Software development contract checklist:
own what you pay for.

Many owners assume that paying for software means owning it. In Malta, that is not automatic. The Copyright Act says copyright starts with the author. There is one exception for computer programs. If your own employee writes the code as part of their job, the economic rights pass to you as the employer.

An outside developer is not your employee. So the contract has to do the work. The same Act, at Article 24(4), says an assignment of copyright, or a licence, has no effect unless it is made by an agreement in writing. A handshake and a paid invoice are not enough. You can read both articles in the Copyright Act, Chapter 415 of the Laws of Malta (legislation.mt).

Example sceneA Gozo tour operator pays for a booking system. Two years later, it wants a new developer to add features. The old supplier says the code is theirs, and the contract only gave a licence to use it. This is a made-up example, but it shows why the wording matters.

This matters more in Malta than in most of Europe. In 2025, 71.6% of Malta businesses with 10 to 49 staff paid for cloud services, against 49.3% across the EU. 43.6% rented their finance or accounting software, and 21.8% their CRM. When your data and logins sit with a supplier, the contract decides what you can take with you.

This page is a checklist, not legal advice. Use it to ask better questions, then have a lawyer read the final draft. For the wider choice of what to build, see business systems in Malta.

Open your draft contract or proposal. Tick each clause it already covers. Every line you leave unticked becomes a plain question to send your developer. You can copy them all in one tap.

Do not panic about gaps. Most drafts miss two or three lines, usually the open-source list and the exit plan. A good supplier will add them without a fight. If a supplier refuses to put ownership in writing, that tells you something too.

Support is where many contracts go vague. Ask for response times by priority. An urgent issue, like checkout or bookings failing, needs a reply within hours. A minor label change can wait for the next update. Ask what the monthly fee includes, such as hosting, updates and small fixes. Then ask the hourly or daily rate for anything else.

Data needs its own clause. If the supplier hosts your system, it handles personal data for you. Under GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Article 28 (EUR-Lex), that needs a written contract. It must cover your instructions, confidentiality, security, any sub-processors, help with data requests, and deleting or returning the data when the service ends.

Finally, plan the exit on day one. The EU Data Act has applied since 12 September 2025. One aim is to make it easier for customers to switch between cloud providers. Read the European Commission: the Data Act summary. Your contract should still say, in plain words, how and in what format you get your data back.

We put scope, price, ownership and support in writing before work starts. The only waiting is for government payouts, if you use a grant. On 7 November 2026, fondi.eu listed Digitalise your SME grant cut-offs of 13 November, 30 November and 14 December 2026.

If your project is a CRM, our which CRM is right for me quiz and CRM ROI calculator help you size it first. Then the CRM setup checklist keeps the launch on track. We handle the build and the paperwork, so you can relax.

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