Redesign website for an already Weebly user

[Mathilde_B]

Hi,

I've been hired by an organization to redesign their website on Weebly. They already have an account (station familles)

If I'm not mistaken, I can work on a Weebly for Designers account, and then give them access to their site. But if I'm not working with them anymore, what's happening? Can I take this website off my account and give them propriety? Also, they will be paying for the plan, not me.

Or

Will it be easier to work directly on their account, create a new website? Once the website is done and approved what are the steps to put the new website in place of the old one? 

Thanks in advance!

Mathilde

[Adam7]

Welcome to the Community, @Mathilde_B.

If they already created an account then that account won't work with the designer platform. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though, particularly If you're thinking about the future. Did they already make a site in their account? They can invite you as an administrator so you can fully manage the site. With that approach the site is in their own account, so if someone else manages it in the future then all they need to do is invite that person to edit.

[Mathilde_B]

Thanks for the welcoming

They already have a free website on their account, they add me as a contributor on this website. But since we want to do a redesign, I cannot work directly on their live website. So I guess, I need to create a new website, and when the new one will be ready, I will be able to switch the URL? But, can I also change the owner, so they will be the owner, not me?

[Bernadette3 · Accepted solution]

I think for this site it would be best to edit the original site since it is an older, grandfathered account. They are still allowed to publish a custom domain on a free site, but only if they keep the domain connected to the original site. Disconnecting the domain would require a plan upgrade to publish the domain to a new site. 

You should be able to edit the site without any of the changes reflecting on the live site until you re-publish it. I recommend asking them to make a copy of the site and having them add you as a contributor to the copy site as well. You can practice making changes to the copy site to get an idea of how long or what changes you'll need to make to the original site. 

They can make a copy of the site by clicking the dropdown in the top left corner of their editor, and then clicking the three dots to the right of the site name. 

[Mathilde_B]

Hi Bernadette,

Thanks for the information! I can't modify the original since it's live and we are doing a redesign and rebranding. So I will have to modify the structure and the visual completely... But I think asking them to make a copy of the site is a great idea so they will be the owner and we will just have to switch the URL.

They are aware they cannot keep a personalized domain name on a free website and that they have to upgrade to a paid plan,

Thank you!

[Bernadette3]

Oh, good to know! Sometimes people are not aware they have certain features for free, and most of the time we cannot recover a grandfathered feature so I always like to make sure everyone is aware.  

Let us know if you have any other questions.