Being tied to one hosting company's CMS

We are currently looking at redeveloping our website and have approached a friend's web development company to do this for us. This will involve creating a website which will be plugged into a CMS which they have developed and is hosted on their server.

While we will own the domain, content and template design of the website. The website application running the backend will remain with the hosting company but will be leased to us through a lifetime license. This means that we would not be able to move the website to another provider without the development of a new CMS.

Firstly is this an unusual arrangement and secondly I would be interested to hear from anyone who has entered into a similar arrangement and then decided to sell the website. (I would like to know whether someone buying a website would expect to be able to take it away with them without rebuilding a CMS.

Thanks

Neil

As an experienced and nice web designer, I would say no. You're basically giving them the control that can cause a ton of grievances down the road.

Unless you really feel you can trust the company, back out and find someone that won't lock you in!

Absolutely agree with Ryan. Even if you feel you can trust the company, you need an iron clad contract between the two parties spelling out everything...And I do mean everything.

Think about their intentions, they are offering a CMS that is to be used soley on their servers? The only reason a company that would do this is because they know that it would be a huge hassle for you to ever change hosts, this would give them way to much control over you, basically if your ever unsatisfied with the service you would have to weigh the hassle of staying verse the hassle of leaving. And they know that.

No I would never trust someone, even a friend, if they tried that with me. Thats ridiculous.

I agree, that is a completely unreasonable arrangement and you should stay well away. Tell them to either do a proper job or you'll take your business elsewhere. That is dreadful working practice, they should be ashamed of themselves. You are fortunate that you have the insight to realise it is a bit of an odd arrangement. Think of the people who didn't know any better, this company now has a stranglehold on them. It would cost a small fortune just to move hosts which is often a painless and inexpensive experience, though not always.

Just say no.

Pete.