Terms of Service

1.Agreement to these Terms

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are a binding agreement between you and BizPorch ("BizPorch," "we," "us," or "our"), the operator of bizporch.com, its subdomains, and the BizPorch website-building platform, tools, templates, and hosting (together, the "Service"). By creating an account, ticking the agreement box, clicking "agree," or using the Service, you accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

We keep a record of each acceptance — the document version, the date and time, and the network address it came from. When we update these Terms (Section 18), we will ask you to accept the new version before you continue using the Service.

IMPORTANT: Section 16 contains a binding individual arbitration agreement and a waiver of class actions and jury trials. It affects how disputes between you and BizPorch are resolved. You may opt out within 30 days as described there.

2.Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use BizPorch. The Service is offered for business and professional use. If you use BizPorch on behalf of a business or another person, you represent that you have authority to bind them to these Terms, and "you" includes them.

You may not use the Service if you are barred from doing so under the laws of the United States or any other applicable jurisdiction, including U.S. export-control and sanctions laws (Section 19.7).

3.Your account

3.1 Registration and accuracy

You need an account with a valid email address and a password to use BizPorch. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information and to keep it up to date. We may suspend or terminate accounts created with false information.

3.2 Account security

You are responsible for safeguarding your credentials and for all activity under your account, whether or not you authorized it. Notify us immediately at support@bizporch.com if you suspect unauthorized access. We are not liable for losses caused by unauthorized use of your account that results from your failure to protect your credentials.

3.3 One site per account

Each account operates a single site. You may create additional accounts for additional businesses, each under its own subscription and each subject to these Terms.

3.4 Subdomains are licensed, not owned

Your site address on our domains (for example yourbusiness.bizporch.com) is licensed to you for use with the Service; it is not property you own and it has no independent value. We may reclaim, change, or disable a subdomain — with notice where practical — if it infringes or is confusingly similar to someone else's trademark or brand, impersonates a person or business, violates Section 6, is associated with a free account that has been inactive for twelve (12) months or more, or is needed to protect the Service or comply with law. Where reasonably possible we will offer you a replacement subdomain.

4.Plans, billing, and refunds

4.1 Free plan

The free plan includes the core editing features and hosting, subject to limits (such as storage and image quotas) described on our pricing page. We may change free-plan features or limits over time; if we materially reduce them we will give existing free accounts reasonable notice. Sites on the free plan display a "Powered by BizPorch" credit (Section 8.3).

4.2 Pro plan

Paid Pro subscriptions add custom-domain connection, removal of the BizPorch credit, higher storage allowances, and priority support, billed monthly or annually as selected at checkout.

4.3 Payment and auto-renewal

Payments are processed by Stripe; we never see or store your full card number. By subscribing you authorize recurring charges to your payment method at the then-current price until you cancel. Prices are in U.S. dollars. You are responsible for any sales, use, VAT, or similar taxes that apply to your purchase; where we are required to collect them, they will be added at checkout.

4.4 Price changes

We may change prices with at least thirty (30) days' notice to existing subscribers, effective at your next renewal. If you don't agree with a new price, cancel before it takes effect.

4.5 Refunds

Monthly subscriptions can be cancelled at any time; you keep access through the end of the paid period, and partial periods are not refunded. Annual subscriptions are eligible for a prorated refund if you request one in writing within fourteen (14) days of the initial purchase; after 14 days they are non-refundable. We may issue refunds beyond this policy at our sole discretion, and doing so once does not oblige us to do so again.

4.6 Failed payments and downgrades

If a renewal charge fails we will notify you and retry. If payment remains outstanding after reasonable retries, your account may be downgraded to the free plan (custom domains stop being served; your content and configuration are preserved, and Pro service resumes if you re-subscribe).

4.7 Chargebacks

If you dispute a legitimate charge with your card issuer instead of contacting us first, we may suspend your account while the dispute is open and recover our reasonable costs of responding to it. Reinstatement after a lost dispute may require payment of the disputed amount.

5.Your content

5.1 You own it

You keep all ownership rights in the text, images, business information, and other material you upload to or create on your site ("Your Content"). We claim no ownership of Your Content.

5.2 License you grant us

So we can run the Service, you grant BizPorch a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, cache, back up, reproduce, adapt for display (for example resizing images or generating previews), publish, and deliver Your Content, and to let our infrastructure providers do the same on our behalf. This license exists solely to operate, secure, improve, and promote the Service as described in these Terms, and it ends when you delete the content or your account — except for (a) copies in routine backups until those age out, and (b) uses under Section 5.3 that began before you opted out.

5.3 Showcase license

We're proud of what our customers build. You grant us permission to feature your published site in BizPorch marketing — for example screenshots, short screen recordings, before-and-after makeovers, links, and your business name — in our galleries, social posts, videos, and other promotional material. We will never feature unpublished drafts or private information. You can opt out at any time by emailing support@bizporch.com; we will stop creating new showcase material featuring your site within thirty (30) days and remove your site from our controlled channels within a reasonable period.

5.4 Your responsibility

You are solely responsible for Your Content, for the goods and services your business offers, and for the consequences of publishing them. You represent and warrant that you own or have all rights needed to publish Your Content, that it is accurate, and that it does not infringe any intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, or other rights or any law. We host what you publish; we do not review, endorse, or verify it.

6.Acceptable use

You may not use the Service — or allow anyone else to use your site — to publish, sell, or do any of the following:

• Anything that violates applicable law or regulation, or promotes illegal activity;
• Child sexual abuse material of any kind. Zero tolerance: we remove it, terminate the account, and report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and law enforcement;
• Content that infringes someone else's copyright, trademark, or other rights, including counterfeit or knock-off goods;
• Fraud, phishing, deceptive schemes, pyramid or multi-level recruiting schemes, or "get rich quick" and speculative-investment promotions;
• Malware, spyware, or code designed to harm or covertly monitor visitors;
• Pornography or sexually explicit content;
• Content that harasses, threatens, defames, or incites violence or hatred against any person or group;
• Impersonation of any person, business, or organization, or misrepresentation of your affiliation with one;
• Sales of firearms, explosives, illegal drugs, or other goods we may not lawfully facilitate;
• Spam — whether email, comments, or search-engine manipulation schemes (link farms, doorway pages, cloaking);
• Uses where a site failure could cause physical harm — emergency services, medical monitoring, and similar high-risk uses. BizPorch is not built for them.

You also may not: probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service without our written consent; access another user's account or data; scrape or bulk-extract data from the Service; interfere with the Service's operation or impose unreasonable load; resell, sublicense, or white-label the Service without our written agreement; or use the Service to build a competing product.

Enforcement. We have no obligation to monitor content, but we may review anything hosted on the Service at any time. We may remove or block content, suspend, limit, or terminate accounts, and withhold or reclaim subdomains — at our sole discretion, with or without notice — where we reasonably believe this Section or any other part of these Terms has been violated, or where necessary to protect the Service, our users, the public, or ourselves. We may (but need not) warn you first. If we suspend your account we will tell you why, unless doing so would compromise an investigation or is prohibited by law.

7.Copyright complaints (DMCA)

We respect intellectual-property rights and expect the same of our customers, and we respond to notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512).

7.1 Reporting infringement

If you believe content hosted on BizPorch infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent at dmca@bizporch.com including: (a) your physical or electronic signature; (b) identification of the copyrighted work; (c) the URL of the infringing material; (d) your contact information; (e) a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (f) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and you are authorized to act for the owner. We may remove or disable access to the identified material and will notify the account holder.

7.2 Counter-notice

If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you may send a counter-notice to the same address including your signature, identification of the removed material and its former URL, a statement under penalty of perjury of your good-faith belief that the removal was mistaken, your contact information, and your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for your address (or, if outside the U.S., any judicial district in which BizPorch may be found) and to accepting service from the complainant. Unless the complainant files a court action, we may restore the material in 10–14 business days.

7.3 Repeat infringers

We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances, and we may terminate after a single egregious infringement. Knowingly submitting false infringement notices or counter-notices can make you liable for damages under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).

8.Our intellectual property

8.1 The platform

The Service — including the PorchCanvas template engine, our templates and designs, software, editor, text, graphics, and branding — is owned by BizPorch or its licensors and protected by intellectual-property laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use it to build and run your site on the Service. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

8.2 Templates and stock images

Templates and the BizPorch stock-image library are licensed for use on your BizPorch site only. You may not export, copy, resell, or reuse templates or stock images outside the Service. If a stock image becomes unavailable to us (for example for rights reasons), we may replace or remove it from sites that use it. Content you upload yourself is yours (Section 5) and can always be exported.

8.3 The BizPorch credit

Sites on the free plan display a small "Powered by BizPorch" credit. You agree not to remove, hide, or obscure it except by upgrading to a plan that includes its removal.

8.4 Feedback

If you send us ideas, suggestions, or feedback about the Service, we may use them without restriction or obligation to you. Nothing in this section gives us rights to Your Content beyond Section 5.

9.Domains

Pro subscribers may connect a custom domain. You (not BizPorch) are responsible for purchasing the domain, keeping its registration current, and configuring DNS as instructed. We will make reasonable efforts to provision TLS certificates for verified domains, but issuance depends on systems outside our control (your registrar, DNS provider, and certificate authorities), and we do not guarantee it. We may stop serving a custom domain if your plan no longer includes the feature, if the domain's DNS no longer points at the Service, or if the domain or site violates these Terms. Your domain registrar relationship is governed by your agreement with the registrar.

10.Third-party services

The Service is built on third-party providers — including Stripe (payments), Cloudflare (storage, DNS, and bot protection), DigitalOcean (hosting), and Resend (email) — and your site may embed third-party features you choose to add (for example a Google Maps embed). Third parties are outside our control: we are not responsible for their acts, omissions, outages, or terms, and your use of their services may be subject to their own agreements. If you embed third-party content on your site, you are responsible for having the right to use it and for any obligations it creates toward your visitors.

11.Service changes, availability, and your data

11.1 Changes to the Service

We are a small, fast-moving product. We may add, change, or remove features at any time, and may impose or adjust usage limits to keep the Service healthy. If we discontinue the Service entirely, we will give you at least thirty (30) days' notice and a way to export Your Content.

11.2 Availability

We work hard to keep BizPorch fast and online, but the Service is provided without any uptime guarantee or service-level agreement. Downtime happens — maintenance, upgrades, provider outages, attacks, and events beyond our control. We are not liable for unavailability of the Service or of any site hosted on it.

11.3 Backups and export

We back up platform data for disaster recovery of the Service as a whole, but backups are not guaranteed and are not a substitute for your own copies. The dashboard's export/backup feature lets you download your site content and settings at any time — use it. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for loss of or damage to Your Content, and your only remedy for data loss is restoration from an available backup (ours or yours).

11.4 Early-access features

Features labeled beta, preview, or early access are provided as-is, may change or disappear without notice, and are excluded from any commitments these Terms might otherwise imply.

12.Termination

12.1 By you

You may cancel and delete your account at any time in your account settings. Deletion removes your sites, uploaded images, and login, and cancels any active subscription (Section 4.5 governs refunds). Deletion is permanent.

12.2 By us

We may suspend or terminate your account immediately, with notice to your account email, if you materially breach these Terms (including Section 6), if your account creates legal exposure or risk to the Service or other users, or if required by law. We may also terminate for convenience — including free accounts inactive for twelve (12) months or more — with at least thirty (30) days' notice and an opportunity to export Your Content.

12.3 Effect of termination

On termination your license to use the Service ends and your sites stop being served. We may delete Your Content after a grace period of thirty (30) days following termination (immediately, in cases of unlawful content), and we may retain minimal records we need for legitimate business purposes — billing records, audit logs, and records of your acceptance of these Terms — as described in the Privacy Policy. Sections that by their nature should survive (including 5.4, 8, 11.3, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 19) survive termination.

13.Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, BIZPORCH DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY CONTENT WILL BE PRESERVED.

We do not promise that your site will rank in any search engine, attract visitors, or produce any business outcome. Nothing in the Service is legal, tax, accessibility-compliance, or other professional advice; you are responsible for your site's compliance with the laws that apply to your business.

14.Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW: (A) BIZPORCH WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, GOODWILL, DATA, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY; AND (B) BIZPORCH'S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (i) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID BIZPORCH IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (ii) FIFTY U.S. DOLLARS ($50).

These limits apply regardless of the theory of liability (contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or otherwise) and even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limits; in those jurisdictions the above apply to the fullest extent permitted. The parties agree these limits are a reasonable allocation of risk reflected in the Service's pricing.

15.Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless BizPorch and its owners, employees, contractors, and agents from and against any claims, demands, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to: (a) Your Content or your site; (b) the goods or services your business offers, and any dispute between you and your customers or visitors; (c) your use of the Service in violation of these Terms or of law; or (d) your infringement of anyone's rights. We may assume the exclusive defense of any matter subject to indemnification (at our expense), in which case you agree to cooperate with us.

16.Disputes: arbitration and class-action waiver

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT REQUIRES INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION OF MOST DISPUTES AND WAIVES CLASS ACTIONS AND JURY TRIALS. YOU MAY OPT OUT WITHIN 30 DAYS (SECTION 16.6).

16.1 Talk to us first

Before filing any claim, you agree to email support@bizporch.com with a written description of the dispute and give us thirty (30) days to resolve it informally. Most issues get fixed this way, faster and cheaper than any legal process. We will do the same before bringing a claim against you.

16.2 Binding individual arbitration

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service that is not resolved informally will be settled by binding arbitration on an individual basis, administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this Section. The arbitrator has exclusive authority to resolve any dispute about the enforceability of this arbitration agreement, and can award the same individual relief a court could. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Hearings will be held by videoconference or in the county where you live, unless we agree otherwise; AAA fees will be allocated per the Consumer Arbitration Rules.

16.3 Exceptions

Either party may (a) bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and (b) seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court to protect its intellectual property or to stop unauthorized use of or attacks on the Service, without first arbitrating.

16.4 Class-action and jury waiver

YOU AND BIZPORCH EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. CLAIMS MAY BE BROUGHT ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY.

16.5 Severability of this Section

If the class-action waiver in Section 16.4 is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, then that claim (and only that claim) shall proceed in court under Section 17 rather than in arbitration, and the rest of this Section remains in effect.

16.6 Your right to opt out

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement (Sections 16.2–16.5) by emailing support@bizporch.com with the subject line "Arbitration opt-out" from your account email, including your name and subdomain, within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms and will not affect your Service.

17.Governing law and venue

These Terms and any dispute arising out of them or the Service are governed by the laws of the State of Iowa and applicable U.S. federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Subject to Section 16, any claim not subject to arbitration must be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Iowa, and you consent to their jurisdiction. If you opted out of arbitration under Section 16.6, this Section governs where claims are heard.

18.Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Each version is identified by the version date shown at the top of this page, and we keep records of which version you accepted. For material changes we will notify you — by email to your account address and/or by asking you to review and accept the new version inside the product before continuing to use it. Changes are not retroactive: the version you accepted governs until you accept a new one or continue using the Service after its effective date, whichever happens first. If you do not agree to updated Terms, stop using the Service and cancel your account.

19.General

19.1 Notices

We may give you notice by email to your account address or inside the product; notice is deemed given when sent. Keep your email current — bounced email does not excuse missed notice. Legal notices to BizPorch go to support@bizporch.com.

19.2 Assignment

You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account without our written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or reorganization; they bind and benefit permitted successors.

19.3 Entire agreement

These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and any plan-specific terms presented at purchase are the entire agreement between you and BizPorch about the Service and supersede any prior agreements or communications.

19.4 Severability and waiver

If any provision is held unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary (or severed, if it cannot be) and the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of the right to enforce it later; waivers must be in writing.

19.5 Force majeure

Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control — natural disasters, war, terrorism, labor disputes, government action, utility or internet failures, and failures of upstream providers — except for your payment obligations.

19.6 No third-party beneficiaries; independent parties

These Terms create no rights in anyone other than you and BizPorch, and no partnership, joint venture, employment, or agency relationship between us.

19.7 Export and sanctions compliance

You represent that you are not located in, or a resident of, any country or region subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions and are not on any U.S. government restricted-party list, and you agree not to use the Service in violation of U.S. export-control or sanctions laws.

20.Contact

Questions about these Terms: support@bizporch.com.
Copyright notices: dmca@bizporch.com (Section 7).
Privacy requests: privacy@bizporch.com — see the Privacy Policy.