These Service Terms (the "Terms") govern your subscription to a website service (the "Service") provided by ApeStudios LLC, a Florida limited liability company doing business as Ape Studios ("we," "us," "Ape Studios"). When you subscribe by clicking the payment button on a Stripe-hosted payment page that links to these Terms, you ("you," "Client") accept these Terms and form a binding agreement with us. If you do not agree, do not subscribe.
1. The Service
Ape Studios designs, builds, hosts, and maintains a custom website for you as a continuous subscription. We don't sell you a website; we provide it as an ongoing service for as long as you pay the monthly (or annual) fee.
What's included depends on the subscription tier you choose:
- Lite ($49/mo): Single-page custom site, hosting, SSL, daily backups, domain management, basic SEO, contact form. No included monthly edits (quarterly check-ins instead). 72-hour support response.
- Essentials ($79/mo): Everything in Lite, plus 2–4 pages and 1 quick edit request per month (up to 15 minutes — text swap, image swap, small change). 48-hour edit turnaround.
- Starter ($99/mo): Everything in Essentials, plus 4–7 pages and 2 edit requests per month (each up to 30 minutes — section tweaks, copy rewrites, photo swaps). Light copy polish included on edits. 48-hour edit turnaround.
- Growth ($199/mo): Everything in Starter, plus up to 8 pages, advanced SEO, blog or news section, newsletter signup, analytics, and 4 edit requests per month (up to 4 hours total, rollover up to 8 hrs). 24-hour edit turnaround.
- Scale ($399/mo): Everything in Growth, plus unlimited pages, custom integrations (Stripe, CRM, booking, multi-step forms), monthly 30-minute strategy call, 1 campaign landing page per quarter, and up to 8 hours of edits per month. 12-hour edit turnaround. Phone + Slack support.
Annual prepay is available at 10× the monthly fee (2 months free). Add-ons (logo refresh, brand identity, copywriting, e-commerce, multi-language, premium support) are charged separately.
We make our best effort to deliver the Service competently. We do not guarantee specific business outcomes (traffic, leads, revenue, search rankings).
2. Initial design and build
After you subscribe and the first month's fee is paid, we'll send you a brief to fill in. Once we receive your completed brief and any required content or assets, we'll deliver an initial design and build within the timeframe agreed in writing.
Each tier includes a number of design revision rounds: Lite 1, Starter 1, Growth 2, Scale 3. Additional design work beyond included rounds is billed at $100/hour.
3. 14-day satisfaction guarantee
If you reject our round-1 design and decide to terminate within 14 days of paying your first month, we will refund your first month's subscription fee in full. After 14 days, all subscription fees are non-refundable.
4. Edit requests after launch
Each tier includes a number of edit requests or hours per month, as listed in Section 1. Edits include text changes, image swaps, small section tweaks, minor styling adjustments, and similar tasks within the existing site structure.
The following are not included in monthly edits:
- New page templates or major redesigns
- New custom integrations
- Backend logic, APIs, or e-commerce setup (covered by add-ons)
- Copywriting or content creation (covered by add-on)
- Design or development for other domains or projects
If you need work outside your monthly edit allowance, you can purchase additional edit credits ($50 per edit on Lite/Starter), upgrade your tier, or commission custom work at $100/hour with a written scope.
Unused monthly edits do not carry over unless explicitly noted in tier terms (Growth: rollover up to 8 hours; others: no rollover).
5. Content, assets, and your responsibilities
You agree to:
- Provide content (text, images, brand assets) on the timeline we agree at kickoff.
- Hold or have permission for all rights in content you give us. You are responsible for ensuring your content does not infringe anyone's intellectual property, defame anyone, or violate any law.
- Respond to design feedback requests within a reasonable time so we can keep the project moving.
- Not use the Service for unlawful, abusive, or harmful purposes (see Section 9).
If you delay content delivery beyond the timeline, the launch date may shift accordingly. Your subscription billing does not pause during content delays — the Service is still being provided.
6. Subscription, billing, and renewal
- Subscriptions are billed via Stripe, monthly or annually, in advance.
- Your subscription auto-renews each billing cycle until canceled.
- Payment is due on the same calendar day each month (or year, for annual).
- You authorize us to charge your payment method on file for each renewal.
- Prices are listed in U.S. dollars. We may change prices for new clients at any time; existing subscriptions are not affected mid-term and any future increase will be communicated at least 30 days before it takes effect.
7. Cancellation
You may cancel your subscription at any time via the Stripe Customer Portal (link provided after subscription start), or by emailing hello@apestudiodesign.com with the request from the email address on file.
Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period. You will not be charged again after that.
What happens when you cancel:
- Your website remains live for 7 days after the end of the billing period ("grace period"), giving you time to back up content or arrange a buyout.
- After the grace period, the site is taken offline.
- Source code, hosting accounts, domain registrar accounts (if registered by us), and other infrastructure remain Ape Studios property unless you exercise the Buyout (Section 8).
- Content you provided (text, images, form submissions) will be exported and sent to you on request within 30 days of cancellation.
- A custom domain registered in your own name remains yours regardless.
8. Buyout option
At any time, you may purchase your website outright for a one-time fee equal to the greater of (a) 24× your then-current monthly subscription fee, or (b) $2,500 ("Buyout Fee"). The Buyout Fee is payable in full before transfer.
The Buyout includes:
- Full source code repository transfer to your control.
- Hosting account ownership transfer or full code export.
- Domain transfer (if registered in our name) at your direction.
- A 30-day handoff support window.
After Buyout, your subscription ends and you have no further obligation to us. You also forfeit all Service entitlements (edits, hosting, support) unless you start a new subscription at our then-current rates.
9. Acceptable use
You may not use the Service to:
- Violate any law or anyone's rights.
- Publish content that is defamatory, harassing, fraudulent, or infringes intellectual property.
- Send spam, malware, or phishing content.
- Host adult content, gambling, weapons sales, or other categories generally prohibited by our payment processor.
- Reverse-engineer, resell, or sublicense the Service without our written consent.
We may suspend or terminate the Service immediately if you violate this section, with no refund.
10. Intellectual property
Your property: You retain ownership of content you provide (text, images, brand assets) and any pre-existing trademarks or copyrights you owned before this agreement. We claim no rights in these.
Our property: We retain ownership of:
- The design system, code patterns, components, and templates we use across multiple clients.
- The custom website code, design files, and source materials we create for you, unless and until you exercise the Buyout (Section 8).
- Our trademarks, name, and any case study or portfolio rights (see below).
License during subscription: While your subscription is active and paid, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the website we built for your business purposes.
Portfolio rights: Unless you opt out in writing, we may include the finished website in our portfolio, case studies, and marketing materials. We will not disclose confidential business information or anything you flag as sensitive.
11. Privacy and data
Our handling of personal data is described in our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.
You are responsible for any privacy or data-protection obligations triggered by content or features on your own site (e.g., your visitors' data, cookies you set, forms you collect). We can help you meet these obligations, but the legal responsibility is yours.
12. Third-party services
The Service relies on third-party providers including but not limited to Cloudflare (hosting and DNS), Stripe (payments), and your chosen form handler and analytics provider. Their terms and uptime apply. We are not responsible for outages, data loss, or service interruptions caused by these third parties, though we will work in good faith to minimize disruption.
13. Warranties and disclaimer
We provide the Service "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE." We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or meet any specific performance, traffic, ranking, or conversion target.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
14. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law:
- Our total liability to you under or related to these Terms, in any 12-month period, will not exceed the total subscription fees you paid us in the 3 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
- We are not liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, revenue, goodwill, or data.
- These limits apply even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages, and regardless of the legal theory.
Some jurisdictions don't allow these limitations; in those, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted.
15. Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Ape Studios, its members, employees, contractors, and affiliates from any third-party claim, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from:
- Content or assets you provided.
- Your use of the Service in violation of these Terms.
- Your violation of any law or anyone's rights.
We agree to defend, indemnify, and hold you harmless from any third-party claim that our pre-existing intellectual property used in delivering the Service infringes a third party's copyright or trademark, provided you notify us promptly and let us control the defense.
16. Term and termination
- These Terms start when you subscribe and continue until your subscription ends.
- Either party may terminate by written notice. Your cancellation procedure is described in Section 7. We may terminate or suspend the Service immediately for non-payment after a 7-day grace period, material breach not cured within 14 days of written notice, or Acceptable Use violations (Section 9 — immediate, no cure period).
- Sections that by their nature should survive termination (e.g., 8 Buyout, 10 IP, 13 Warranties, 14 Liability, 15 Indemnification, 18 Governing Law) will survive.
17. Billing failures
If a scheduled payment fails:
- We will retry the charge up to 4 times over 7 days, per Stripe's standard recovery flow.
- During this 7-day window, the Service remains active and you'll receive emails from Stripe asking you to update your payment method.
- If the payment is not resolved within 7 days, we may pause the Service (replacing the live site with a maintenance page) until payment is current.
- If payment is not resolved within 30 days of the failed charge, your subscription is canceled per Section 7.
18. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.
Any dispute arising under these Terms will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Hillsborough County, Florida. Both parties consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.
If a dispute arises, the parties agree to first attempt to resolve it through good-faith negotiation for at least 30 days before filing suit.
19. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. The current version will always be posted at https://www.apestudiodesign.com/terms.html with a "Last updated" date. If a change materially reduces your rights, we will give at least 30 days' written notice (by email to the address on file). Continuing to use the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance.
20. General
- Entire agreement: These Terms (plus the Privacy Policy and any add-on order forms) are the entire agreement between us on this subject.
- No waiver: Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of the right to enforce it later.
- Severability: If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
- Assignment: You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign to a successor in a sale, merger, or reorganization.
- Notices: Notices to us go to hello@apestudiodesign.com. Notices to you go to the email address on your subscription.
- Independent contractor: We are providing the Service as an independent contractor. Nothing creates an employment, partnership, or joint-venture relationship.
How acceptance works
When you click Subscribe (or equivalent button) on a Stripe-hosted payment page that links to these Terms, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by them. The Stripe transaction record serves as evidence of acceptance.
For Scale-tier subscriptions and Buyout transactions, we may additionally require a signed copy of these Terms via e-signature; if so, that signed copy controls.
Contact
ApeStudios LLC d/b/a Ape Studios
Tampa, Florida
hello@apestudiodesign.com