Before You Agree to Anything the Client Says

It often starts with excitement. Big client. Big logo. Big opportunity. Then comes the question: "Can we deploy this on our AWS infrastructure?”

Your team looks at each other. Technically? Yes, it’s doable. You nod. Say yes. And just like that, you’ve handed over more than you realize.

At first, it feels harmless. It’s your code. They’re just hosting it. What could go wrong? But behind the scenes, key safeguards begin to disappear.

Here’s What You Start Losing

Visibility: You no longer have access to logs, usage data, or deployment activity. If something goes wrong, you're in the dark.

Control: You can’t enforce updates, patch vulnerabilities, or roll back changes. The version they’re running could be outdated tomorrow.

Leverage: If a bug appears, they’ll blame you - but you won’t even be able to debug it yourself.

And worst of all? The IP line begins to blur. Fast. Suddenly, you hear phrases like: “We made some tweaks.” OR “It’s on our stack now.” OR “We co-built this.”

Now you’re not just a vendor. You’re being positioned as a joint contributor - but without equity, royalties, or recognition.

What to Do Instead

If a client wants to host your SaaS on their own infrastructure, that’s fine. But never do it without strong paper behind you. Here are the guardrails I recommend:

1) IP Protection

“Client may not reverse engineer, duplicate, or modify any part of the software.” This sets a clear line: you own the code. Always.

2) Audit Rights

“We retain the right to audit deployment and usage once per quarter.”

You need visibility. Period. Especially for billing, debugging, and compliance.

3) Ownership Terms

“All code remains the sole property of [Your Company], regardless of hosting environment.” Just because it runs on their infrastructure doesn’t mean they have any claim over it.

4) Limited Support

“Hosting on third-party infrastructure limits SLA to best-effort response unless otherwise agreed.” Don’t take on full support risk for systems you don’t control.

And if you want long-term leverage? Structure it as a license, not a one-time delivery.

Turn the deal into a software rental. That gives you recurring revenue, clearer rights, and a legal basis to pull the plug if needed.

TL;DR

Client-hosted deployments seem harmless, but they erode visibility, control, and leverage fast.

If you say yes, say it with strong contract terms:

• Protect your IP

• Set clear audit rights

• Limit your SLA risk

• Retain ownership regardless of infra

And wherever possible, license - don’t sell.

The Bottom Line

Clients want convenience. But if you let them host, modify, and manage your product without guardrails, you lose your grip on the very thing you built.

Say yes to their infrastructure. Say yes to the opportunity. But say it with terms attached.

Because when the product scales and the client gets louder, the only thing separating ownership from chaos is the contract you signed before the first line of code went live.