Terms of service

Who these terms are between

These terms are an agreement between you, the business that hires me, and Gilded Pixel Studio LLC, a Michigan limited liability company run by Jordan Sanders. When I say “I” or “me”, I mean Gilded Pixel Studio LLC. They cover website builds, hosting, Care+ and one-off changes.

Together with the quote I send you, by email or text, they’re the whole agreement between us. If your quote says something different from these terms, for example a discounted price, the quote wins for that project.

These terms are for businesses. By agreeing to them, you confirm you’re hiring me for your business, not for personal use.

How you agree

You agree to these terms when you tick the box at checkout, pay a deposit or an invoice, or tell me in writing to go ahead. Texts and emails count as writing, for both of us.

What you get, and what it costs

• Single page: $2,000. Usually ready in 1 to 2 weeks.
• Up to 5 pages: $3,500. Usually 3 to 4 weeks.
• 6 to 8 pages: $5,000. Usually 4 to 6 weeks.

Every site includes your own edit screen, a design built for phones first, search engine setup, a contact form that’s tested before launch, moving your old site if you have one, and help with the writing. If you have a Google Business Profile, your rating and review count update on the site by themselves.

The price is fixed. There are no add-ons for moving your old site, help with the writing or anything else. Something that’s really a different project, like an online shop, a booking system built from scratch or a members’ area, gets its own quote before any work starts.

Prices are in US dollars. If you pay from outside the United States, your bank may add its own currency conversion fee. If a tax ever applies, it’s shown on the invoice before you pay.

Paying

• Half up front holds your spot on my calendar, and nothing starts until it clears.
• The rest is due when you approve the finished site, before it goes live. A site doesn’t go live until it’s paid for in full.
• You can pay by card or bank through Stripe’s secure checkout. Your card details go to Stripe and never to me.

If something comes up, tell me, and I’ll work with you. If a payment is 14 days late, I’ll send you a reminder with a date at least 7 days away. If it’s still unpaid on that date, work on your project pauses, and a site I host can be taken offline until it’s paid. There’s no late fee. If hosting stays unpaid for 60 days, I’ll treat it as cancelled, and you can still have your site’s files free.

If you ever have a problem with a charge, please talk to me before disputing it with your bank or card company. I’ll work it out with you.

Changing your mind

If you cancel before I start, your deposit comes back in full. I’ll always tell you the day I start. Once I’ve started, the deposit isn’t refunded: it covers the time already spent.

Either of us can end a project at any time, in writing. If you end it after I’ve started, you owe nothing more, and what I’ve built stays with me unless you pay the balance to have it. If I end a project before it’s finished for a reason that isn’t yours, I’ll refund any part of your payments for work I haven’t done.

Timelines

A single page usually takes 1 to 2 weeks, up to 5 pages 3 to 4 weeks, and 6 to 8 pages 4 to 6 weeks, from deposit to live. These are honest estimates, not deadlines: the biggest factor is how quickly your words, photos and replies come back to me. If you move quickly, it can be much faster, and even a larger site can be ready in about a week.

A new site usually goes live the same day the final payment clears. Moving an existing site usually takes up to 24 hours, because I’d rather do it carefully than fast.

Your words, photos and logo

You’ll send me your words, photos, logo and anything else that goes on the site, or approve what I write for you. You confirm that you own them or have permission to use them, and that what you supply is accurate and legal.

If someone claims that something you supplied breaks their rights, that’s between you and them, and you’ll cover any cost it causes me.

Changes before launch, and approving the site

Up to 3 rounds of changes are included before launch. Send changes whenever you think of them. I collect them into one numbered list and send it back before each build day, so you can check I’ve got it right; a round is everything on that list when I start the build day.

If I ask you to look at a round and you haven’t replied within 7 days, I’ll take it that you’re happy with that round and keep going. I’ll always ask first, and this never counts as approving the finished site: the go-ahead to launch always comes from you, in writing.

If your words or photos arrive more than a week after the date we agreed, your project pauses and picks up again at the next open slot on my calendar.

After launch

Anything broken in the first 30 days after launch is fixed free. A bug is something that doesn’t work the way we agreed; a change is something new or different. You also get one more round of changes after launch, and your first month of care is free.

After that, you can change your own words and photos any time, for free. Bigger changes are $75 to $125 each, quoted before I start, or covered by Care+.

Hosting and Care+

• Hosted by me, $20 a month: hosting, the security certificate, backups, uptime monitoring and publishing your changes.
• Care+, $99 a month: everything in hosting, plus up to 2 hours of design changes each month and priority turnaround, which means your requests go ahead of other change work. Unused hours don’t carry over, and anything over 2 hours is quoted first.
• Your own host, $200 once: if you’d rather keep the site on hosting you already pay for, I set it up there and hand it over. Nothing monthly to me, and keeping it online is then up to you and your host.

Both are month to month, and the first month is free. Cancel any time by text or email. Cancelling stops the next charge; a month that’s already been paid isn’t refunded.

After you cancel, your site stays online for 30 days, and I’ll send you its complete files free. If you’d like me to set it up on another host for you, that’s a one-time $200.

Your site runs on hosting I manage, with a private backup copy of every site’s files. I can’t promise it will never be down, because no host can, but if it ever is, I’ll get it back up as fast as I can. I can take down a site that’s being used for anything illegal or harmful.

Your web address and your accounts

Your web address (your domain) is always in your name, in an account you own. If you already have one, it stays where it is. If you don’t, I’ll walk you through buying it. Keeping it renewed is up to you, though I’ll tell you if I notice it’s due.

I don’t host email. Your email stays with your email provider, and I don’t change it unless we’ve agreed I will. Accounts I set up for your site, like Google Search Console and Google Analytics, are in your name or have you as an owner.

If you give me access to any of your accounts, I use it only for your project, and you can remove it whenever you like.

Who owns what

Your own words, photos and logo are always yours. Once you’ve paid in full, you also own the design, the words I wrote for you and the code written for your site. Until then, those stay mine.

I keep ownership of the tools and code I use across many sites, like my build tools and the edit-screen setup, and you get a permanent, free right to keep using them as part of your site. Services that run on my own accounts, like the edit-screen login and the weekly Google review check, stop when my hosting ends unless they’re moved to accounts of your own.

I may show your finished site in my portfolio. I’ll ask you before writing a case study about your project. If you’d rather I didn’t show your site, tell me and I’ll take it down.

Fonts, photos and services from other companies belong to them and follow their own terms.

Other companies’ services

Your site may rely on services I don’t control, like Stripe, Google, your booking or quote tool, the company whose servers host the site, GitHub, and the service behind your edit screen’s login. If one of them changes, raises its prices or goes down, I’ll help you sort it out, but I’m not responsible for what they do.

What I don’t promise

I set every site up properly for search engines, but nobody honest can promise rankings, traffic, calls or sales, and I don’t.

Apart from fixing bugs in the first 30 days, the site is provided as it is. If you, or someone you give access to, change the site through the edit screen, those changes are your responsibility. I’m always happy to help fix them; bigger fixes are billed like any other change.

Limits on responsibility

If something I did causes you a loss, the most I’m responsible for is the total you paid Gilded Pixel Studio in the 12 months before the claim. Neither of us is responsible to the other for lost profits, lost business or other indirect losses.

These limits don’t apply where the law doesn’t allow them, for example in cases of fraud.

Privacy

What I collect when you visit my site or get in touch, and how to have it deleted, is in my privacy page. What you send me for your project is used for your project, and I never sell it. Some of it passes through the services I work with to do the job, like Stripe for payments, Google, GitHub, my hosting company, and the AI tools I use when I build and check sites.

If we disagree

Tell me first. We’ll both try, in good faith, to sort it out between us for 30 days before anything else.

If we can’t, these terms follow Michigan law, and any claim goes to the courts in Oakland County, Michigan, including small claims court.

The small print

• Things outside our control. Neither of us is responsible for delays caused by things we can’t control, like an outage at another company, illness or severe weather. This doesn’t excuse paying what’s owed.
• If part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies.
• Notices can go by email or text, to the addresses and numbers we use with each other. Mine are info@gildedpixelstudio.com and 248-933-8094.
• Changes to these terms. I’ll date every version and email you about any change that affects you. For a project already under way, the version you agreed to applies until it’s finished. For hosting and Care+, a change takes effect 30 days after I tell you, and you can cancel before then.

Version 1, effective October 13, 2026. Gilded Pixel Studio LLC, Oxford, Michigan. info@gildedpixelstudio.com, 248-933-8094.