Terms of Service

“Uplyft”, “we” and “us” mean Uplyft, a software studio based in South Africa (uplyfthq.dev). “You” means the person or business that accepts a quote from us.

You can reach us at support@uplyfthq.dev. Notices under these terms are given by email to the address on your quote or client record, and to support@uplyfthq.dev for us.

A quote sets out the work, the price, the payment schedule and any running costs or retainer. It is valid until the date shown on it.

You accept a quote by accepting it online, signing it, or paying its deposit invoice. By accepting, you confirm you have authority to bind the business named on the quote, and that you accept these terms and our Privacy Policy as they stand on that day.

We deliver what the quote describes, with reasonable skill and care. Anything not in the quote — new features, new builds or a change of direction — is quoted separately before we start it.

Dates in a quote or in our tracker are our honest plan, not a guarantee. If something we depend on from you arrives late, the dates move with it.

• Content, access and decisions when we ask for them.
• Content that you own or are allowed to use, and that is lawful.
• Lawful use of what we build. You are responsible for how your business uses it and for the data you collect with it.

Unless the quote says otherwise, a build is invoiced as a 50% deposit when the quote is accepted and the balance when it launches. Invoices are due within 14 days.

Prices are in the currency on the quote and exclude VAT unless they say otherwise; VAT is added where it applies. For international transfers, please cover the sending bank's fees so the full amount arrives.

If you turn on automatic card payments in the client portal, we charge your saved card for each invoice when it is due. You can turn this off at any time in the portal.

Hosting, domains, business email, software licences and APIs are provided by third parties. We bill them to you at the rates in your quote from the date in the quote, usually the start of the build or the launch.

If a provider raises its price, we tell you before passing the increase on. We register domains, hosting and email accounts in your name wherever the provider allows it, so you own them.

Third-party services continue — and continue to be billed — until you or we cancel them under these terms, because we keep paying for them until then.

A retainer is a monthly fee for ongoing support: bug fixes, improvements to existing features and minor new features. New builds and new features are quoted separately.

A retainer runs for its minimum term and then continues until either of us cancels with 30 days' notice. The service then runs to the end of that billing month.

Suspending services is a last resort. We would much rather talk to you, and we will always try to agree a way forward first.

• If an invoice is still unpaid 30 days after its due date, we may tell you in writing (by email) that we intend to suspend services. The notice will give the amount owed and the suspension date, which will be at least 14 days after the notice.
• If the overdue amount is still unpaid on that date, we may suspend some or all of the services we provide — for example by making the website, application, its admin area or its APIs temporarily unavailable. Where only retainer work is unpaid and the build has been paid in full, we will only suspend the admin area and the services we run, never the public site.
• Suspension is done manually by an authorised person at Uplyft. It is never automatic.
• While services are suspended we do not delete, change or access your data, and visitors see a neutral “temporarily unavailable” message that does not mention payment.
• We restore the services within one business day of receiving the overdue amount in full, and usually within minutes.
• Third-party services (section 6) keep running and keep being invoiced during a suspension, until they are cancelled under these terms. We will remind you before any domain renews, so it is never lost.
• Suspension does not end our agreement, your obligation to pay, or any other right either of us has.

Every site and application we build includes a small service status check, so that section 8 can work without anyone needing access to your systems or data. Your server asks Uplyft for the site's status every few minutes. It sends only the site's identifier and a key, never personal information about you or your visitors.

If Uplyft cannot be reached, your site carries on as normal. Once your account is paid in full and no retainer or service we run for you remains, we will remove the check on request.

Ownership of each deliverable — the code, designs and content we make for you — passes to you when it has been paid for in full. Until then, you have a licence to use it for the purpose in the quote, which section 8 may suspend.

We keep ownership of our own tools, libraries and know-how that existed before your project or are not specific to it. Where they form part of your deliverable, you get a permanent licence to use them with it.

We may mention that we worked with you and show the work in our portfolio, unless you ask us not to.

We each keep the other's confidential information private and use it only for the engagement, during it and afterwards. This does not cover information that is public, already known, or that the law requires to be disclosed.

We handle personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) as set out in our Privacy Policy. Where we process personal information on your behalf — for example your customers' data in a system we run — you are the responsible party and we act as your operator: we process it only on your instructions and keep it secure.

To the extent the law allows, our total liability to you under an engagement is limited to the fees you paid us for it in the 12 months before the claim, and neither of us is liable for indirect or consequential loss such as lost profit.

Nothing in these terms limits a right you have, or a liability we have, that the law (including the Consumer Protection Act, where it applies) does not allow to be limited.

Either of us may end an engagement by written notice if the other materially breaches these terms and does not fix it within 14 days of being asked to. When an engagement ends, you pay for the work done and the costs committed up to that point, and we hand over everything you have paid for.

We may update these terms. Each version has a version date at the top of this page. A quote is governed by the version in force on the day it was accepted, unless you agree to a newer one.

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa. If a dispute comes up, we will first try to resolve it in good faith by talking. If that fails, either of us may take it to a competent South African court.