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Terms & privacy.

The whole agreement between Websly and the businesses we build for, in plain English, with a summary at the top so nobody has to read all of it to know where they stand.

Version 1.0 · in force from 11 August 2026 · applies to all Websly design, build and care plans.

The short version

This summary is here so nobody has to read twelve pages to know where they stand. It is a guide only. If it ever disagrees with the numbered terms below, the numbered terms are the ones that count.

  • You pay a one-off setup fee and a monthly fee. The monthly fee covers hosting, security, backups, monitoring, support and the small changes you ask for.
  • Your domain, your photographs and your words stay yours from day one and at every point after it.
  • The website we design and build becomes yours after 24 months of continuous, fully paid service. Before that point it remains ours, and we are not obliged to transfer it, export it or hand over its code.
  • The toolkit the sites are built on stays ours permanently. When your site transfers to you, you get a licence to keep running it, not ownership of the underlying platform.
  • We do not promise rankings, traffic, enquiries or revenue. No one honestly can, and anyone who does is selling you something else.
  • Either of us can bring the arrangement to an end. The notice periods are in section 6, and what happens afterwards is in section 16.

Contents

  1. Who this agreement is between
  2. Accepting these terms
  3. What we provide
  4. Fees and payment
  5. Changes to prices
  6. Length of the agreement and notice
  7. Ownership of your website
  8. The Websly platform
  9. What we need from you
  10. Your content, and your promise to us
  11. Design rounds, approval and changes
  12. Hosting, availability and other people's services
  13. What we do not promise
  14. Support and response times
  15. Suspending the service
  16. Ending the agreement, and what happens next
  17. Our liability to you
  18. Data protection
  19. Confidentiality
  20. Showing the work
  21. Things outside anyone's control
  22. Changes to these terms
  23. General
  24. Law and courts
  25. How to reach us

Who this agreement is between

Websly on one side, your business on the other.

  1. "Websly", "we", "us" and "our" mean Websly, a web design practice operating from London, United Kingdom, and any company through which it trades from time to time.
  2. "You" and "your" mean the business, organisation, partnership, sole trader or individual named on the order, invoice or sign-up form for a Websly plan.
  3. "Services" means everything set out in section 3. "Site" means the website we design, build or maintain for you. "Plan" means the tier you have signed up to, as described on our pricing page at the time you signed up.
  4. You confirm that you are entering into this agreement for the purposes of a business, trade, craft or profession, and not as a consumer.

Accepting these terms

Paying us, or asking us to start, means these terms apply.

  1. These terms apply as soon as the earliest of the following happens: you accept a quote or proposal, you pay a setup fee or a monthly fee, you sign up through our website, or you ask us in writing to begin work.
  2. These terms apply to the exclusion of any terms you put forward, including any printed on your own purchase orders or supplier forms, unless we have agreed otherwise in a document signed by us.
  3. Where a written proposal, statement of work or order form conflicts with these terms, that document takes priority for the specific point it covers, and these terms govern everything else.
  4. Nothing said in conversation, on a call or in a marketing page forms part of this agreement unless it is repeated in writing and confirmed by us.

What we provide

Design, build, hosting and care, at the level your plan describes.

  1. We will design and build a website for your business, then host it, keep it patched and backed up, monitor it, and make the changes your plan includes.
  2. What is included depends on your plan. Page counts, feature sets, backup frequency, support response times and anything else specific to a tier are as described on our pricing page on the date you signed up.
  3. Add-on services, such as branding work or social media management, are provided only where you have separately ordered them and are billed in addition to your plan.
  4. We may improve, change or replace the technical components behind the Services at any time, provided we do not materially reduce what your plan gives you.
  5. We provide the Services with reasonable care and skill. We may use subcontractors and freelancers, and we remain responsible to you for work they do on our behalf.

Fees and payment

A setup fee up front, then a monthly fee by direct debit or card. Late payment has consequences.

  1. The setup fee is payable before design work begins, unless we have agreed a payment schedule in writing. The setup fee covers the design and build work and is non-refundable once design work has started.
  2. The monthly fee is payable monthly in advance, by the payment method you have set up, from the date we agree or the date your Site goes live, whichever we have stated.
  3. All fees are exclusive of VAT, which we will add where it applies.
  4. Fees for add-on services are payable as stated when you order them. Social media and other recurring add-ons are billed monthly in advance alongside your plan.
  5. If a payment fails or is not made on the due date, we may charge interest on the overdue sum at 4% per year above the Bank of England base rate, accruing daily, together with our reasonable costs of recovering the debt. Where the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 applies, our rights under that Act apply instead if they are greater.
  6. You must pay all sums due in full without set-off, counterclaim, deduction or withholding, except any deduction required by law.
  7. Where a discount, introductory rate or promotional price has been applied, it applies for the period stated and the standard rate applies afterwards.

Changes to prices

We can change prices with a month's notice. You can leave if you do not like it.

  1. We may change our fees by giving you at least 30 days' written notice, and not more than once in any 12-month period except where a change is caused by a supplier, tax or regulatory increase outside our control.
  2. If you do not accept a price change, you may end the agreement by giving written notice before the new price takes effect, subject to the minimum term in section 6.
  3. Continuing to pay after a price change takes effect is acceptance of the new price.

Length of the agreement and notice

Twelve months to begin with, then rolling monthly. One month's notice either way.

  1. The agreement runs for an initial term of 12 months from the date your Site goes live, or from the date of your first monthly payment if that is earlier.
  2. After the initial term the agreement continues on a rolling monthly basis until either of us ends it.
  3. You may end the agreement at the end of the initial term, or at any time afterwards, by giving us at least 30 days' written notice. We may end it on the same basis.
  4. If you end the agreement during the initial term, or if we end it during the initial term because of something you have done or failed to do, the remaining monthly fees for the initial term become immediately payable. This reflects the fact that the setup fee alone does not cover the cost of designing and building the Site: the first year of monthly fees is part of that price.
  5. Notice must be given in writing to the email address in section 25. Notice takes effect on the next working day after it is received.

Ownership of your website

Your content is always yours. The Site itself becomes yours after 24 fully paid months, and not before.

  1. Your material stays yours throughout. Your domain name, your business name and trade marks, your photographs, your logo where you supplied it, your written content, your customer data and your business records belong to you at all times, and nothing in this agreement transfers them to us.
  2. Until the transfer condition is met, everything we create stays ours. All intellectual property rights in the design, layout, artwork, code, templates, configuration and any other material we produce for the Site are owned by us and are licensed to you, not sold, for as long as you are on a paid plan and in good standing.
  3. The transfer condition is met when both of the following are true: you have received the Services continuously for at least 24 months from the date the Site went live, and every sum owed to us has been paid in full.
  4. Once the transfer condition is met, we assign to you the intellectual property rights in the bespoke design and bespoke code created specifically for your Site, subject to section 8. We will confirm this in writing on request.
  5. If the transfer condition is not met, no transfer takes place. Where the agreement ends before the transfer condition is met, for any reason, you have no right to the design or the code, and we are under no obligation to transfer, export, copy, migrate, package or hand over the Site, its files, its database, its theme, its configuration or its source code, and no obligation to assist any other supplier in reproducing it. Your licence to use the Site ends on the same date and we may take the Site offline.
  6. For the avoidance of doubt, we will always release your own material under 7.1 on request, in a commonly used format, at no charge, whether or not the transfer condition has been met.
  7. Where the Site includes third-party components, fonts, images or plugins, those remain owned by their licensors and reach you on their own licence terms, not ours.
  8. We may charge a reasonable fee, agreed in advance, for migration work, file preparation or technical assistance requested after the agreement has ended.

The Websly platform

The reusable toolkit behind every Websly site stays ours, permanently. You get a licence to keep running your site on it.

  1. The Services are built on a platform we own and reuse across clients: our parent theme and framework, our plugins and modules, our component library, our design system, our build tooling, our dashboards, and our know-how, methods and processes, together with any improvements to them. This is the Platform.
  2. The Platform is not part of what transfers to you under section 7 and is never sold, assigned or exclusively licensed to you, before or after the transfer condition is met.
  3. Once the transfer condition is met, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, perpetual, worldwide licence to continue running the Platform components already installed on your Site, on that Site only, for your own business purposes. That licence does not include the right to resell, sublicense, distribute, publish, or use those components on any other website.
  4. Nothing in this agreement restricts us from reusing our general skills, knowledge, techniques, code libraries or design patterns on work for anyone else, including businesses in the same trade or area as you.
  5. We are not required to provide updates, security patches or support for Platform components after the agreement ends.

What we need from you

Content, access, decisions and answers, in reasonable time.

  1. You will give us the content, photographs, brand assets, information and access we reasonably need, in a usable format, and will keep them accurate and up to date.
  2. You will respond to requests for approval, feedback or information within a reasonable time, and will nominate one person with authority to approve work on your behalf.
  3. You will keep your account details, payment method and contact details current, and will keep any login credentials we issue confidential.
  4. Where a project stalls because we are waiting on you, our timescales pause. If we are waiting on you for more than 60 days, we may treat the build as complete and delivered, begin billing the monthly fee, and charge a reasonable restart fee when you are ready to continue.
  5. You are responsible for anything done through your account, and for any changes you or anyone you authorise makes to the Site. We are not responsible for problems caused by changes we did not make, and may charge at our standard rate to put them right.

Your content, and your promise to us

You are responsible for what goes on your site, and you cover us if it causes a problem.

  1. You confirm that you own, or have permission to use, everything you give us, and that our using it as intended will not infringe anyone's rights or break any law.
  2. You will not use the Services for anything unlawful, misleading, defamatory, obscene, infringing or harmful, for unsolicited marketing, or for anything that could damage our reputation or our infrastructure.
  3. You are responsible for making sure your Site's content, claims, pricing and legal pages comply with the law that applies to your business, including advertising, consumer, professional and data protection rules. We do not check your content for legal compliance and any comment we make on it is not legal advice.
  4. You will indemnify us against all losses, damages, liabilities, claims, fines, costs and reasonable legal expenses that we incur arising from your content, your use of the Services, your breach of this agreement, or any claim that material you supplied infringes a third party's rights.
  5. We may remove or refuse to publish anything we reasonably consider to be in breach of this section, and will tell you when we do.

Design rounds, approval and changes

Your plan includes a set amount of design work. Approval means approval.

  1. Your plan includes the number of design directions and revision rounds described for that plan when you signed up. Additional rounds, changes of direction after approval, and work outside the agreed scope are chargeable at our standard rate, quoted in advance.
  2. Approval may be given in writing, by email, in a shared document, or by clear conduct such as asking us to proceed to build. Once a design is approved, later changes to it are treated as new work.
  3. Timescales we give are estimates made in good faith and run from the date we have everything we need from you. They are not conditions of this agreement and time is not of the essence.
  4. Small content changes included in your plan means changes of a size and frequency reasonably expected on a small-business website. New pages, new features, restructuring, integrations and redesigns are new work.

Hosting, availability and other people's services

We work hard to keep your site up. We cannot guarantee it, and we are not responsible for suppliers we do not control.

  1. We will use reasonable endeavours to keep the Site available, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation and we do not offer a contractual uptime commitment unless one is stated in writing in your plan.
  2. The Services depend on third parties, including hosting providers, domain registrars, certificate authorities, payment processors, email providers, search engines, social platforms, mapping and review services. We are not liable for their acts, omissions, outages, pricing, policy changes, suspensions or withdrawal of service.
  3. Third-party services reach you subject to their own terms, and you are responsible for complying with those terms where you hold the account.
  4. We may carry out maintenance that briefly interrupts the Site, and will give notice where it is practical to do so.
  5. We take backups at the frequency stated in your plan. Backups are a recovery aid, not an archive, and you remain responsible for keeping your own copies of anything you cannot afford to lose.

What we do not promise

A good website helps. It is not a guarantee of customers.

  1. We do not warrant or guarantee any search engine ranking, position, indexing outcome, visitor numbers, enquiries, bookings, conversions, sales or revenue, and nothing we say about search, marketing or performance is a promise of a result.
  2. Search engines, social platforms and directories change their rules and algorithms without notice. Effects on your visibility that come from those changes are not a failure of the Services.
  3. Any figures, examples, timescales, case studies or projections we show are illustrative only and are not commitments.
  4. We do not provide legal, accounting, tax or regulatory advice, and you should not rely on us for it.
  5. Except as expressly set out in this agreement, all warranties, conditions and terms implied by statute or common law are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Support and response times

Email us. We reply quickly, within working hours.

  1. Support is provided by email during our working hours, which are 9am to 6pm UK time, Monday to Friday, excluding English public holidays.
  2. Response targets stated for your plan are targets, not guarantees, and are measured in working hours.
  3. Support covers the Services we provide. It does not cover training on third-party software, work on systems we did not build, or fixing problems caused by changes we did not make.

Suspending the service

If payment stops or the terms are broken, the site can be paused.

  1. We may suspend the Services, in whole or in part, if a payment is more than 14 days overdue, if you are in breach of this agreement, if we are required to by law, or if we reasonably believe continuing would expose us or others to legal or security risk.
  2. We will give you notice before suspending for non-payment wherever it is practical to do so, and will restore the Services promptly once the cause is resolved.
  3. Suspension does not pause your obligation to pay, and we may charge a reasonable reinstatement fee.

Ending the agreement, and what happens next

Either of us can stop. What you take with you depends on section 7.

  1. Either of us may end this agreement on notice under section 6.
  2. We may end this agreement immediately, by written notice, if you fail to pay a sum that remains overdue 14 days after a written reminder, if you commit a material breach that is not put right within 14 days of being asked, if you become insolvent or a similar event occurs, or if your conduct towards us or our people is abusive.
  3. On the agreement ending: all sums owed become immediately due; your licence to use anything we own ends; we may take the Site offline; and we may delete your data and backups after 30 days.
  4. What happens to the Site is governed by section 7. If the transfer condition has been met, the Site is yours and we will co-operate reasonably with a handover. If it has not been met, no transfer takes place.
  5. We will always release your own material under 7.1 and 7.6, and will not withhold your domain name.
  6. Sections 4, 7, 8, 10, 13, 17, 18, 19, 23 and 24 survive the end of this agreement, along with any other provision that by its nature is intended to.

Our liability to you

There are limits on what we can be liable for, and a cap on the amount. Some things cannot be limited, and we do not try to.

  1. Nothing in this agreement limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.
  2. Subject to 17.1, we are not liable for: loss of profit, loss of sales, loss of business, loss of revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss of contract, loss of goodwill or reputation, loss of or corruption of data, wasted expenditure, or any indirect or consequential loss, however it arises and whether or not it was foreseeable.
  3. Subject to 17.1, our total liability to you for all claims arising in any 12-month period, whether in contract, tort including negligence, breach of statutory duty or otherwise, is limited to the total fees you actually paid us in the 12 months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim.
  4. We are not liable for loss or damage caused by your breach of this agreement, by content or instructions you supplied, by changes made by you or anyone you authorised, or by third-party services under section 12.
  5. You must notify us of any claim within six months of becoming aware of the circumstances giving rise to it, after which the claim is waived.
  6. These limits are reasonable given the fees charged, and you accept that you are able to insure against the risks that fall outside them.

Data protection

Your customers' data is yours. We handle it on your instructions and keep it secure.

  1. Where we handle personal data collected through your Site, you are the controller and we are the processor, and we will process that data only on your documented instructions and as needed to provide the Services.
  2. We will apply appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, keep it confidential, assist you with data subject requests and security incidents so far as is reasonable, and delete or return it when the agreement ends, subject to any legal retention requirement.
  3. We may use sub-processors, including hosting and email providers, and remain responsible for their performance of these obligations. We will tell you of any intended change to our sub-processors and you may reasonably object.
  4. Each of us will comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 in performing this agreement. You are responsible for your own privacy notice, cookie consent and lawful basis for processing.
  5. We process your own business contact and billing details as a controller, in line with our privacy policy.

Confidentiality

What you tell us in confidence stays confidential, and the same applies to us.

  1. Each of us will keep the other's confidential information confidential, use it only to perform this agreement, and share it only with people who need it and are under equivalent obligations.
  2. This does not apply to information that is public through no fault of the recipient, was already known, is independently developed, or must be disclosed by law or a regulator.
  3. Our pricing, proposals, methods and the contents of the Platform are our confidential information.

Showing the work

We would like to show your site in our portfolio. Tell us if you would rather we did not.

  1. You grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display the Site, screenshots of it, and your business name and logo, in our portfolio, case studies, social media and marketing, and to describe the work at a general level.
  2. You may withdraw that permission at any time by writing to us, and we will remove the material from our own channels within a reasonable time. We are not required to recall printed material or content already published elsewhere.
  3. We may place a small, discreet credit and a link to our website in the footer of the Site while you are on a paid plan. You may ask us to remove it and we will not unreasonably refuse.

Things outside anyone's control

Neither of us is at fault for events nobody could prevent.

  1. Neither of us is liable for failing to perform, or for delay in performing, because of an event beyond our reasonable control, including power or network failure, hosting or supplier failure, cyber attack, fire, flood, epidemic, industrial action, war, terrorism, or an act of government.
  2. If such an event continues for more than 60 days, either of us may end the agreement on written notice without further liability, except for sums already due.

Changes to these terms

We can update these terms with notice. Big changes let you leave.

  1. We may change these terms by giving you at least 30 days' written notice, or by posting the updated terms and telling you where to find them.
  2. If a change materially reduces your rights, you may end the agreement by written notice before it takes effect, subject to section 6.
  3. Continuing to use the Services after a change takes effect is acceptance of the updated terms.
  4. The version and date at the top of this page identify the terms currently in force.

General

The usual legal housekeeping.

  1. Entire agreement. This agreement, together with any written proposal or order form, is the whole agreement between us and replaces anything said or written before it. Neither of us relies on any statement not set out in it. This does not limit liability for fraudulent misrepresentation.
  2. Severance. If any provision is found to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable, it is to be treated as modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid, or if that is not possible, deleted. The rest of the agreement continues in full force.
  3. Waiver. A delay or failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of it, and does not prevent enforcement later.
  4. Assignment. You may not assign, transfer or subcontract this agreement without our written consent. We may assign or transfer it, including to a company we form or acquire, on written notice to you.
  5. Third parties. Nobody other than you and us has any right to enforce any term of this agreement under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
  6. Relationship. Nothing in this agreement creates a partnership, joint venture or employment relationship, and neither of us may bind the other.
  7. Notices. Written notice may be given by email to the address in section 25 or to the email address on your account, and is treated as received on the next working day.

Law and courts

English law, English courts.

  1. This agreement, and any dispute or claim arising out of it or its subject matter, is governed by the law of England and Wales.
  2. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any such dispute or claim.
  3. Before starting court proceedings, we each agree to attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute by discussion for at least 21 days. This does not prevent either of us from seeking urgent injunctive relief.

How to reach us

One address, and a real person on the other end.

  1. Questions about these terms, notices under this agreement and requests for your material under section 7 should all go to hello@websly.co.uk.
  2. Websly, London, United Kingdom. Our full registered address is available on request and appears on every invoice.

A note on the summary. The plain-English lines under each heading are there to help you understand the clause quickly. They are a guide, not the term itself. Where a summary and the numbered wording differ, the numbered wording applies.

Placeholder to replace before launch. The registered company name, company number, registered office and VAT number need to be filled in throughout, and these terms should be reviewed by a solicitor before they are relied on.

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