# Terms of Service Last updated: September 28, 2026 These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Swade Studios website, website design and development services, website management services, hosting, the Swade Platform, Swade Editor, client portal, and other services provided by Chase William Vasel, a Missouri sole proprietor doing business as Swade Studios. By using our website, requesting or purchasing services, accepting a proposal, paying an invoice, creating an account, or using the Swade Platform, you agree to these Terms. If a signed proposal, order form, statement of work, or other written agreement between Swade and a client conflicts with these Terms, the signed agreement controls for that specific project. Our Privacy Policy separately explains how personal information is collected, used, and protected. ## 1. Our Services Swade provides website design, development, redesign, hosting, management, maintenance, content updates, technical support, and access to certain Swade software and website-management tools. The exact services included in a project are defined by the applicable proposal, order form, plan, invoice, or other written scope. Anything not included in the agreed scope is considered additional work and may require a separate quote or approval before work begins. Examples of additional work may include new pages, major redesigns, custom functionality, advanced integrations, data migration, large amounts of content entry, e-commerce development, custom code, or work beyond the limits of an active plan. ## 2. Website Projects and Ongoing Swade Plans Website development and ongoing website service are separate charges. A one-time website project covers the design and development work described in the applicable project agreement. Websites that continue to be hosted and operated through Swade must maintain an active Swade plan after launch. Swade currently offers Basic, Pro, and Elite plans. Features, managed change limits, storage, user limits, editor access, support levels, and other plan benefits are described on the current Pricing page or in the client's agreement. The pricing and features shown in a client's accepted proposal or order form control over general website descriptions. Swade may change publicly offered plans, features, or pricing from time to time. Changes will not alter a billing period that has already been paid. Existing clients will receive reasonable notice before a pricing change affecting a future renewal. ## 3. Billing and Payments Project pricing and payment schedules are provided before work begins. Recurring Swade plans are billed in advance on a recurring basis unless otherwise stated in writing. By enrolling in a recurring Swade plan, you authorize Swade and its payment processor to charge the payment method associated with your account for recurring fees until the service is canceled. Payments may be processed through third-party payment providers such as Stripe. Those providers may have their own terms and privacy policies. Applicable taxes or government-imposed charges may be added when required. If a payment becomes overdue, Swade may pause development work, managed changes, publishing, platform access, or hosting until the account is brought current. Unless required by law or expressly stated otherwise in writing, amounts paid for completed work are non-refundable. Recurring plan charges are non-refundable once the applicable billing period has begun. If a project is canceled after work has started, the client remains responsible for work already completed, approved expenses, and non-refundable third-party costs incurred for the project. ## 4. Managed Changes and Support Some Swade plans include a set number of managed change requests during each billing period. A managed change request generally means a reasonable group of related changes to an existing website, such as replacing text, updating images, adjusting existing content, changing contact information, or making other minor modifications within the site's existing structure. A managed change request does not automatically include new pages, new functionality, major layout changes, redesigns, custom integrations, large content migrations, or substantial development work. Swade may determine that a request falls outside the included managed-change scope and provide a separate quote before beginning the work. Unless otherwise stated in the client's agreement, unused managed change requests expire at the end of the applicable billing period and do not accumulate indefinitely. Support response times are targets rather than guaranteed service-level commitments unless a written agreement specifically provides a guaranteed response time. Emergency, rush, after-hours, or unusually large requests may require additional charges. ## 5. Swade Platform and Editor Access Certain plans may include access to the Swade Platform, Swade Editor, client portal, or related management tools. Platform access is licensed, not sold. Clients receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Swade tools made available to them for managing their own Swade website during the applicable service period. Access may vary by plan. Basic service may rely primarily on Swade-managed updates, while plans that include editor access may allow authorized users to modify supported website content directly. Clients are responsible for changes made through their accounts and for reviewing changes before publishing them. Swade may limit or temporarily disable platform access when reasonably necessary to protect website stability, security, infrastructure, other clients, or the Swade Platform itself. Clients may not resell, sublicense, white-label, copy, reproduce, reverse engineer, scrape, clone, distribute, or attempt to extract Swade Platform software, internal tools, templates, systems, or proprietary functionality except where expressly permitted in writing. ## 6. Client Accounts and Security Clients are responsible for protecting passwords, account credentials, administrator access, API credentials, and other sensitive information connected to their website. Account access should only be provided to authorized users. The client is responsible for activity performed through its authorized accounts unless the activity resulted directly from a security failure under Swade's control. Clients should notify Swade promptly if they believe an account or website has been compromised. ## 7. Client Responsibilities Clients are responsible for providing accurate information, content, files, feedback, approvals, credentials, and other materials reasonably necessary to complete the project. Project schedules may change when required information, approvals, payments, or materials are delayed. Clients are responsible for reviewing their website before approving publication. Clients represent that they have the necessary rights or permission to provide Swade with all text, images, logos, trademarks, videos, product information, customer information, and other materials supplied for use on the website. Clients are also responsible for the legality and accuracy of their business claims, products, services, pricing, policies, promotions, and other website content. Swade is not responsible for independently verifying every statement supplied by a client. ## 8. Content Ownership Clients retain ownership of content they provide to Swade, including their logos, photographs, videos, trademarks, written content, product information, and other client-owned materials. The client grants Swade permission to use those materials as necessary to build, host, maintain, support, and operate the client's website. After all applicable project fees are paid, rights to custom deliverables created specifically for the client are governed by the applicable project agreement. Unless expressly transferred in writing, Swade retains ownership of its underlying platform, software, website-management systems, Swade Editor, reusable components, templates, development methods, libraries, internal tools, infrastructure, processes, and other technology used across projects. A client purchasing a website does not purchase ownership of the Swade Platform itself. ## 9. Portfolio Use Unless a client requests otherwise in writing, Swade may identify the client as a customer and display publicly available portions of completed work in Swade's portfolio, sales materials, website, or social media. Confidential client information will not be intentionally published as part of portfolio use. ## 10. Domains A client's domain should remain under the client's ownership or control whenever reasonably practical. Swade may assist with registering, configuring, renewing, connecting, or transferring a domain. Domain registration and renewal fees may be charged separately unless expressly included in a service agreement. Domains are also subject to the policies, transfer restrictions, expiration rules, and technical requirements of the applicable registrar and registry. If a client leaves Swade, Swade will reasonably cooperate with the transfer of a client-owned domain once outstanding amounts relating to the applicable services have been resolved. ## 11. Hosting and Infrastructure Swade-hosted websites operate using infrastructure, software, networks, and third-party services selected by Swade. Swade uses reasonable efforts to maintain website availability, security, backups, and performance, but no hosting system can guarantee continuous or error-free operation. Temporary interruptions may occur because of scheduled maintenance, software updates, internet failures, infrastructure incidents, attacks, third-party outages, emergency maintenance, or circumstances outside Swade's reasonable control. Swade may perform maintenance or security work when reasonably necessary without obtaining advance approval for every technical change. Swade plans are intended for ordinary website usage within the resources associated with the applicable plan. Websites experiencing unusually high traffic, storage use, bandwidth use, processing requirements, e-commerce activity, or other resource-intensive workloads may require upgraded infrastructure or additional charges. Swade will normally discuss a required upgrade with the client before making a material pricing change. ## 12. Backups Swade may maintain backups as part of its hosting and operational processes. Backups are intended primarily for disaster recovery and service continuity. They are not a permanent archive and should not be treated as guaranteed long-term storage of every historical website version or deleted item. Clients should maintain independent copies of important business records, original media, product information, documents, and other materials they cannot afford to lose. ## 13. Third-Party Services and Integrations Websites may use third-party products and services such as payment processors, analytics providers, email services, scheduling platforms, social networks, maps, fonts, APIs, plugins, domain registrars, or other external systems. Those services are controlled by their respective providers and may be subject to separate fees and terms. Swade is not responsible for outages, pricing changes, discontinued features, policy changes, API changes, account restrictions, or other actions taken by independent third-party providers. If a third-party provider changes or removes functionality that requires additional development to maintain an integration, that work may be considered additional work. ## 14. E-Commerce and Payments When Swade builds or integrates e-commerce functionality, the client remains responsible for operating its business. Unless expressly agreed otherwise, Swade is not the merchant of record for a client's transactions and does not control funds processed through the client's payment provider. The client is responsible for its products and services, pricing, inventory, taxes, shipping, fulfillment, refunds, returns, disputes, chargebacks, customer-service obligations, and compliance with laws applicable to its business. Swade may provide the technical website or integration used to facilitate a transaction, but Swade does not guarantee that a customer's payment will be approved or that a transaction will not later be disputed. ## 15. Forms and Customer Information Clients may receive information from customers through contact forms, quote forms, order forms, account systems, or other website features. The client is responsible for how it uses information collected through its website and for complying with privacy, marketing, recordkeeping, consumer-protection, and data-protection requirements applicable to its business. Clients are responsible for maintaining appropriate privacy notices and obtaining legally required consent where applicable. Clients should not use standard Swade website forms to collect highly sensitive information unless Swade has specifically agreed to support that use case. ## 16. Search Engines, Marketing, and Business Results Swade may implement technical SEO, metadata, performance improvements, search-engine-friendly structure, analytics, or other optimization features when included in a project. Search engines and advertising platforms are independently controlled third-party systems. Swade does not guarantee specific rankings, website traffic, leads, revenue, conversion rates, sales, advertising results, or business performance. Statements regarding expected improvements or opportunities are estimates and should not be interpreted as guaranteed financial results. ## 17. Accessibility and Legal Compliance Swade may apply commonly used web-design, accessibility, security, privacy, and usability practices when building websites. Unless a written agreement specifically states otherwise, Swade does not provide legal advice and does not guarantee that a client's website satisfies every law, industry regulation, accessibility requirement, disclosure requirement, or compliance framework that may apply to the client's specific business. Clients operating in regulated industries are responsible for obtaining appropriate legal or professional compliance advice. ## 18. Acceptable Use Swade services may not be used to distribute malware, conduct phishing, attack or disrupt systems, send unlawful spam, violate intellectual-property rights, impersonate others, facilitate fraud, host unlawful content, interfere with Swade infrastructure, attempt unauthorized access, or otherwise use the service in violation of applicable law. Swade may investigate suspected misuse and may suspend service when reasonably necessary to protect Swade, its infrastructure, its clients, or third parties. ## 19. Suspension of Service Swade may temporarily suspend hosting, platform access, publishing, support, or other services because of overdue payment, serious security risks, unlawful activity, abusive use, excessive infrastructure usage, violation of these Terms, or other circumstances creating a material risk to Swade or its systems. When reasonably practical, Swade will attempt to provide notice and an opportunity to resolve the issue before suspension. Immediate action may be taken when necessary to address security threats, illegal activity, infrastructure abuse, or other urgent risks. ## 20. Cancellation Recurring Swade plans may be canceled according to the cancellation process made available by Swade or by contacting Swade. Unless a different arrangement appears in the client's agreement, cancellation becomes effective at the end of the current paid billing period. Cancellation stops future renewals but does not automatically refund charges from the current billing period. When an active Swade plan ends, services associated with that plan may also end, including hosting, Swade Editor access, managed changes, monitoring, maintenance, backups, and support. ## 21. If We Part Ways Leaving Swade does not mean losing ownership of your business. Clients retain their client-owned domain, branding, content, media, and other materials they supplied or otherwise own. At the client's request, Swade will reasonably assist with transferring eligible client-owned assets to another provider. Migration, export, technical assistance, DNS work, redevelopment, or other transition work beyond ordinary account closure may be billed separately. Swade's proprietary platform, CMS, Swade Editor, internal software, reusable components, infrastructure, and other Swade-owned technology are not transferred as part of cancellation unless Swade expressly agrees otherwise in writing. A website moved away from Swade may therefore require adaptation, redevelopment, or a different content-management system to operate independently. Clients should request any available exports or transfer assistance before their account data is removed. Swade is not required to retain terminated accounts or website data indefinitely after service ends. ## 22. Termination Either party may end a service relationship according to the applicable project agreement or recurring-service terms. Swade may terminate services for material breaches of these Terms, continued nonpayment, unlawful use, serious abuse, threats against Swade systems, or repeated conduct that makes continued service unreasonable. Termination does not eliminate payment obligations that arose before termination. Sections concerning ownership, intellectual property, unpaid amounts, limitations of liability, and other provisions that logically continue after termination remain effective. ## 23. Warranty Disclaimer Swade will perform its services with reasonable professional care. However, websites, software, hosting systems, networks, integrations, browsers, devices, and third-party services can contain errors or experience failures. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Swade does not guarantee that any website, software, service, or integration will always be uninterrupted, completely secure, error-free, compatible with every future device or browser, or permanently available. Swade does not guarantee any specific financial, marketing, traffic, ranking, sales, or business result. ## 24. Limitation of Liability To the maximum extent permitted by law, Swade will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, punitive, exemplary, or consequential damages, including lost profits, lost revenue, lost business opportunities, lost data, or business interruption arising from the services. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Swade's total aggregate liability relating to a claim will not exceed the amount the client paid Swade for the affected service during the twelve months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot legally be excluded or limited. ## 25. Client Indemnification To the extent permitted by law, the client agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold Swade harmless from third-party claims arising from content supplied by the client, products or services sold by the client, the client's violation of law, infringement caused by materials supplied by the client, or the client's misuse of Swade services. This section does not require the client to indemnify Swade for claims caused solely by Swade's own unlawful conduct. ## 26. Changes to These Terms Swade may update these Terms as its services, platform, business, or legal requirements change. The updated version will be posted with a revised "Last updated" date. Material changes affecting active paid services may also be communicated to affected clients when reasonably appropriate. Changes do not override a separately signed agreement unless that agreement allows the change. ## 27. Disputes Be