---
title: "Terms of Service"
slug: "terms"
description: "What you agree to when you use AWD CMS, what we promise, and what we do not."
url: "https://awdcms.com/terms"
---

> What you agree to when you use AWD CMS, what we promise, and what we do not.

Last updated: 21 October 2026

# Terms of Service

What you agree to when you use AWD CMS, what we promise, and what we do not.

**Written by AI — not legal advice** This document was generated by artificial intelligence. It has been written for United States law only, but it is general information, not legal advice, and it has not been reviewed by a qualified lawyer. No solicitor-client or attorney-client relationship is created by reading it. Laws change, and the facts of any particular business change what those laws require — have a lawyer in your own jurisdiction check this before you rely on it.

These terms are made by **Armstrong Web Development**, who is responsible for them.

## 1. Who these terms are between

These Terms of Service are an agreement between you and Armstrong Web Development, which operates AWD CMS at awdcms.com. Using AWD CMS means you accept them. If you are accepting them for a company or other organisation, you are confirming you have authority to bind it, and "you" means that organisation. AWD CMS is offered to customers in the United States only.

If you do not accept them, do not use the service. Nothing here takes away a right the law of your own state gives you and does not allow to be taken away — see the consumer rights clause below, which overrides anything in these terms that conflicts with it.

## 2. Availability, backups and changes

We aim to keep AWD CMS available all the time, but we cannot promise it never goes down. The service may be unavailable at times, for maintenance or because something has gone wrong, and sometimes without warning.

What we keep, and what you can keep yourself:

- **Your websites and your account** — the pages, settings, members, orders and messages of every website, and your account details, are kept in a database that keeps its own history. It can be put back as it was at any minute in at least the last seven days. That is for putting the whole service right after a fault, not for undoing one change on one website. Files you upload are stored separately and are not part of that history
- **Earlier versions of your pages** — every time you publish a page, the version you published is kept, for as long as the page exists. The 20 most recent, including any proposed in a visitor review, are listed under Page versions in the editor, and any of those can be brought back into it. Publishing a translation, or making pages in bulk from a page set, keeps no earlier version
- **Download everything** — at any time you can download your whole website as one file: its pages, content, members, orders, messages and uploaded files. It can also make a fresh copy for you every week or every month

Even so, nothing can promise that data is never lost, and we do not guarantee that your work is backed up in any way beyond what this section describes. Keep your own copy of anything you could not replace. Download everything makes one.

AWD CMS changes as we improve it: features are added, changed and sometimes taken away. If we ever close the service, the clause on suspension and ending the agreement says what you get first.

## 3. Accounts

You must give accurate details when you register, keep them up to date, and keep your sign-in details to yourself. Everything done through your account is treated as done by you, unless and until you tell us it was not: if you think somebody else has got in, write to armstrongwebdev@gmail.com straight away and we will act on it.

You must be old enough to enter a contract where you live, and at least 13 — or 16 where local law sets that age — to hold an account at all.

## 4. What you must not do

You agree not to:

- Break any law, or help anybody else break one
- Upload malware, or anything designed to damage or gain unauthorised access to a system
- Attack the service, probe its security without written permission, or try to reach data that is not yours
- Publish content that is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, or that incites violence or hatred
- Publish sexual content involving children, or any content that sexualises a child, in any form
- Impersonate somebody else, or misrepresent who you are or who you speak for
- Infringe anybody's copyright, trade mark, or other rights
- Send unsolicited commercial messages, or use the service to support sending them elsewhere
- Scrape or crawl the service in bulk, or take content for training a machine learning model, without written permission
- Copy a website into the service that is not yours, unless its owner has given you permission to
- Resell, sublicense or white-label the service without a written agreement allowing it
- Build a website here that does any of the above, or that you know your own visitors' laws prohibit

If you publish a website here, you are responsible for what is on it and for obeying the laws that apply to the people who read it — including consumer, advertising, accessibility and data protection law in their state, not just yours.

## 5. Who owns what

What you create stays yours. You keep every right in it. You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, copy, adapt and display it — but only as far as is needed to run the service for you, and it ends when you delete the content or close your account.

We do not use your content to train our own or anybody else's machine learning models, we do not sell it, and we do not show it to anybody you have not shared it with.

The AWD CMS software, its design, and its branding belong to us. Nothing here transfers them to you; you get a licence to use the service, not a copy of it.

Some content you generate here is produced by AI models on your instruction. Whether AI output can be owned at all differs by country — in the United States, the Copyright Office requires human authorship — so we make no promise that AI-generated material is protectable or that it does not resemble somebody else's work. Check anything you intend to rely on commercially.

If you leave, you can export your content before you go, and we will not hold it hostage against a disputed invoice.

Copying a website. The service can copy an existing website into a website here, page by page, with its pictures, files and forms. Before it does, you confirm that the website is yours, or that its owner has given you permission to copy it, and that confirmation is recorded with the copy: the address copied, who confirmed it, when, and the network it came from. A website whose owner has asked automated tools, or this copier by name, to stay away (in its robots.txt or on the page) is not copied for somebody who has not confirmed they are its owner. A copy made without the right to make it is removed on notice under the copyright complaints clause below, and the account that made it may be closed.

## 6. Consumer rights these terms cannot take away

This clause wins. Wherever anything else in these terms conflicts with a right your own law gives you and does not permit to be excluded, that right applies and the conflicting words do not.

- **United States** — some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties or the limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so those limits may not apply to you, and your state's consumer protection and unfair-practices statutes apply and take precedence over any conflicting clause

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that the law does not allow to be limited.

## 7. Cancelling, refunds and renewals

Some states and federal rules give consumers a right to cancel certain purchases within a set time. Where one applies to you, it applies in place of anything here that gives you less, and you can tell us you are cancelling in any clear statement — an email is enough.

Subscriptions renew for the same period until you cancel. You can cancel at any time from your account, effective at the end of the period you have paid for, and we will not charge you again after that. Where the law requires a reminder before an automatic renewal — California's automatic renewal law and the similar laws of other states — we send one, and cancelling is done the same way as signing up, in the same number of clicks.

Prices are shown before you pay and include tax where we are required to show it inclusive. If we change a price, the new price applies from your next renewal and never retroactively, and we tell you before it takes effect so that you can cancel instead.

## 8. Pay as you go

Each plan includes an allowance of AI credits, storage, emails to your list, answer checks and search lookups, shown in each website's settings, under Plan. A website on a paid plan that is charged to a card each month can turn on pay as you go in its settings, under Plan. It is off until the website's owner turns it on, by ticking a box beside the prices; nobody else can turn it on or raise its limit for them. It is never offered during the free trial, while a payment is behind, during a plan's first month when that month was paid in advance, or for a plan paid by emailed invoice. While it is off, an allowance that runs out stops that use, as it always has.

While it is on, the website keeps going after an allowance runs out, and what it uses beyond its plan is billed at these prices:

- **AI credits** — $2 per 100 credits. Each AI credit used after the credits your plan includes for the month.
- **Storage** — 5¢ per GB a month, counted by the day. Once a day, every megabyte your files take up beyond the storage your plan includes. A gigabyte kept all month costs the price shown.
- **Emails to your list** — $2 per 1,000 emails. Each copy of an email to your list after the emails your plan includes for the month. One copy to one person is one email.
- **Answer checks** — 25¢ per check. Each time one of your questions is put to one AI answer engine after the checks your plan includes for the week.
- **Search lookups** — 3¢ per lookup. Each lookup of search data after the lookups your plan includes for the month. Checking a page, its speed or where you come up on Google is 1 lookup, and so are the figures for one phrase. What people search for is 1 or 2, a whole website’s figures 4, and who links to you 2, or 9 with the details. Each AI asked a question is 8, and each AI asked what it says about you 23, or 30 with rivals named.

One search can count as several lookups, by what it costs, and never more than 61. That is both AIs asked what they say about you, with rivals named, and how often the phrase is asked of AI tools. Each check is its own search, so a press that runs several checks at once counts each of them.

Prices are in US dollars and leave out any sales tax or VAT, which is added on the invoice where it applies. The owner chooses a monthly limit — $10, $25, $50, $100, $250 or $1,000 a month, or no limit — and nothing beyond it is used or billed in that calendar month; the limit starts again on the 1st. Each time pay as you go is turned on or off, or its limit is changed, we keep a record of the words shown, who did it, when, and the address and browser it was done from, and we never change a record afterwards.

Use is recorded when it happens and added to that website's own plan, on the plan's next monthly invoice, so each website's use is billed once, on its own invoice. If it reaches $20 first, it is invoiced and charged to the card as soon as it does, at most once an hour. If that charge is declined or cannot be taken, new use beyond the plan stops on that website until the invoice is paid. Files already kept beyond the plan's storage are still charged by the day meanwhile. An email to the website's list that paused for it waits for Resume to be pressed once the invoice is paid. Each use is billed at the price it was used at. If a plan is stopped at once — when a website or an account is deleted, for example — what has been used and not yet billed is billed then, on a last invoice charged to the card straight away.

Pay as you go can be turned off at any time. New use beyond the plan stops straight away, and what was used before then is still billed. Files kept beyond your plan’s storage are charged by the day for as long as they stay beyond it, even after pay as you go is turned off. That stops when you delete enough of them, when the plan ends, or when this month’s limit is reached. While it is off, new files beyond your plan’s storage are refused, and your files are never deleted. If we change these prices, we tell you before the change takes effect, so that you can turn it off instead. A new price for storage also applies to files already kept beyond the plan, even after pay as you go is turned off.

## 9. Warranties and liability

To the fullest extent the law allows — and no further — AWD CMS is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of harmful components.

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, nor for lost profits, lost revenue, lost data or lost goodwill, however caused.

Where liability cannot be excluded, our total liability for all claims in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in that period and 100 US dollars.

Read this clause together with the consumer rights clause above, which overrides it wherever your own law says it must. In particular, the exclusions do not apply to death or personal injury caused by negligence, to fraud, or to any liability that cannot lawfully be limited where you live.

## 10. Indemnity

If somebody brings a claim against us because of what you published or did here, you agree to cover our reasonable losses and legal costs. This does not apply where the claim arises from our own breach or negligence, and it does not apply to you at all if you are acting as a consumer rather than in the course of a business.

## 11. Copyright and illegal content complaints

If you believe something here infringes your copyright, write to armstrongwebdev@gmail.com with: your contact details; identification of the work; where the offending material is; a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised; a statement that the notice is accurate and that you are authorised to act; and your signature. That is what the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act § 512(c)(3) requires, and it is what we act on. Whoever posted the material may send a counter-notice.

We accept notices about illegal content from anybody, in writing, at the same address. We will confirm receipt, decide without undue delay, tell you what we decided and why, and tell you how to challenge it. Repeated infringement ends an account.

## 12. Data protection: our terms as your processor

When you build a website here and other people use it, you are the controller of their personal data and we are your processor. These paragraphs are the data processing agreement that state privacy laws such as the CCPA and the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act require, and they apply automatically — you do not need to sign anything separate.

- We process visitor personal data only on your documented instructions, which your use of the service constitutes, unless the law requires otherwise — in which case we tell you first unless the law forbids it
- The subject matter is the operation of your website; the duration is the life of your account; the nature and purpose are hosting, storing, serving and analysing at your direction; the data subjects are your visitors and members; the categories are those listed in the privacy policy
- Everyone we let near that data is bound by confidentiality
- We take reasonable security measures, and describe them in the privacy policy
- We use the sub-processors named in the privacy policy. We will tell you before adding or replacing one, and you may object
- We help you answer data subject requests, and with your obligations under those laws
- We notify you of a personal data breach without undue delay, with what you need to notify your own regulator
- On request at the end of the contract we delete or return the data, and delete existing copies unless the law requires us to keep them
- We make available the information needed to demonstrate compliance and allow audits, on reasonable notice and subject to confidentiality

You warrant that you have a lawful basis for everything you instruct us to do, that you have given your visitors the notice their law requires, and that you have obtained any consent it requires — including for analytics and session recording, if you enable them.

## 13. Other companies' services

This service depends on others — hosting and delivery, fonts, analytics and payments among them, each named in the privacy policy. Their own terms apply to you when you use them through us. We are not responsible for how they run or whether they are available, but choosing them and holding them to a contract is our responsibility, and we do.

## 14. Suspension and ending the agreement

You can stop using the service, or close your account, whenever you like.

We may suspend or end your access where you break these terms, where we are required to by law, or where continuing would expose us or others to real risk. Except where the breach is serious or the law prevents it, we will tell you first, give you the reason, give you a chance to put it right, and give you a way to challenge the decision. A suspension for a minor or accidental breach is not a termination, and we will restore access once it is resolved.

If we discontinue the service we will give you reasonable notice and a way to export your content first. Prepaid fees for a period you no longer receive are refunded pro rata.

## 15. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of the United States and of the state where the operator named in the contact section is established, and the courts of that state have jurisdiction.

That is subject to an important exception. If you are a consumer, this choice of law cannot deprive you of the protection of the mandatory consumer rules of the state you live in, and you may bring proceedings in the courts of your own state where its law allows.

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

We would rather sort a dispute out than litigate it: write to us first and we will try to resolve it within 60 days. Where we both agree in writing after a dispute has arisen, it can go to binding arbitration on an individual basis. We do not require you to agree to arbitration in advance, and we do not ask you to waive a class action.

The operator has not stated which state they are established in, so this clause cannot name it. Add it under Business details in site settings and this clause completes itself.

## 16. General

- **Changes** — we may update these terms. Material changes are announced before they take effect, and where the change reduces your rights you will be told directly and may end the agreement instead of accepting it. Carrying on using the service after a minor change means you accept it
- **Severability** — if one clause is unenforceable, the rest still stands and that clause is read as narrowly as it needs to be to become enforceable
- **No waiver** — not enforcing a term once does not give it up
- **Assignment** — you may not transfer this agreement without our consent; we may transfer it as part of a sale or reorganisation, and will tell you
- **Force majeure** — neither of us is liable for a failure caused by something genuinely outside our control, but this does not suspend a refund you are owed
- **Entire agreement** — these terms and the privacy policy are the whole agreement between us, except that nothing here excludes liability for fraudulent misrepresentation
- **Export controls and sanctions** — you confirm you are not subject to sanctions that would make it unlawful to provide this service to you, and that you will not use it where export control law forbids it
- **Accessibility** — we aim to meet WCAG 2.2 level AA. If something here is unusable for you, tell us and we will fix it and give you another way to do what you needed
- **Language** — where this document is translated, the English version governs if the versions conflict, except where your own law requires otherwise

Your information is handled as described in the privacy policy at https://awdcms.com/privacy, which forms part of these terms.

## 17. Contact

For anything about these terms:

- Armstrong Web Development
- Trading as AWD CMS
- Email: armstrongwebdev@gmail.com
- Website: https://awdcms.com

This document does not yet state a postal address and the country the business operates from. Setting PLATFORM\_POSTAL\_ADDRESS and PLATFORM\_JURISDICTION in src/lib/legal/shared.ts completes this clause, and the governing-law clause in the terms, automatically. Everything else here applies in the meantime, and the email address above is a valid route for any request.

See also our [Privacy Policy](https://awdcms.com/privacy).