free and unlimited on all of them — you only use a slot when a client can open the page.
Free
1 active manual
- 1 active manual
- Unlimited drafts and archived manuals
- Live link and printable PDF
- Your logo, colours and fonts
- Small “Made with Handover” line at the bottom
Freelancer
3 active manuals
- 3 active manuals at a time
- Unlimited drafts and archived manuals
- No Handover branding on the page
- Reusable templates — your sections, fields and standard schedule
- Everything in Free
Studio
10 active manuals
- 10 active manuals at a time
- Unlimited drafts and archived manuals
- No Handover branding on the page
- Reusable templates — your sections, fields and standard schedule
- Everything in Freelancer
Agency
Unlimited active manuals
- Unlimited active manuals
- Unlimited drafts and archived manuals
- No Handover branding on the page
- Reusable templates — your sections, fields and standard schedule
- Everything in Studio
Only active manuals count. A draft costs nothing, and neither does an archived one. Archiving an old client’s manual keeps it online and readable at the same address — it simply becomes read-only and stops counting, so you can publish the next one without ever taking a client’s page down.
Questions
What agencies ask before they start.
What if something changes after I hand over?
Edit the manual and you are done — same URL, no resend. Your client opens the link they already have and sees the current version, so the document stays true as hosting renews, plugins change or people leave. This is the difference between this and the handover PDF that was accurate for about a month.
Whose branding does the manual carry?
Yours. Your logo, your colours and your choice of typeface, on your client’s page. On the free plan a single small line reads “Made with Handover” at the bottom; on a paid plan the page carries no Handover branding. The manual is served from a handover.agency web address — custom domains are not available yet.
Do you store my clients’ passwords?
No, and there is nowhere to put one. Handover has no password or credential field anywhere in the product. A manual records which accounts exist and who owns them — never the secret that opens them. Field names that describe a credential are refused outright.
Can my client keep a copy?
Every manual prints to a clean PDF with the same branding, so your client can save it, file it, or hand it to whoever takes over. The live URL and the printed copy carry the same information.
How long does the first one take?
About ten minutes. Every field arrives with a professional default sentence already written, so you are editing rather than starting from a blank page. After the first, duplicate it as a template and the next takes a couple of minutes.
Is it available in Spanish?
Yes. The app interface and the manual language are set independently, so you can work in English and hand your client a manual written in Spanish — or the reverse.
What do I get on the free plan?
One active manual with full branding, the live link, the printable PDF and all eight sections. Drafts are unlimited, so you can prepare as many as you like and publish one. Three things differ on a paid plan: how many manuals can be active at once, the small credit line at the bottom, and reusable templates.
Can I set up a template so every manual starts the same way?
Yes, on a paid plan. Define your agency’s shape once — which sections and fields you use, your own custom fields, your standard maintenance schedule, your usual retainer scope — save it under a name, and every new manual starts from it. You can also save a template straight from a manual you have already built. Editing a template afterwards never changes manuals already created from it.
Does it help me sell the care plan, or just document the site?
Both. Handover ships four client emails — before the sale, at launch, a month after launch, and at renewal — written to make the case for ongoing maintenance in plain language. They fill in with the client’s details, they carry your signature and go from your own address, and Handover is named nowhere in them. You can rewrite any of them, or write your own in any language, on every plan including free. The maintenance schedule does the same job inside the manual: every recurring task with a name against it, yours or theirs.
Can I show that the handover actually happened?
Yes. When you finish the handover you tick what was covered — domain ownership, hosting, accounts and access, credentials sent separately, maintenance responsibilities, files delivered — note who you went through it with, and mark it complete. The manual then carries a dated record at the end: Handover completed on 7 September 2026, confirmed with Matthew Rosenberg. Only the items you ticked appear. You record it, not the client — there is nothing on the page for a visitor to click, and it is a record of what was handed over, not a signature or a waiver.
What counts towards my plan?
Only manuals that are published. A draft nobody can open costs nothing, on every plan. An archived manual — one that stays online for your client but is no longer being edited — does not count either. So a freelancer on three active manuals can still have a dozen drafts in progress and years of archived clients.
Does it handle domains where the nameservers never changed?
Yes, and that case is more common than the other one. The manual asks where DNS is actually managed, who can sign in there, and what changed at handover — a full nameserver move, individual records only, or nothing at all — so a client who keeps DNS at their registrar and only had an A record repointed gets a manual that says exactly that. There is also a tick for email is hosted somewhere else, which puts a warning on the client’s page: changing this domain’s nameservers would move the mail settings too and can stop their email the same day. It is the most expensive mistake made on a handed-over domain, and it is worth one sentence in the right place.
What happens when I reach the limit?
You either upgrade or archive an older manual to free the slot. Archiving does not take anything offline: the client who was given that link still opens the same page, it simply becomes read-only. Nothing you have handed to a client ever has to come down because of a plan limit.
What if I move to a smaller plan?
Nothing goes offline. Your existing manuals stay live and readable; you just cannot publish new ones until you are back under the limit. We will not take a client’s page down because a subscription changed.
Can I add my own sections and fields?
Yes. Every section takes extra fields of your own, and you can add whole sections with your own titles — so a headless build, a booking system or a print supplier all have somewhere to live. The one limit: a field or section whose name describes a credential is refused, because there is nowhere in Handover to put a secret.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Handover is a hosted web app with nothing to install on your machine and no plugin to add to your client’s site. It sits alongside whatever you build with — WordPress, Webflow, Shopify or anything else.
Can I use my own domain?
Not yet. Client manuals are served from a handover.agency web address for now. The link is permanent either way — it does not change when you edit the manual, and it does not expire when a retainer does.
Write the manual once. Sell the retainer every time.
One link, in your branding, that your client still has in three years.
Start free — 1 active manual, no card No credit card required.