Terms of Service

Honest Local Web is a sole proprietorship registered in Ontario, Canada (Business Identification Number 1001786919). It is based in Chatham-Kent. In these pages, "we" and "us" mean Honest Local Web. "You" means the person or business that uses it.

When you tick the box at sign-up, or use the service, you agree to these terms. You also agree to our Acceptable Use Policy and our Report and takedown page. They are part of these terms.

We give you simple tools to build your own website. We also host it (keep it online).

You write and build your site yourself. We do not write, check or approve what you put on it.

• You must be at least 18 years old.
• You must use your real name and an email address that works.
• If you pay, your billing details must be true and up to date.
• One person or business is in charge of each account. You are responsible for everything done with your account.
• Keep your password and sign-in codes private.

"Your content" means everything on your site. That includes words, photos, logos, prices, reviews, and the messages people send you through your forms.

Your content stays yours. You let us store, copy, show and back it up, but only to run the service. We keep copies only as our Privacy Policy and the law allow.

You promise that:

• You own, or have permission to use, every word, photo, logo, font and video on your site.
• What you say is true. This includes your prices, licences, reviews and claims about your work.
• Your content does not break anyone's copyright, trademark or privacy, and is not defamatory (false and harmful).
• You have every licence, registration and insurance your business needs.
• You follow every law that applies to you. This includes laws about consumers, privacy (PIPEDA), anti-spam (CASL) and accessibility.
• You follow our Acceptable Use Policy.

We keep sites online. We do not watch, review or approve them before they go online.

Some automatic checks look for obvious problems. Passing them does not mean your content is legal or allowed.

We may hide or remove content, or pause or close an account, at any time. We may do this with or without notice if we believe:

• it breaks these terms, the Acceptable Use Policy or the law,
• we got a report or a legal complaint about it, or
• it puts us, the service or other people at risk.

We do not have to explain every decision. Where the system allows it, you can fix the problem and put your site back online.

The free plan costs $0. You do not need a card.

• 1 page, at an address like honestlocalweb.ca/yourbusiness
• up to 30 photos
• a simple contact form
• a small "Free website by Honest Local Web" line at the bottom, which is always on

You can stay on the free plan for as long as you like.

The paid plan costs $15 a month or $150 a year, in Canadian dollars. You pay in advance through Stripe. There is no setup fee.

HST not charged (small supplier under $30,000). If that changes, we will tell you before any tax is added.

The paid plan adds more pages, your own web address, more photos, a blog and "Our work" posts, a full quote form, older saves you can bring back, and the choice to turn off the footer line.

If we ever change the price, we will email you at least 30 days before your next payment at the new price.

• The monthly plan has a 30-day free trial.
• You can only have it once. We check this by account, email and card.
• You need to add a card, but nothing is charged during the 30 days.
• We email you 3 days before the first charge.
• If you cancel during the trial, you are never charged. You keep the paid features until the trial ends.
• The yearly plan has no trial. It is already cheaper: $150 instead of $180.

Your plan renews by itself until you cancel. Monthly plans renew each month. Yearly plans renew each year.

For the yearly plan, we email you 30 days before it renews.

You can cancel any time on your Plan and billing page. Cancelling stops the next payment.

You keep the paid features until the end of the time you already paid for. For example, if you paid monthly on 10 November, you keep them until 10 December.

If you change your mind before that date, press "Changed my mind". Your plan carries on as before.

There are no partial refunds. If you cancel part way through a month or a year, you keep the paid features until the end date, but you do not get money back for the time left.

We do not give refunds if we close an account for breaking these terms or the Acceptable Use Policy.

Please cancel instead of asking your bank to reverse a payment (a chargeback). A chargeback may close your account.

If a payment fails, we email you and Stripe tries again. Please update your card. Your paid extras pause 14 days after a failed payment if it is still not paid. Your site then drops to the free plan, as explained below. Nothing is deleted. We do not charge late fees or interest.

When a paid plan ends, your site drops to the free plan. It stays online.

Your extra pages, blog posts, projects and older saves are hidden, not deleted. They come back if you upgrade again.

On the free plan, the "Free website by Honest Local Web" line shows at the bottom. If you had turned it off, we remember that choice for when you upgrade again.

Sometimes a free site is not used for a long time. Then we may send a friendly "Still using it?" email with a "Keep my site" button.

• You get 30, 60 or 90 days to answer. Pressing "Keep my site" is all you need to do.
• If you do not answer, we send a last email with a link to download your website.
• Only after that might a person at Honest Local Web delete the site. A backup is made first.
• We never delete a site automatically.
• Paid sites are never part of this, even if you never sign in.

You can download your whole website at any time, on the free or the paid plan. Press "Download my website" in your account. Please keep your own copy.

On the paid plan, you can connect a web address you own, like yourbusiness.ca.

The address belongs to you, not to us. You pay for it and renew it with the company you bought it from. If you leave, you keep it.

To keep every site safe, you cannot add your own code or scripts to your site. Honest Local Web may offer ready-made tools (widgets) that you can add.

No one can honestly promise a top spot on Google, and we never will. We give you a clean, fast site and a simple guide. We do not promise rankings, visits, calls, leads or sales.

The service is given "as is". We work hard to keep it running, but we cannot promise it will always be online, fast, or free of mistakes. We keep backups, but please keep your own copy too.

As far as the law allows:

• We are not responsible for lost profits, lost business, lost data, harm to your reputation, or other indirect losses.
• We are not responsible for your content, or for what other users or other companies do. This includes Stripe, IONOS, Cloudflare, Google and the company that sells your web address.
• The most we will ever owe you is what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.

Nothing here takes away rights that the law says cannot be taken away.

If someone makes a claim against us because of your content, your site, your business, the way you deal with your customers, or because you broke these terms or the law, you agree to cover our costs. This includes fair legal fees. We may pick our own lawyer, and you will help us. This promise still applies after your account ends.

We keep a log of who changed or published what, and when. It includes the IP address. We keep it for 2 years so we can answer complaints and legal requests.

We may share account, billing and log details with police, courts or a rights holder when the law requires or allows it, or to stop harm or fraud.

We may change these terms. We will post the new version on this page. If a change takes away any of your rights, we will email you at least 30 days before it starts. Changes needed by law or to stop abuse may start sooner.

If you do not agree, you can cancel before the change starts.

These terms follow the laws of Ontario and the laws of Canada that apply there. Any dispute goes to the courts of Ontario. Small claims can go to the Small Claims Court in Chatham-Kent. If consumer law where you live gives you other rights, those still apply.

• If one part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.
• If we do not enforce a rule once, we can still enforce it later.
• You cannot hand your account to someone else without our written OK. We may hand these terms to a business that takes over the service.
• These terms, with the pages they name, are the whole agreement about the service.

General questions: hello@honestlocalweb.ca
Legal notices: legal@honestlocalweb.ca

We send notices to the email on your account, so please keep it working.