Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a legal agreement between you and Linkwards, operated by Burtlett Zikonde, an individual based in South Africa (“Linkwards”, “we”, “us” or “our”). They govern your access to and use of the Linkwards website at linkwards.com, the Linkwards customer app at app.linkwards.com, the public pages that customers publish at linkwards.com/username, our free tools at linkwards.com/tools, and everything else we provide (together, the “Service”).

Please read these Terms carefully. By creating an account, ticking the agreement box at sign-up, or using the Service, you agree to be bound by them, together with our Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Billing and Refund Policy, Cookie Policy and, where it applies to you, our Data Processing Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Who can use Linkwards

You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live if that is higher, and able to enter into a binding contract.
If you use Linkwards on behalf of a business or other organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind it, and “you” includes that organisation.
You must not use Linkwards if we have previously suspended or terminated your account for breaching these Terms, unless we have agreed in writing to let you back.
Linkwards is not directed at children. Do not use the Service to knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.

2. What Linkwards is

Linkwards is a software platform that lets you build a single, branded public page (a “Page”) to present your services, content, testimonials, contact options and links, and to receive enquiries. Depending on your plan, the Service includes a page editor, hero image or video, service cards, content cards, strips, testimonials, locations and additional contacts, a media library, social and custom links, booking requests, a newsletter sign-up section, analytics, SEO and tracking settings, notifications and in-app support.

Some important things about how Linkwards works:

Linkwards is a tool, not a party to your business. We are not your agent, employer, partner or adviser, and we are not a party to any transaction, booking or relationship between you and the people who visit your Page.
We do not process payments between you and your visitors. Where you add a payment, booking or checkout link, it points to a third-party service you choose. Those services are governed by their own terms.
Booking requests are enquiries, not confirmed bookings. The booking feature is a request queue for you to follow up manually. It is not a live calendar, and we do not guarantee that a request is accurate, genuine or will lead to a booking.
The newsletter feature collects and stores sign-ups. We store the email addresses visitors submit and let you view and export them. We do not currently send newsletters or marketing emails on your behalf. If you send emails to your subscribers using another tool, you are responsible for doing so lawfully.
The Service changes. We add, change and remove features over time. See section 17.

3. Your account

You must provide accurate, current and complete information when you sign up (including your name, email address and country) and keep it up to date.
You are responsible for keeping your password and login details secure, for all activity under your account, and for any actions taken by anyone you allow to use it. Tell us immediately at support@linkwards.com if you suspect unauthorised access.
One person or business should hold one account. You may not sell, transfer or share an account without our written consent.
We use bot-protection and anti-abuse measures (such as Cloudflare Turnstile) at sign-up and login. You must not try to bypass them.
We record the version of these Terms and of our Privacy Policy that you agreed to, and the time you agreed, so that we can show what you accepted.

4. Your Page address (username)

Your Page lives at an address of the form linkwards.com/username (your “slug”). Slugs are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
A slug is a licence to use that address while your account is in good standing. It is not property, and you do not own it.
You must not choose a slug that impersonates another person or brand, infringes someone’s trademark, is deceptive or offensive, or is reserved for our own use. We may change, remove or reassign a slug that breaches this rule, and may reserve slugs for system use.
If you change your slug, we may keep a record of previous addresses so that old links can be redirected and to prevent misuse. We do not guarantee that an old slug will remain available to you.

5. Free trial, plans and features

Trial. New accounts receive a 14-day free trial with no payment card required. During the trial you receive access to a set of features that we determine and may describe in the app. The trial feature set may differ from a paid plan (for example, some features available on Pro may not be available during the trial).
After the trial. If you do not choose a paid plan when your trial ends, your account moves to a locked state: your Page is taken offline and public features and analytics are paused. Your content is kept so you can restore your Page by subscribing. See our Data Retention and Deletion page for how long we keep it.
Paid plans. We currently offer Starter and Pro monthly plans. Each plan has limits and features (for example, the number of service cards, content items, strips, testimonials, locations, media items and links; hero video; SEO and tracking tools; analytics history and CSV export; and removal of Linkwards branding). The limits that apply to your plan are shown in the app and on our pricing page.
Changing plans. If you move to a plan with lower limits, content that exceeds the new limits may be hidden, disabled or become uneditable until you reduce it or upgrade again. We are not responsible for loss of visibility caused by plan limits.
Complimentary or adjusted access. We may, at our discretion, grant, adjust or withdraw complimentary plans, trial extensions or manual plan changes on an account. Doing so does not create an ongoing entitlement.

6. Fees, billing and cancellation

Full details are in our Billing and Refund Policy, which forms part of these Terms. In summary:

Paid plans are billed monthly in advance and renew automatically until you cancel.
Payments are processed by our payment provider and merchant of record, Lemon Squeezy. We do not store your full card details.
Prices may exclude taxes such as VAT or sales tax, which the payment provider may add at checkout depending on where you are.
You can cancel at any time from the billing settings in the app. Cancelling switches off renewal; you keep access until the end of the period you have already paid for.
Fees are generally non-refundable, except where required by law or as set out in the Billing and Refund Policy.
We do not charge commission on anything you earn through your Page, because we do not process those transactions.

7. Your content

Ownership

You keep ownership of everything you upload, enter or publish through the Service, including text, images, video, logos, testimonials, links, service descriptions, prices and other material (“Your Content”). We do not claim ownership of Your Content.

Licence to us

To run the Service, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, reformat, optimise, cache, transmit, display and distribute Your Content, and to create technical derivatives (such as resized images or generated previews), solely for the purposes of operating, securing, supporting and improving the Service and showing your Page to the people you choose to reach. This licence lasts for as long as Your Content is on the Service and for a reasonable period afterwards while it is removed from caches, backups and logs.

Your promises about Your Content

You confirm and promise that:

you own Your Content or have all the rights, licences, consents and permissions needed to use it and to give us the licence above;
Your Content, and your use of the Service, does not infringe or violate any law or any third party’s rights, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity and confidentiality rights;
where Your Content includes a photo, name, quote or review of another person, including testimonials, you have that person’s permission to publish it and it is genuine and not misleading or invented;
the information on your Page, including prices, availability, qualifications, results and claims about your services, is accurate, lawful and not misleading; and
your use complies with our Acceptable Use Policy.

Our right to remove content

We do not review Your Content before it is published and we are not obliged to monitor it. We may, however, remove or disable content, or unpublish or suspend a Page, if we reasonably believe it breaches these Terms or the law, harms others or the Service, or if we receive a valid complaint. See our Copyright and Content Reports page.

Backups and exports

You are responsible for keeping your own copies of Your Content. We take reasonable care with it, but we do not guarantee that it will never be lost or corrupted. You can export certain data from the app (for example, newsletter subscribers, and analytics where your plan allows CSV export).

8. Your visitors’ data and your legal responsibilities

When people interact with your Page, for example by sending a booking request, subscribing to your newsletter, or simply visiting, personal information about them is collected through the Service. For that information:

You are the “responsible party” (controller) and Linkwards acts as your “operator” (processor), as described in our Data Processing Terms.
You are responsible for having a lawful basis to collect and use that information, for telling your visitors how you use it, for responding to their requests, and for complying with data protection, electronic marketing and anti-spam laws that apply to you (such as POPIA in South Africa, the GDPR and UK GDPR in Europe and the UK, and similar laws elsewhere).
The booking form includes an optional tick box for visitors who want to receive news and offers from your business. You must only use those addresses for what the visitor agreed to, and you must honour unsubscribe requests.
If you add Google Analytics (GA4), the Meta Pixel or any other tracking tool to your Page, you are responsible for any notices, consents, cookie banners and legal compliance those tools require for your visitors.
Do not use booking forms, newsletter sign-ups or any other part of the Service to collect sensitive information (such as health records, government ID numbers, financial account details, or information about children) unless the law allows it and you have taken the extra steps it requires.

9. Acceptable use

You must use the Service lawfully and responsibly and follow our Acceptable Use Policy, which forms part of these Terms. In particular, you must not use the Service to break the law, infringe rights, send spam, distribute malware, harass or deceive people, publish prohibited content, scrape or attack the Service, or interfere with its security.

10. Our free tools

The tools at linkwards.com/tools (such as image, PDF, QR code, audio and text utilities) are provided free of charge and “as is”. Most tools process files in your browser on your own device and do not upload them to our servers; see our Privacy Policy for details. Output from tools (including AI-assisted output such as background removal, text extraction or transcription) may contain errors, and you are responsible for checking it before relying on it. You must have the right to process any file you put into a tool. We may change, limit or remove any tool at any time.

11. Third-party services and links

The Service integrates with and links to services we do not control, including payment providers, hosting and database providers, email delivery, analytics and advertising tools, social networks, video platforms, maps, booking and payment links you add, and QR code generation. We are not responsible for the content, availability, security or practices of those services, and your use of them is at your own risk and subject to their terms. Our own use of service providers is listed on our Sub-processors page.

12. Our intellectual property

The Service, including the Linkwards name, logos, design, software, templates, layouts, documentation and the content we create, is owned by us or our licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws.
Subject to these Terms, we give you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Service for your own lawful business or personal purposes.
You must not copy, modify, reverse engineer, decompile, resell, sublicense or create derivative works of the Service, or use our name or branding in a way that suggests endorsement, without our written permission.
If you give us feedback or suggestions, you allow us to use them without restriction or payment.
Pages on plans that do not include branding removal may display Linkwards branding. You must not remove or hide it unless your plan includes that feature.

13. Verification badge

We may award a verification badge to some Pages. A badge shows only that we have applied the checks we describe at the time. It is not an endorsement, certification, guarantee or recommendation, and we may remove it at any time.

14. Privacy and security

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information. We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect the Service and the data in it, but no system is completely secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You must keep your own login credentials safe and use a strong, unique password.

15. Support access to your account

Our team uses an internal administration tool to run the Service, provide support and prevent abuse. Staff access is limited by role, protected by multi-factor authentication, and recorded in an audit log. To help resolve a problem, authorised staff may, with a documented reason and for a limited time, view your account as you would see it, and in some cases make approved changes. These sessions are time-limited, clearly marked inside the app, and logged. By using the Service you agree that we may access your account and content for these purposes: to provide support, investigate abuse or security issues, enforce these Terms, comply with law, and maintain and improve the Service. If you send us a support message, we keep it so we can help you and keep a record of our conversation.

16. Suspension and termination

By you

You can stop using Linkwards at any time. To close your account, use the delete-account option in your account settings. Your Page is taken offline immediately and your account and data are permanently deleted after a 30-day grace period during which you can change your mind. See Data Retention and Deletion. Closing your account does not by itself cancel a subscription held with our payment provider; cancel your subscription first so that you are not billed again.

By us

We may suspend, restrict or terminate your account or any part of the Service, with or without notice, if:

you breach these Terms, our policies or the law;
your use creates risk or harm for us, other customers, visitors or third parties;
we are required to by law or a court or authority;
a payment is overdue, reversed or disputed;
your account appears to be fraudulent, abandoned or compromised; or
we decide to stop providing the Service or a feature (in which case we will give reasonable notice where practical).

Where we suspend a Page, it may be taken offline and become unavailable to you and to visitors. Where reasonable and lawful, we will tell you why and give you a chance to respond. If you think we got it wrong, contact support@linkwards.com. You are not entitled to a refund of fees where we terminate or suspend your account for your breach.

What happens afterwards

When an account is terminated or deleted, your right to use the Service ends, and sections that by their nature should survive (including ownership, licences for already-delivered material, payment obligations, disclaimers, limits of liability, indemnities, governing law and dispute provisions) continue to apply.

17. Changes to the Service and to these Terms

We may change, add or remove features, limits and plans at any time. If a change materially reduces what you are paying for, we will give notice and, where appropriate, let you cancel.
We may change these Terms. If we make a material change, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and, where practical, notify you by email or in the app before the change takes effect. We may also ask you to agree to the new version, and we will record the version you accept.
We will give existing paying customers at least 30 days’ notice of any price increase.
If you keep using the Service after a change takes effect, you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree, you must stop using the Service and may cancel your subscription.

18. Availability and support

We work to keep the Service available, but we do not promise it will be uninterrupted, error-free or free of delays. We may carry out maintenance and updates, and the Service may be affected by events outside our control, including problems with our hosting, database, network, payment or email providers. We publish service status information at linkwards.instatus.com. Support is provided through the in-app support inbox and support@linkwards.com. We aim to respond promptly but do not guarantee response or resolution times.

19. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied or statutory, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, availability or that the Service will meet your requirements or generate any particular results, such as traffic, enquiries, bookings, subscribers, sales or search ranking. Analytics are provided as estimates and may be incomplete (for example, where visitors block tracking). We do not endorse and are not responsible for Your Content or anyone else’s content, or for the conduct of visitors or customers.

20. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill, data, opportunity or anticipated savings, arising out of or connected with the Service or these Terms, even if we were told they were possible;
our total liability to you for all claims arising out of or connected with the Service or these Terms is limited to the greater of (a) the total fees you paid to us for the Service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, and (b) USD 100; and
we are not liable for any failure or delay caused by events outside our reasonable control, including outages of internet, hosting, database, payment, email or other third-party services, power failures, labour disputes, war, terrorism, riots, government action, natural disasters, epidemics or cyber-attacks.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law, including liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence. If you are a consumer, you may have rights under consumer protection laws (such as the South African Consumer Protection Act and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act) that these Terms do not take away, and these limits apply only to the extent those laws allow.

21. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Linkwards, its owner, and its contractors and service providers from and against claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to: Your Content; your Page; your breach of these Terms or the law; your infringement of another person’s rights; your handling of personal information collected through your Page; or your dealings with visitors, subscribers, customers or other third parties.

22. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.
Before starting formal proceedings, please contact us at support@linkwards.com so we can try to resolve the matter informally. We will do our best to respond within 30 days.
If we cannot resolve it, you and we submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the South African courts, subject to any mandatory rights you have to bring a claim in the courts of the country where you live.
If you are a consumer, nothing here limits your right to approach a consumer protection body, ombud or regulator that has authority over the dispute.

23. General

Entire agreement. These Terms, with the policies they refer to, are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service and replace any earlier terms, including the terms that applied to the earlier version of Linkwards.
Severability. If a provision is found invalid or unenforceable, the rest remains in force, and the provision will be applied to the greatest extent allowed.
No waiver. If we do not enforce a right straight away, that does not mean we give it up.
Assignment. You may not transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our consent. We may transfer ours to a successor or affiliate, including in a merger, restructuring, sale of assets, or if the business is incorporated or sold, in which case we will make sure the new owner honours our commitments about your data.
No third-party rights. These Terms do not give rights to anyone who is not a party, except where they expressly say so.
Notices. We may notify you by email to the address on your account, by in-app message or banner, or by posting on our website. You may notify us at support@linkwards.com.
Electronic communications. You agree that we can communicate with you electronically and that electronic agreement and records, including your acceptance of these Terms, are valid and binding.
Relationship. You and we are independent contracting parties. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency or employment.
Language. These Terms are written in English. Any translation is for convenience only.

24. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email support@linkwards.com or use our contact page. Linkwards is operated by Burtlett Zikonde, South Africa.