Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and Nilewright LLC (“Nilewright,” “we,” “us”) and govern your use of nilewright.com, the Nilewright client portal, and our website design, hosting and care services (the “Services”). By using the Services you agree to these Terms. If you are a client, your signed Website Design & Care Agreement (the “Client Agreement”) also applies and controls if it conflicts with these Terms.

1. Our services

We design and build websites for businesses and then host, secure, back up, monitor and maintain them under a monthly or yearly care plan. Current packages and prices are shown on our pricing page:

• Starter build ($600): a one-page website built on our layout system and styled to your brand, with one round of revisions, handed over to you at launch with its source code, set up on free hosting in your name, and covered by 30 days of free fixes. No monthly fee is required. Afterward, hosting, updates, backups and security are your responsibility unless you add Basic Hosting ($19/month) or a care plan; changes are billed at $75/hour. If you upgrade to a Custom build within 6 months of launch, the Starter fee you paid is credited in full.
• Custom build ($1,000): a website designed from scratch with up to five pages or sections and two rounds of revisions, which includes a care plan.
• Care plans: hosting, security updates, backups, monitoring, customer insights, support and the number of edits included in the plan you choose.

Work outside your package, such as extra pages, features, integrations or revision rounds, is quoted in writing and starts only after you approve the quote.

2. Who may use the Services

The Services are for businesses and organizations. You must be at least 18 and able to enter a binding contract, and if you act for a business, you confirm you are authorized to bind it.

3. Accounts and security

Client portal accounts are for our clients and their authorized staff. Keep your login private, use a strong unique password, and tell us right away at hello@nilewright.com if you suspect unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity under your account. We may require additional sign-in steps to protect accounts.

4. Fees, payment and taxes

• Website builds are paid 50% when you accept the Client Agreement and 50% at launch.
• If you cancel before we begin design work, we refund the build deposit in full. After design work begins, the deposit is non-refundable because it pays for work already performed.
• Care plans are billed in advance each month or year, starting at launch.
• Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. By adding a payment method, you authorize us, through Stripe, to charge it for amounts due under your package and these Terms.
• Prices do not include sales or similar taxes. Where Maryland or other law requires tax on our services, it is added to your invoice and shown before you pay.
• Domain names are billed at our cost.

5. Automatic renewal and cancellation

• Care plans renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or yearly) at the price you agreed to, plus applicable taxes, until you cancel.
• You agree to automatic renewal separately and clearly before your first charge, and we email you a confirmation that includes how to cancel.
• You may cancel at any time online in your client portal (Billing → Cancel plan) or by emailing hello@nilewright.com. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, with no cancellation fee. Fees already paid for the current period are not refunded except where the law requires.
• For yearly plans, we email you a reminder before each renewal.
• We give at least 30 days’ email notice before any price change, and you may cancel before it takes effect.

6. Late payments and pausing a website

If a payment fails, we notify you and retry. We send a reminder 3 days after the due date and a written final notice 7 days after the due date stating the date your website will be paused, at least 7 days later. If the balance is still unpaid on that date, we may pause the website, which then shows a neutral “temporarily unavailable” page that does not mention payment. We never delete your website or data while it is paused, and we restore it promptly once the balance is paid. We may end the care plan if a balance remains unpaid 30 days after a pause.

7. Ownership

• Your content (text, photos, logos, trademarks and other material you provide) stays yours. You give us a limited license to use it only to provide the Services.
• Your website: once the build fee is paid in full, you own the design and content we created specifically for you, and we assign our rights in them to you.
• Our tools: we keep ownership of our pre-existing and general-purpose code, layout systems, components and know-how, and grant you a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use them as part of your website, including after you leave us.
• Your domain is registered in your name, so you are its legal owner. If you already own a domain, you keep it; we only connect it. We manage the technical settings while you are a client and help you move it if you leave.
• Portfolio: we may show your website in our portfolio and marketing unless you ask us not to.

8. Your content and your business

You are responsible for your content and for your products, services, prices and claims, and for complying with the laws that apply to your business and industry, including licensing, advertising, consumer-protection, age-restriction, product-warning and privacy rules, and any notices or consents required for tools you ask us to add to your website. You confirm you own or have permission to use everything you give us to publish, and that it does not infringe anyone’s rights. We may decline to publish content we reasonably believe is unlawful or infringing.

9. Acceptable use

You may not use the Services to: publish unlawful, fraudulent, deceptive, defamatory, hateful or infringing content; sell illegal goods or services; distribute malware or phishing; send spam; collect others’ information without proper notice and consent; interfere with or try to break into our systems, accounts or other clients’ websites; or resell the Services without our written permission. We may suspend a website that violates this section or puts our systems or others at risk, and will tell you why.

10. Copyright complaints

We respect intellectual property rights. If you believe material on a website we host infringes your copyright, send a notice to hello@nilewright.com including: your contact information; identification of the copyrighted work; the location (URL) of the material; a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized; a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner; and your physical or electronic signature. We will respond to valid notices as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides, including removing or disabling access to infringing material and, in appropriate circumstances, ending service for repeat infringers. Clients may submit counter-notices as the law allows.

11. Third-party services

The Services rely on and may connect to third-party services, such as hosting, payment processing, email delivery, maps, booking or ordering tools. Their own terms and privacy policies apply to your use of them. We choose reputable providers but are not responsible for their acts or outages.

12. Availability, backups and changes

We work to keep websites online and fast and take regular backups, but we cannot guarantee uninterrupted or error-free service; outages at providers or on the internet can occur. We may improve or change the Services, and we will not reduce the core features of your plan during a paid period without your agreement.

13. Ending service

You may stop using the Services at any time as described in Section 5. We may end service on written notice if you materially breach these Terms or the Client Agreement and do not fix the breach within 15 days of notice, or immediately for serious violations of Section 9. When service ends for any reason, we keep your website files and content for 90 days, give you a complete copy on request at no charge, and help move your domain; then we delete them, except records the law requires us to keep. Sections 7, 8, 14–18 survive the end of service.

14. Warranties and disclaimers

We will perform the Services in a professional and workmanlike manner consistent with generally accepted industry standards. Except for that promise and as required by law, the Services are provided “as is” and “as available,” and we disclaim all other warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not guarantee search rankings, traffic, sales or other business results.

15. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows: (a) neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue or data, even if advised of the possibility; and (b) each party’s total liability for all claims relating to the Services is limited to the amounts you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. These limits do not apply to your payment obligations, a party’s indemnity obligations, or liability that cannot be limited by law, such as for fraud or willful misconduct.

16. Indemnity

You will defend and indemnify us against third-party claims arising from your content, your products and services, or your violation of law or of these Terms. We will defend and indemnify you against third-party claims that material we created for you (excluding your content and third-party materials you chose) infringes a U.S. copyright.

17. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Before filing any claim, each party agrees to try to resolve the dispute informally by written notice and good-faith discussion for at least 30 days. If that does not resolve it, claims must be brought in the state or federal courts located in Maryland, and both parties consent to their jurisdiction; either party may instead bring an eligible claim in small claims court.

18. General

• Entire agreement: these Terms, the Client Agreement and our Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us about the Services.
• Changes to these Terms: we will post changes here and update the date above; for material changes we will email clients at least 30 days before they take effect.
• Electronic communications: you agree to receive notices and records electronically, and electronic acceptance has the same effect as a handwritten signature.
• Force majeure: neither party is responsible for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control, other than payment obligations.
• Assignment: you may not transfer these Terms without our consent, except to a buyer of your business; we may transfer them to a successor of our business with notice.
• Severability and waiver: if any part is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect; not enforcing a right is not a waiver of it.
• Independent parties: we are independent contractors; nothing here creates a partnership or employment relationship.
• Language: we may explain these Terms in Amharic as a courtesy; the English version controls.

19. Contact

Nilewright LLC · Laurel, Maryland · hello@nilewright.com