The deal,
in plain words.

Last updated 24 September 2026

These are the terms you are agreeing to if you hire me. I have written them to be read rather than skimmed and ignored. If something here seems unfair, say so before you accept a quote and we will sort it out.

The short version. Every job is quoted in writing before it starts, and you pay what the quote says. What I build is yours. Ongoing care is optional, monthly, and has no minimum term. Nobody is locked in.

Who this is between
How work is agreed
What is not included
What it costs
Billing and late payment
Who owns the work
Your domain and hosting
Search visibility, honestly
What I need from you
Your content and the law
Uptime and mistakes
Ending it
Limits on liability
Changes to these terms
Governing law
Contact

1. Who this is between

These terms are between you, the business hiring me, and Rest Services, which is me. When they say "I" or "me" they mean Rest Services. When they say "you" they mean your business and anyone you authorise to act for it.

[LEGAL ENTITY] If you trade under a registered company or LLC rather than your own name, put the registered name and registration number here.

2. How work is agreed

Every piece of work starts with a written quote. The quote says what I will do, what it costs and roughly how long it will take. Nothing starts until you have accepted it, and the quote together with these terms is our agreement for that job.

The work can be any of the following, alone or together:

Websites and web applications, designed and built to order.
SEO and search visibility, including audits, fixes, and Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Hosting and infrastructure, including domains, DNS, certificates, servers and deployments.
Automation and integrations between the tools your business uses.
Ongoing care, which is a monthly arrangement to keep any of the above running.

3. What is not included

A quote covers what it says and nothing else. Unless a quote says otherwise, it does not include:

Paid advertising, and the ad spend itself.
Writing long form content such as ongoing articles.
Photography, video and custom illustration.
Software licences and paid services that your project needs and that I have to buy on your behalf.
Managing your Google Business Profile.

If something falls outside the quote, I will tell you what it costs before I start rather than putting it on a later invoice.

4. What it costs

Projects cost what the accepted quote says. Ongoing care costs the monthly fee in its quote. There is no hourly billing on top and no invoice you have not seen coming.

If the job changes once it has started, because you want something added or something turns out to be bigger than either of us expected, I will tell you what the change costs and wait for your go ahead before doing it.

I can change the fee for ongoing care in future, but not without warning. You get at least [NOTICE PERIOD, for example 30 days] written notice before a new fee takes effect, and you can end the care arrangement instead of accepting it.

5. Billing and late payment

[BILLING TERMS] Fill in whether projects take a deposit and how much, when the rest is invoiced (on completion, or in stages), when payment is due, what payment methods you accept, and which day of the month ongoing care is billed. This is the section clients will argue about, so make it specific.

If an invoice goes unpaid I will chase it before I do anything else. If it stays unpaid I may pause the work and, for anything I host, eventually take it offline. I will always warn you in writing first and give you a chance to fix it. I will not delete anything without telling you.

[REFUNDS] Say whether deposits are refundable, what is owed if a project is cancelled part way through, and whether a part used month of ongoing care is refunded.

6. Who owns the work

What I build for you is yours. The design, the pages, the words and the configuration belong to you, and that does not change if you stop being a client.

What stays mine is the general tooling, code patterns and components I reuse across every client. You are not buying exclusive rights to the underlying toolkit, and you do not need them.

Anything you give me, being your logo, your photos, your text and your brand, stays yours throughout. I only use it to do the work you hired me for.

7. Your domain and hosting

If I handle your domain, DNS, certificates or hosting, that is a convenience, not a claim of ownership.

The domain is yours. If you leave, I will transfer it to you or to whoever you nominate, and I will not hold it hostage to settle a disagreement. Registry rules sometimes impose waiting periods on transfers and I cannot override those.

8. Search visibility, honestly

I will do the work properly: technical setup, Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, fixing what they flag, and the on page work that helps you rank for what your customers actually type.

I cannot promise a position. Nobody can, and anybody who does is either guessing or lying. Google and Bing decide rankings, they change how they decide regularly, and your competitors are working on it too. What I promise is the work and a straight account of what it is doing, not a number.

9. What I need from you

The work stalls without you, so, briefly: answer when I ask you something, give me the content and access I need, and tell me promptly if something is wrong. If I cannot reach you for a long stretch the work pauses, and any timeline in the quote moves with it.

10. Your content and the law

You are responsible for what goes on your site and through your systems. By giving me content you confirm you have the right to use it and that it does not break any law or anybody else's rights.

I will not knowingly build or host anything illegal, deceptive or designed to harm people. If I find out that is what the work is for, I will stop and end the arrangement.

11. Uptime and mistakes

For anything I host, I will keep it up and fix things quickly when they break. I am not promising a percentage, because a one person business promising four nines is not being straight with you. Servers fail, providers have outages and certificates occasionally misbehave. When that happens I fix it and tell you what happened.

I keep backups so a bad day does not become a lost website.

12. Ending it

Ongoing care has no minimum term and no exit fee. You can stop whenever you want.

[NOTICE PERIOD] Say how much notice you want to end ongoing care, for example 30 days before the next billing date, and whether the final month is charged in full.

When anything ends I will hand over your files and transfer your domain to you. If you want to move elsewhere I will help your new developer rather than make it difficult.

I can also end an arrangement, with the same notice, if the working relationship is not working, if invoices go unpaid, or if I am asked to do something I am not willing to do. I will explain why and I will not leave you stranded without your files.

13. Limits on liability

If I get something badly wrong and it costs you money, my liability is limited to the fees you paid me in the twelve months before the problem. I am not liable for indirect losses such as lost profits or lost business opportunities.

That is a normal limit for work of this size. It is not a way of avoiding responsibility for doing the job properly, and it does not limit anything that the law says cannot be limited.

14. Changes to these terms

If I update these terms I will change the date at the top. If a change materially affects you as a current client, I will tell you directly rather than expect you to check this page. Work already quoted stays under the terms it was quoted on.

15. Governing law

[GOVERNING LAW] Name the state whose law applies and where disputes would be handled. This should be where you actually are, and it is worth getting right before a dispute rather than during one.

16. Contact

Questions about any of this go to rest@rest.ac, or through the quote form. Ask before you accept a quote rather than after.

The deal,in plain words.