Terms of service

Section 1Who you are contracting with

Deftly is the trading name we use. When these terms say we, us or Deftly, this is the business you are contracting with:

Email is the best way to reach us and the fastest way to get an answer. We aim to reply to every email within one working day.

Section 2What we do for you

We build you a website, put it on your own domain name, host it, and keep it running. In return you pay us a monthly subscription. There is no contract term and no minimum period: you can stop at the end of any month.

What is included:

• A website built for your business, from the details you give us.
• Your own domain name, bought and looked after by us, and yours whenever you want it. See the domain ownership and transfer terms.
• Hosting, a security certificate so the site loads over https, and the ongoing technical upkeep.
• A login so you can change your own text, photos, opening hours and prices whenever you want.
• An enquiry form that emails you when someone gets in touch.

What is not included, so there is no misunderstanding: we do not run advertising for you, we do not manage your social media, and we do not guarantee any particular position in Google or in any other search engine or AI assistant. We build the site so that search engines can read it properly. Where you end up in the results is not something we or anyone else can promise.

Section 3The free preview

Before you pay anything, we build you a real, working preview of your site and send you a link to it. Looking at it costs nothing and puts you under no obligation.

Your preview link works for 7 days. After that it stops working. If you want more time, just ask and we will turn it back on. If you never go ahead, we delete the preview and everything in it. The timings are set out in the privacy notice.

A preview is a genuine draft, not a finished site. Things like your final domain name, some photos and small details are usually settled after you decide to go ahead.

Section 4What it costs

To look at your preview

Nothing

To get set up

£99 one-off, including buying your domain

Every month after that

£29 a month

Minimum term

None. Cancel any time

Any other charges

None. Hosting and domain renewals are included

Getting set up costs £99, paid once. It covers building your site and buying and registering your domain name, and the admin that goes with that. After that it is £29 a month, for as long as you want to keep the site.

There is no contract and no minimum term. You can cancel any time and you will not be charged again after the month you have already paid for.

Payments are taken by card on the same date each month, through our payment provider Stripe. We do not see or store your full card number.

If a payment fails we will email you and try again. If we cannot take payment after a reasonable number of attempts, we may suspend your website until the payment goes through. We will tell you before we do that.

Section 5Your domain name

This is the part people worry about most, so it has its own page: read the domain ownership and transfer terms. The short version:

• We buy your domain and look after it. While we do, it is registered to us, not to you.
• We pay for it and we pay the renewals for as long as you subscribe.
• It is yours whenever you want it. Ask us to put it in your name and we will, whether you are staying or leaving, and we will not charge you for doing it.

Section 6Cancelling, refunds and your 14-day right

Cancellation, refunds and your legal 14-day cancellation right are set out in full in the refund and cancellation policy, which forms part of these terms. In short: there is no notice period and you can take your domain with you. After your first 14 days there is nothing to pay to leave: you stop paying, we stop billing. If you change your mind inside the first 14 days, we hold back £25 of your setup fee to cover the domain we have already bought and the setup work, and refund the rest.

Section 7What you tell us, and what you are responsible for

Your website is built from what you tell us, usually on a phone call with one of our team, and then from anything you add or change yourself afterwards. Parts of the build are automated: the words and the layout are put together by software from the details you give us. That is how we can do it quickly and cheaply.

Because of that, you are responsible for the accuracy of everything you tell us. Please read your site properly before it goes live, and tell us straight away if anything is wrong.

You confirm that:

• Everything you tell us about your business is true and up to date.
• You hold every qualification, accreditation, registration and insurance you have asked us to mention.
• You own or have permission to use every photo, logo, review and piece of text you give us. Do not send us photos of jobs that are not yours or images you found on the internet.
• You are at least 18 and you are buying this for a business you run or work in.

If someone brings a claim against us because of something you told us to publish, you agree to cover the cost of dealing with it. This does not apply to anything we got wrong ourselves.

Section 8Who owns what

Your content is yours. Your business name, your logo, your photos, your reviews and the words describing your business belong to you and always will. You give us permission to use them for the purpose of building, hosting and running your website, and nothing else.

The website system is ours. The underlying software, the templates, the designs and the code that make your site work stay ours. Your subscription is a licence to use them while you are paying, not a purchase of them. You cannot copy the system, resell it, or take the site's code somewhere else.

In practical terms: if you leave, you can take your domain name and your own content. You do not take our website software with you. See what happens to your website for the honest detail on this.

Section 9Using the service properly

You must not use your Deftly website to do anything unlawful, to mislead people, to publish content that is offensive or infringes someone else's rights, or to send spam. You must not try to break, overload or get unauthorised access to our systems.

If you do any of that we may suspend or close your account. Where it is safe and sensible to do so, we will warn you first and give you a chance to put it right.

Section 10Availability

We want your site up all the time and we work hard at it, but we are honest with you: we do not offer a guaranteed uptime figure, and we do not pay compensation for downtime. Your site depends on suppliers we do not control, and occasionally we need to take things offline for maintenance.

If your site is down, email hello@deftly.uk and we will get on it.

Section 11Ending the agreement

You can cancel at any time. See the refund and cancellation policy.

We can end the agreement by giving you 30 days' notice by email, for any reason. If we do that, we will refund any part of a month you have paid for and not used, and we will transfer your domain to you at no charge, exactly as if you had cancelled yourself.

We can close your account immediately, without notice, if you break section 7 or section 9 in a serious way, or if you do not pay. Even then, you can still ask for your domain and we will still transfer it to you, and we will still not charge you for it.

Section 12If something goes wrong

We will do our job with reasonable care and skill, as the law requires.

If we get something wrong and it costs you money, the most we will pay you is the total amount you have paid us in the 12 months before the problem. We are not responsible for lost profits, lost business, lost enquiries, or damage to your reputation.

Nothing in these terms limits our responsibility for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit. If you are a consumer, none of this affects your legal rights.

Section 13Changing these terms

We may update these terms. If a change affects your rights in any meaningful way, we will email you at least 30 days before it takes effect. If you do not accept the change, you can cancel before it starts and take your domain with you.

Small corrections, such as fixing a typo or clarifying wording that already meant the same thing, we may make without emailing you. The date at the top of this page always shows when it last changed.

Section 14Your data

How we handle personal information, including where we got your details before we first called you, is set out in the privacy notice.

Section 15Complaints, law and where disputes go

If you are unhappy with anything, email hello@deftly.uk with "Complaint" in the subject line. We will acknowledge it within 5 working days and give you a proper answer within 20 working days.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts there deal with any dispute. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in your own local courts.

These terms, together with the refund and cancellation policy and the domain terms, are the whole agreement between us. If any single part of them turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still applies.