Terms of Service.

About these terms

These Terms of Service govern the relationship between SkaledLabs Pty Ltd ("SkaledLabs", "we", "us") and any client or prospective client ("you", "the client") who engages us for web design, development, SEO, hosting, or related digital services.

By accepting a proposal, signing a Statement of Work, or making any payment to SkaledLabs, you agree to these terms. If you have questions before engaging, email us at hello@skaledlabs.com.

How engagements work

Every SkaledLabs engagement starts with a custom website build, included at no upfront cost across all three plans. The build cost is recovered over the life of the retainer. That structure means we are invested in your growth, not just the launch.

Three plans are available: Full service (web development, hosting, and full SEO management), Growth (web development and hosting, for clients who already have a search partner), and Hosting (infrastructure, security, and maintenance only).

Each engagement is scoped in a written proposal or Statement of Work (SOW), which defines deliverables, timelines, inclusions, and what sits outside scope. Changes to scope are handled as written amendments. Verbal changes do not bind either party.

If a project grows beyond the original SOW, we will prepare a written change request before doing the additional work. We will not invoice for work we have not agreed to in writing.

We reserve the right to decline work that conflicts with our values, including content that is misleading, illegal, or harmful. If we decline after an engagement begins, we will refund any unearned fees.

Payment

Monthly retainer. Retainer fees are invoiced at the start of each calendar month and are due within 14 days. Your plan's monthly fee covers all included services for that period. Unused capacity does not roll over unless agreed in writing.

Setup fees. Where a setup fee applies to your plan, it is invoiced on commencement and due within 14 days before work begins.

Out-of-scope work. Work outside your plan is quoted separately and invoiced on completion or by agreed milestone, depending on scope.

Overdue accounts. Invoices more than 14 days overdue may attract a late payment fee of 1.5% per month. We reserve the right to pause work on accounts more than 30 days overdue, without liability to you for any resulting delay.

Currency and tax. All prices are in Australian dollars and are exclusive of GST unless stated otherwise. Where GST applies, it will be shown separately on the invoice.

SEO services

What's included. SEO management is included in the Full service plan. It covers on-page optimisation, technical SEO, keyword research and targeting, content strategy, schema markup, sitemaps, and redirects, with monthly reporting on what's moving and why.

No guarantees on rankings. SEO is a compounding investment, not a switch. We do not guarantee specific rankings, traffic volumes, or timelines. Search engine algorithms are outside anyone's control, and any agency promising first-page results is not being straight with you. What we commit to is consistent, documented work against agreed priorities.

Growth plan clients. If you are on the Growth plan and manage SEO separately, we will ensure the technical foundation of your site does not create obstacles for your SEO partner's work.

Your content and materials

You are responsible for supplying accurate, lawful copy, images, logos, and data on time. Delays in providing materials are the most common cause of project schedule slippage. Where delays on your side push delivery beyond the originally agreed timeline, the responsibility for that delay sits with you, not with us.

You warrant that any content you provide does not infringe third-party intellectual property rights, is not defamatory, and complies with applicable law. If a third party makes a claim against us arising from content you supplied, you agree to indemnify us for any resulting losses or costs.

Intellectual property and source code

It's yours. Upon receipt of final payment in full, all project deliverables - including source code, design files, and written content created specifically for your engagement - are assigned to you. You own it outright. We don't retain a licence to sell or reuse your custom work.

Open source and third-party components. Many builds incorporate open-source libraries, frameworks, and tools. Those remain under their respective licences and are not transferred to you exclusively - they were never ours to transfer. We'll document the key dependencies in your project handover notes.

Portfolio rights. Unless you ask us not to, we reserve the right to reference you as a client and display the finished work in our portfolio once it's publicly live. We won't publish client-specific data, internal dashboards, or pre-launch work without your permission.

Hosting and service levels

Where SkaledLabs manages hosting on your behalf, we use commercial-grade infrastructure providers (typically Vercel, Cloudflare, AWS, or equivalent). We aim for 99.9% uptime on managed hosting arrangements. Downtime caused by the underlying infrastructure provider, DDoS attacks, or events outside our reasonable control is not counted against that target.

All three plans include hosting. Full service and Growth include full infrastructure management. The Hosting plan covers domain, DNS, SSL, CDN, uptime monitoring, and backups.

Managed hosting is provided on a month-to-month basis. We will give you at least 30 days' notice of any change to hosting arrangements or pricing.

We perform routine maintenance and security patching without prior notice where it does not materially affect uptime. For planned maintenance that requires downtime, we'll notify you at least 48 hours in advance during business hours where possible.

Cancellation and project exit

You can leave with 30 days' written notice. We don't lock contracts. If you want to end an engagement, give us 30 days' notice in writing and we'll wind down cleanly.

On exit you receive: all completed deliverables, a full copy of the codebase as it stands, credentials for any infrastructure we provisioned in your name, and handover notes sufficient to let another developer continue the work. We won't withhold your materials over a billing dispute - we'll invoice what's owed separately.

Any milestone invoices already due and payable at the point of cancellation remain payable. Work completed but not yet invoiced will be invoiced pro rata on a fair basis within 14 days of the cancellation taking effect.

If we need to exit. We may terminate an engagement with 30 days' written notice if payment remains overdue for more than 60 days after repeated attempts to resolve it, or if you ask us to do something that would expose us to legal or regulatory risk. In either case, we'll hand over everything you're owed at that point.

Confidentiality

We treat your business information as confidential. We sign mutual NDAs before discovery begins as a matter of course - ask and we'll have one to you same day.

We will not disclose your identity, project details, or commercially sensitive information to third parties without your permission, except where required by law. Team members and contractors who work on your project are bound by equivalent confidentiality obligations.

Liability

We take quality seriously and stand behind our work. That said, no software is perfect and no agency can guarantee specific business outcomes from a website or campaign.

Our total aggregate liability to you for any claim arising from these terms or your engagement with us is capped at the total fees paid by you to SkaledLabs in the 12 months preceding the claim.

We are not liable for: indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit or revenue, loss of data caused by events outside our reasonable control, or any claim arising from content you supplied to us.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be excluded by law, including rights under the Australian Consumer Law.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia. Both parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Queensland for any dispute arising from this engagement.

Before initiating formal proceedings, both parties agree to make a genuine attempt to resolve any dispute in good faith - a written notice of the issue followed by a call or meeting within 14 days. Most disputes are resolved this way.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The current version is always at skaledlabs.com/terms.html. For active engagements, we'll notify you of material changes by email with at least 30 days' notice before the change takes effect. Continued engagement after that date constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Get in touch directly.