Terms of Service

Effective: May 5, 2026

Welcome. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Plaza website and services. By starting a project, paying an invoice, or using a site we host or maintain, you agree to these Terms.

1. Who we are

"Plaza," "we," "us," and "our" refer to Plaza, a sole-proprietor design studio operating in California, USA. "You" and "your" refer to the business or individual purchasing services from us. Plaza is founded by Matt Gonzalez, a UC Berkeley Economics student based in Berkeley with a background in web design and business intelligence.

2. Our services and plans

We offer three plans:

• Build ($399 one-time) — a custom website (typically 5 pages), mobile-responsive design, basic on-page SEO setup, and one round of revisions. Domain registration help is included; the domain registration fee is paid by you to the registrar (typically ~$10/year).
• Care ($75/month) — managed hosting, security monitoring, content updates up to 3 hours per month (combined design and copy), uptime monitoring, and email support. Unused hours do not roll over.
• Grow ($175/month) — everything in Care, plus monthly local-SEO and content work, Google Business Profile maintenance, and a monthly progress report.

Add-ons (logo refresh, photo session, email setup, extra pages) are quoted at the prices listed on our services page. Specific scope is confirmed in your kickoff brief and proposal. If something isn't in scope, we'll quote it separately before doing the work.

3. Payment and billing

Build is billed once at kickoff via Stripe. Care and Grow are billed monthly via Stripe and renew automatically on the same day each month. Subscription start dates align with your launch date unless otherwise agreed.

Payment failures are retried automatically by Stripe for up to 7 days. If not resolved, service may be paused until payment is current. We will email you before any service interruption.

Refunds and cancellations are governed by our Refund and Cancellation Policy, which forms part of these Terms.

4. The 3-day launch promise

For Build, we commit to delivering a complete first draft of your website within 3 calendar days of receiving a complete kickoff brief and any required content (logo, copy, photos). Weekends count.

If we miss this deadline due to our delay, we'll credit you the first month of Care free, or the first month of Grow at half price ($87.50 instead of $175), as compensation. If you're not on a plan, we'll refund $75 of the Build fee instead. Delays caused by your content not arriving on time, by third-party service outages outside our control, or by scope changes you request mid-build are not covered by this promise.

5. Intellectual property

Once your invoice is paid in full, you own:

• The final visual design and layout of your website.
• The page copy we wrote for you.
• Any custom-generated visual assets (logos we make for you, custom illustrations, etc.).

We retain rights to:

• The underlying code framework, components, and tooling we use across multiple client sites.
• The right to display your finished site as recent work in our portfolio, including screenshots and a link, unless you opt out in writing at support@plazasites.com.
• The right to reference anonymized outcomes in case studies (e.g. "we helped one client improve X by Y%") unless you opt out.

Open-source components (fonts, libraries, frameworks) remain the property of their respective licensors and are used under their licenses.

If you supply us with content (logos, photos, copy, brand assets), you represent that you own it or have a license to use it. You grant us a non-exclusive license to use that content solely for the purpose of building and maintaining your site.

6. Domain registration and ownership

If your engagement includes a domain that Plaza registers and pays for on your behalf, the following terms apply. They are designed to be fair: you always own the domain name itself, and you always have a clear path to keep it.

Registration

The domain is registered in your name as the legal registrant from day one. You are listed as the owner with the registrar (typically Cloudflare Registrar). Plaza's role is solely as the billing party that pays the annual registration fee on your behalf while you remain an active client.

While you are on a paid plan

While you maintain an active Care or Grow subscription, Plaza covers the annual domain registration fee at no additional charge. Standard domains under Plaza's coverage are typical .com / .net / .org / .co domains where the registrar's annual fee does not exceed $20 USD. Premium domains, country-code TLDs with elevated pricing, and domains with separate marketplace fees are not covered and will be quoted separately before purchase.

The one-month-per-year requirement

To keep the domain registration on Plaza's account, you must be on a paid Care or Grow plan for at least one full calendar month within each rolling 12-month period measured from the most recent renewal. If you go a full 12 months without ever being on a paid Care or Grow plan, you are no longer eligible for free domain coverage going forward.

If you stop your plan but want to keep the domain

If you cancel your plan, you may transfer the domain out to your own registrar at any time, with no fee or restriction from Plaza, and continue paying for it yourself directly. We will provide the transfer authorization code within 5 business days of a written request to support@plazasites.com. This is the cleanest option and we recommend it for any client who does not plan to return to a paid plan.

If the domain renewal comes up while you have lapsed

If the annual renewal date arrives and you have not been on a paid plan for at least one full calendar month in the prior 12 months, Plaza is not obligated to renew the domain at our expense. We will email you at least 30 days before the renewal date with three options: (a) resume a paid plan and we'll cover the renewal as usual; (b) take over billing yourself by transferring the domain to your own registrar; or (c) authorize Plaza to renew on your behalf and pay us the renewal cost ($20 or less) directly.

If the domain lapses and you do not respond

If you do not respond to the 30-day notice, do not resume a paid plan, do not transfer the domain out, and do not pay the renewal cost, Plaza may either (a) let the domain expire, or (b) renew the domain at our own expense to preserve it. If we renew it at our own expense, the registration becomes Plaza's responsibility and Plaza retains the registration rights for the domain for as long as we continue to renew it. You may reclaim the domain at any time by paying Plaza a buy-back fee equal to $120 USD per year for each year (or partial year, prorated to the nearest month) that Plaza has continued to cover the renewal beyond the date you lapsed. The buy-back fee covers Plaza's cost of capital, registrar fees, and the administrative cost of holding the domain.

Plaza's commitment if we hold a lapsed domain

If Plaza retains a lapsed domain under the prior paragraph, we agree that for the first three (3) years after the lapse date, we will not sell, transfer, lease, or point that domain to any third party. The domain will either remain parked, redirect to a neutral page, or be released back to you upon payment of the buy-back fee. After three years, if you have not reclaimed the domain, Plaza may release it, retain it for our own use, or transfer it. We will email a final 30-day notice to your last known email address before the three-year window closes.

Domains you bought yourself

If you purchased your domain yourself before or during our engagement, none of the above applies. The domain is and remains entirely yours, you pay the registrar directly, and Plaza only assists with DNS configuration as part of the Build.

7. Your responsibilities

• Provide accurate business information and content.
• Own or have license to all content (text, photos, logos) you provide to us.
• Keep your domain registration and any third-party accounts (Google Business Profile, social media, email) accessible to us during the engagement.
• Pay invoices on time.
• Respond to our requests for feedback or content within a reasonable timeframe — extended silence may pause your project.

8. Hosting and uptime

Sites under Care or Grow are hosted on third-party infrastructure (currently Render, Cloudflare, or similar reputable providers — the exact stack may change as we improve our setup). We target 99.9% uptime but make no specific guarantee. Uptime depends on these providers and on factors outside our control (DDoS attacks, DNS outages, force majeure).

We monitor uptime and notify you of significant outages affecting your site. We perform routine backups of site content and database (where applicable) at least weekly.

9. Acceptable use

You agree not to use our services to host or distribute:

• Illegal content under United States or California law.
• Spam, malware, phishing pages, or material designed to deceive visitors.
• Adult content involving minors, or any content depicting non-consensual sexual material.
• Content that infringes others' intellectual property rights.
• Content that incites violence or harassment toward identifiable individuals or groups.

We reserve the right to remove content or terminate service for clear violations, with reasonable notice where possible. Egregious violations (e.g. illegal content) may result in immediate termination without notice.

10. Termination

You may cancel Care or Grow at any time per our Refund and Cancellation Policy. We may terminate service for non-payment after 7 days of notice, for violations of these Terms, or if we discontinue a service line.

Upon termination for any reason, you receive a final export of your site files and database (if applicable) at no additional charge, available for 30 days after termination. After 30 days we may delete your data from our active systems.

11. Disclaimers and liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total cumulative liability for any claim arising from these Terms or our services is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to lost profits, lost data caused by third-party providers, or business interruption.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability where such limitation is prohibited by applicable law (e.g. for gross negligence or willful misconduct).

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms occasionally to reflect changes in our services, the law, or operational realities. If changes are material, we'll notify you by email at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use of our services after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

Non-material changes (typo fixes, formatting, clarifications that don't change rights or obligations) may be made at any time without notice.

13. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, without regard to conflicts-of-law principles. Any disputes arising out of these Terms or our services will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Alameda County, California.

Before filing any legal claim, both parties agree to attempt to resolve the dispute informally by emailing support@plazasites.com with a clear description of the issue and giving us 30 days to respond.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email us at support@plazasites.com or use our contact form. For privacy-specific questions, email privacy@plazasites.com.