You build and hand over
An agency or freelancer delivering a site the client will own and run. The licence is issued in the client portal and stays with them when the project ends.
Partner programme
Build client sites on Studio Nope.
For the people who deliver HubSpot CMS work for someone else. You get the theme for the portals you build in, the source to extend, and a licence written so you can hand the site over and walk away.
Who this is for
Three ways people use this in client work.
They differ in who holds the licence at the end, and that is the part worth getting right before the first invoice.
autorenew
You build and keep running it
A retained relationship where you stay on the portal after launch. You keep a working copy for staging, and theme updates reach you before they reach the marketplace listing.
extension
You extend it
You write your own modules against the theme tokens and ship them alongside it. The field and token names are documented so your module inherits theme settings instead of fighting them.
The question
Build and hand over
Project work
Build and run
Retained work
Extend
You ship your own modules
Who the licence is issued to
info
The client portal
The client portal
Your portal
Who owns the site at handover
The client
The client
You
Working copy for staging
info
For the length of the build
For as long as the retainer runs
Ongoing
Child modules under your own name
info
Not covered
Not covered
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Included
Updates reach you first
cancel
Not included
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Included
check_circle
Included
Named contact for build questions
During the build
Ongoing
Ongoing
Listed on the partner directory
After one shipped site
After one shipped site
After one shipped module
Build and hand over
Project work
- Who the licence is issued to The client portal
- Who owns the site at handover The client
- Working copy for staging For the length of the build
- Child modules under your own name Not covered
- Updates reach you first cancel
- Named contact for build questions During the build
- Listed on the partner directory After one shipped site
Build and run
Retained work
- Who the licence is issued to The client portal
- Who owns the site at handover The client
- Working copy for staging For as long as the retainer runs
- Child modules under your own name Not covered
- Updates reach you first check_circle
- Named contact for build questions Ongoing
- Listed on the partner directory After one shipped site
Extend
You ship your own modules
- Who the licence is issued to Your portal
- Who owns the site at handover You
- Working copy for staging Ongoing
- Child modules under your own name check_circle
- Updates reach you first check_circle
- Named contact for build questions Ongoing
- Listed on the partner directory After one shipped module
The same in every column
- You can charge for the build Included
- You can resell the source Not included
What you get
The source, commented.
HubL you can read, partials you can reuse, and field groups named the same way in every module. If you have to change something we did not anticipate, you can find it.
What you get
A staging install.
A working copy in a sandbox portal, so a change is tested somewhere other than the client site the day before launch.
What you get
Presets you can hand over.
Colour and type live in theme settings. A client can switch the whole site to their palette without opening a stylesheet or calling you.
What you get
Updates ahead of release.
Retained and extending partners see new modules and template changes before the marketplace listing does, with the diff, so a client site is never surprised by an update.
What you get
A named contact.
One person who knows your build, reachable while it is happening. Not a queue and not a form.
What you get
Documentation written for handover.
The docs are written for the marketer who inherits the site, so what you send at handover is a link rather than a weekend of writing.
A licence covers the portal it was issued in. A staging portal and a live portal are two portals. We would rather say this here than discover it during an audit of a client account.
You can change any file in the theme for a client build. You cannot publish the source, put it in a public repository, or ship it inside a product of your own. Modules you write yourself are a different thing and they are yours.
The site you hand over runs on a licensed theme, and the client should know that before they inherit it, not when an update arrives. We give you the wording to paste into a handover document.
The directory only lists partners who have finished something. Send the URL of a live site you built on the theme and it goes on the list. There is no application fee and no interview.
If you find a bug during a client build, we want it while you are still in the file, not in a review months later. A partner who reports a defect gets the fix ahead of the release it lands in.
What you send a client
The demo you send is one of these pages.
There is nothing to build before a pitch. Point at a page here, change the preset to something nearer their brand, and the conversation is about their content rather than about a mock-up.
1
Send the form
Who you are, the portal you work in, and one site you have built. No deck. If it is not a fit we say so here rather than after a call.
2
A short call
Half an hour on what you are building and which of the three shapes fits. We say no when none of them does.
3
Licence issued
Installed in the portal you named, with the staging copy alongside it. Nothing to transfer later.
4
Listed after the first site
Send the URL when it goes live and you go on the directory. There is no fee and no interview at any point in this.
Yes, and it is issued in their portal, not transferred from yours. You can buy it on their behalf and bill it through, which is what most partners do. When the project ends the licence is already in the right place and nothing has to move.
Nothing changes for them. The licence sits in their portal and keeps working. You lose access to that portal, which is the point.
Yes. Change any file you need to. Two things to know: a changed file no longer takes theme updates cleanly, and a module you write from scratch against the theme tokens is yours rather than ours.
Yes, in your own portal, on the same terms as a client portal.
Colour, type and spacing come from theme settings rather than from each module, so a page editor can change layout and copy without reaching the palette. What a client can and cannot alter is set by which fields a module exposes, and you can remove fields you would rather they did not have.
Content lives on the page, not in the template, so an update does not touch what a marketer wrote. It does replace theme files you edited, which is why the changed files are worth listing at handover.
That is what the extending shape is for. The token names and field group conventions are in the documentation, so a module you write reads the same colour and type settings the built-in ones do.
No. You buy licences for the portals you work in, and that is the whole commercial relationship.
Yes. The directory listing waits until you have shipped something, but the licence, the staging copy and the named contact do not.
Applications open
Send the form and we will read it.
Who you are, the portal you work in, and one site you have built. Half an hour on a call after that, and we say no when it is not a fit.
No fee to join You pay for the portals you work in, and nothing else
- code The commented source and the partials
- science A staging install so client sites are not the test
- update Updates and diffs before the listing gets them
- forum A named contact while the build is happening
A licence is tied to one HubSpot portal. Staging and live are two portals.