Terms of business

1. Who we are

These terms are between you and Primal Hosting. Our full company details are at the foot of every page.

2. When these terms apply

They apply from the point you accept a quote from us, and they continue for as long as we host your site. If we have signed a separate written agreement with you, that agreement wins where the two differ.

3. Quotes and what is included

We quote a fixed price before any work starts. The quote says what is included — how many pages, what the monthly fee covers. Anything not in the quote is not included, and we will quote separately for it rather than adding it to your bill unannounced.

A quote is valid for 30 days.

4. Prices, currency and VAT

Our published build prices are £495, £795 and £995 depending on the plan, and each includes your first year of hosting. US dollar prices are shown alongside for customers outside the UK.

UK prices exclude VAT. Your quote will show the VAT position clearly. If we are not VAT registered, no VAT is charged and the quote will say so.

We may change our published prices at any time, but never for work already quoted, and never for a monthly fee already running without at least 30 days' notice.

5. Payment

We ask for half the build price to book the work, and the balance once the site is finished and you are happy with it. Invoices are payable within 14 days.

The monthly fee starts twelve months after your site goes live and is payable monthly in advance.

If an invoice is unpaid we will chase it before doing anything else. We will not take a live site down over a payment dispute without giving you clear written warning and a reasonable chance to resolve it.

6. What we need from you

To build your site we need information and content from you — what the business does, contact details, any photographs or logos you want used, and your legal details for the footer.

We can write the words for you from a conversation, but we cannot invent facts. Accreditation numbers, company registration details, opening hours and prices must come from you and must be accurate.

By sending us content you confirm you have the right to use it. We are not able to check whether a photograph you send us is licensed.

7. Timescales

We will give you a realistic date when we quote. Delays are almost always caused by waiting for content, so the date assumes you send us what we have asked for.

If you go quiet for more than 60 days on a project that has started, we may invoice for the work done to that point and close the project. You can restart later.

8. Changes after launch

Your plan includes a level of ongoing changes. A small change means one we can make in a short sitting — updating text, swapping a photograph, changing opening hours or prices, adding a testimonial.

As a rule of thumb a small change is one we can make in under half an hour. Plans that include unlimited small changes are offered in good faith and on fair use — if a request is going to take materially longer, we will say so and quote for it before starting, not afterwards on an invoice.

New pages, new sections, restructuring or redesign are not small changes. We will quote for those before doing them.

9. Who owns what

You own your website. On full payment, the design and content of your site are yours.

You own your domain name. We register it in your name, not ours. If we manage it for you, it is still yours and we will transfer control on request.

You own your content. The words and images you gave us remain yours.

We keep ownership of the underlying tools, templates and code libraries we use to build sites, and of anything we build for our own reuse. You have a licence to use those as part of your site for as long as you like, including after you leave us. We may show your site in our portfolio unless you ask us not to.

10. Hosting and the monthly fee

Your first year of hosting is included in the build price. Twelve months after your site goes live, a monthly fee begins — £30, £40 or £50 depending on your plan, or the dollar equivalent. We will tell you before it starts, not after.

The monthly fee covers hosting, software updates, security patching and backups. We aim for continuous availability but do not guarantee it — no honest host does. Planned maintenance will be notified in advance where we can.

Backups are taken regularly and kept for 30 days on a rolling basis Backups are a safety net for our infrastructure, not a substitute for you keeping your own copies of content that matters to you.

11. Ending the arrangement

You can stop the monthly fee by giving us 30 days' notice in writing. There is no exit fee and no minimum term beyond that notice.

When you leave, we will give you everything needed to move the site elsewhere: the site files, the database, and control of the domain. We will not hold your website hostage over a disagreement.

After you leave we keep your site files and database for 30 days in case you need anything recovered, then delete them. Records we are required to keep for tax purposes are held for 6 years, as set out in our privacy notice.

We may end the arrangement with 30 days' notice, or immediately if the site is being used unlawfully.

12. What we are responsible for

We are responsible for doing our work with reasonable care and skill. If we get something wrong, tell us and we will put it right.

We are not responsible for losses we could not reasonably have foreseen, for lost profits or lost business, or for content you supplied. Our total liability in any 12-month period is limited to the amount you paid us in that period.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

13. Cancelling

These are business-to-business terms, and the statutory cancellation rights that apply to consumers generally do not apply to a business buying a business website.

If you are buying as an individual rather than for a business, you may have a statutory right to cancel within 14 days. Tell us and we will honour it.

TODO — worth confirming with a solicitor whether any of your customers could be consumers for this purpose. The sentence above is deliberately generous so that a borderline case is covered.

14. If there is a dispute

Talk to us first. Most things are a misunderstanding and get sorted in a phone call.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. Changes do not apply retrospectively to work already quoted or agreed. If a change affects an ongoing arrangement we will give you 30 days' notice.