Terms of Service

Services

Alpine Studio provides web design, development, custom software and related digital services. All projects are governed by a separate project agreement or statement of work agreed upon by both parties prior to commencement.

Payment

A 50% deposit is required to commence work. The remaining balance is due upon project completion and prior to final delivery. All prices are in NZD. Alpine Studio is not registered for GST, so no GST is charged. On a pay monthly plan, the build is paid monthly instead, as set out under Pay Monthly Plans below.

Third-Party Costs

Third-party costs, such as domain registration, stock photography licences, paid plugins and software subscriptions, are billed at cost and itemised in the quote.

Growth Package Refund

On the Growth package, if the client is not happy with the first design direction, Alpine Studio refunds the setup fee the client has paid. This applies only to the first design direction, and only if the client says so before the build starts. On a pay monthly plan, the client pays nothing in that case.

Warranty

For 30 days after launch, Alpine Studio fixes bugs and breakages in the work it delivered, at no extra charge.

Website Care Plans

Care plans run month to month with no lock-in, and the client can cancel at any time. When a care plan ends, Alpine Studio transfers all hosting access and domain control to the client.

Domains and Accounts

Unless the client asks otherwise, Alpine Studio sets up and manages the domain and hosting accounts for the client’s website. On request they are set up in the client’s name, and Alpine Studio hands over every account whenever the client asks. On a pay monthly plan, the domain is the client’s at any time, and the other accounts are handed over once the plan ends or is paid off, as set out under Pay Monthly Plans.

Intellectual Property: Websites

Upon receipt of full payment, the client owns all deliverables produced by Alpine Studio for their website project. On a pay monthly plan, full payment means the end of the plan’s term or paying the plan off, whichever comes first. Alpine Studio retains the right to display the completed work in its portfolio unless otherwise agreed in writing. This clause covers websites only: custom software is licensed, not sold, as set out under Custom Software below.

Custom Software

This section covers the dashboards, portals and other applications Alpine Studio builds (custom software). Payment, Third-Party Costs and Warranty above apply to custom software as well: a 50% deposit starts the build and the balance is due on completion (unless the software is on a pay monthly plan), and for 30 days after the software goes live Alpine Studio fixes bugs and breakages in it at no extra charge. Growth Package Refund, Website Care Plans, Domains and Accounts, and Intellectual Property: Websites do not.

Licensed, not sold

Custom software remains Alpine Studio’s, including its code and design, and is licensed to the client for use in their business. Paying for the build does not transfer ownership of the software. The licence lasts while the monthly fee is paid. If the fee stops being paid, the licence ends and the software is switched off, as set out at the end of this section. If the client sells their business, the licence can pass to the new owner, who takes over the monthly fee.

Reuse and portfolio

Alpine Studio may reuse general features, code and know-how across its clients, for example contact management, quotes and bookings, so they keep improving. It never reuses a client’s data, branding or anything confidential to their business. Alpine Studio shows a client’s software in its portfolio only with their permission: it asks first, and the client chooses whether it is shown with their name or without it.

The client’s data

The client’s data is theirs: everything the client, their staff and their customers put into the software. The client can have a copy of it whenever they ask, in any common format they ask for, such as spreadsheet (CSV) files. Alpine Studio uses the client’s data only to run and look after the client’s software. It does not sell it, and shares it only with the services the software runs on or connects to as agreed in the scope, such as Cloudflare. Where the data includes personal information about the client’s customers or staff, Alpine Studio holds it on the client’s behalf, and tells the client as soon as it can if it learns of a privacy breach that affects it.

Build fee

Before any work starts, the client gets a written scope and one fixed price. Anything new that comes up along the way is quoted before it is built, and each connection to another system is quoted as its own fixed price. The build fee is paid as set out under Payment above.

Monthly fee

The monthly fee pays for hosting the software on Cloudflare and for Alpine Studio looking after it: security fixes, updates to the software and the third-party code it is built on, small fixes and ongoing maintenance. New features and bigger changes are quoted before they are built, as is each new connection to another system. The fee starts when the software is delivered and goes live, and the client chooses whether to pay it monthly or yearly. There is no minimum term beyond the 30 days’ notice set out below, except on a pay monthly plan, which has the term set out under Pay Monthly Plans.

Leaving, or if the fee stops

The client can leave at any time with 30 days’ notice. When the notice ends, the licence ends and the software is switched off. If the monthly fee goes unpaid for 2 months, the licence ends and the software is switched off too. Either way, Alpine Studio keeps the client’s data for 30 days after the software is switched off, so the client can take a copy of it. After those 30 days the data is deleted. Backups that could still restore it, including the rolling history of up to 30 days that Cloudflare keeps of each database, run out within a further 30 days. The software itself stays with Alpine Studio.

Pay Monthly Plans

Instead of paying for a website or custom software upfront, a business can choose a pay monthly plan. The plans are for businesses, for use in their business. The client’s quote sets out the plan, its monthly price, its term and its total.

How a plan works

There is nothing to pay before the website or software goes live. From the day it goes live, the client pays a fixed monthly price for the plan’s term: 12 months for a website, and 12 or 24 months for custom software, as the quote sets out. Each monthly price is the build price plus 5%, split over the term and rounded up to the dollar (the build part), plus the care plan or monthly fee. For a website, the monthly price includes the care plan for its tier. For custom software, it includes the monthly fee set out under Custom Software. Part of each payment goes towards the build (the build part, shown in the quote), so over its term a plan costs a little more in total than paying upfront.

At the end of the term

A website becomes the client’s, as set out under Intellectual Property: Websites, and the price drops to the normal care plan for its tier, which runs month to month as set out under Website Care Plans. The client can instead end the care plan at that point. Custom software drops to its normal monthly fee and stays licensed, as set out under Custom Software.

Paying a plan off early

The client can pay off a plan at any time. The pay-off amount is the upfront build price less the build parts already paid, and never less than nothing, so paying off a plan never costs more than the upfront build price. Once it is paid off, a website becomes the client’s and continues on its care plan month to month, unless the client ends it; custom software continues on its normal monthly fee.

Leaving before the term ends

The term is the plan’s minimum term. A client who wants to leave sooner pays the pay-off amount. A website then becomes the client’s. Custom software can stay on its normal monthly fee, or the client can leave with 30 days’ notice as set out under Custom Software. Nothing else is charged for leaving early.

Ownership during a plan

Until a website plan ends or is paid off, the website, including its design and code, remains Alpine Studio’s and is provided to the client for use in their business. The client’s own content is always theirs: their words, photos and logo, and the enquiries their website receives.

The client’s domain

The client’s domain name is always theirs. On a plan it is registered in the client’s name, or moved to them free of charge whenever they ask, including if they leave early or the plan ends unpaid. Domain registration is billed at cost, as set out under Third-Party Costs.

One pause a year

Once in each year of a plan, the client can ask to skip one monthly payment. The skipped month is added to the end of the plan, so the plan runs one month longer, at no extra charge.

Cancelling before launch

If the client cancels a plan before the website or software goes live, they pay for the work done up to then, and never more than half the upfront build price. The Growth Package Refund above still applies.

Payments

Plan payments are collected automatically each month, by direct debit or automatic payment, on the date set out in the quote. The monthly price is fixed for the plan’s term. If Alpine Studio registers for GST during a plan, GST is added to the monthly price from the date of registration, with 30 days’ notice.

If payments stop

If a payment fails, Alpine Studio lets the client know and tries again. If plan payments go unpaid for 2 months, a website is taken offline and custom software is switched off. Alpine Studio keeps the client’s content and data for 30 days after that, so the client can take a copy, and then deletes them, as set out under Custom Software. The care plan or monthly fee for the unpaid months, and the pay-off amount, remain owed; once they are paid, a website becomes the client’s. The client’s domain is never held back.

Alpine Jobs

Alpine Jobs is Alpine Studio’s standard job app: the app its live demo builds, set up with the client’s name, logo, colours, services and prices, at the monthly price in the quote, with nothing to pay before it goes live. It is custom software for the purposes of these terms: licensed, not sold, and the client’s data is theirs. It has a minimum term of 12 months; a client who leaves within the first 12 months pays $100 for each month left. After 12 months it runs month to month with 30 days’ notice. Changes beyond its settings are quoted before they are built. One pause a year applies to it as above, and the skipped month is added to the end of the 12 months.

Contact

For any questions regarding these terms, contact us at sales@alpinestudio.co.nz.