Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of shovelop.com and any engagement you enter into with Shovelop (“we”, “us”). By accessing the site or engaging us for work, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the site or our services.

These Terms are the baseline. Every project is additionally governed by its own proposal, statement of work or contract — where that document and these Terms conflict, the project document wins.

Shovelop designs and builds digital systems: websites and web platforms, mobile applications, SaaS products, AI features and models, AI agents, automation pipelines, custom software and cloud infrastructure.

Everything we build is engineered to be commercial-grade — performance, security and maintainability are part of the work, not extras. What is included in any specific engagement, including scope, timeline and price, is defined in the agreed proposal or statement of work.

Work begins only after you accept a written proposal and, where required, pay a deposit. Quotes are valid for 30 days unless stated otherwise. Prices are exclusive of applicable taxes unless a proposal says otherwise.

For project work we typically invoice against milestones; for retainers, monthly in advance. Invoices are due within 14 days unless a different term is agreed in writing. Late payment may pause work, and we will always tell you before it does.

You agree to provide timely feedback, approvals, content and access to systems needed for the work — accounts, credentials, third-party services and any existing material. Delays in these usually translate directly into delays in delivery, and we will flag them as they happen.

You confirm that the materials, data and permissions you give us do not infringe third-party rights or violate applicable law.

We give our best professional estimates for timelines, and we treat them as estimates — real-world dependencies (content, approvals, third-party services) move dates. Where a fixed date is business-critical, we agree on it explicitly in the proposal.

Scope changes are normal. We assess each request’s impact on cost and schedule, confirm it in writing, and only then fold it into the plan. Small tweaks within the spirit of the original scope are usually absorbed.

On full payment for a project, the custom deliverables created specifically for you — designs, source code and content — transfer to you.

We retain ownership of our pre-existing tools, frameworks, internal libraries and general know-how used to build your product; you receive a perpetual, non-exclusive right to use them as embedded in the deliverables. Third-party open-source components remain under their own licenses.

Until an invoice is fully paid, all deliverables remain our property.

We keep your business information, data and project details confidential and use them only to deliver the work. Mutual confidentiality terms from a signed NDA, where one exists, take precedence.

We may reference the engagement in our portfolio and case studies unless you ask us not to — we will always respect a request to keep a project private.

We warrant that services are performed with professional skill and care, and that deliverables substantially match the agreed specification.

Beyond that, the site and services are provided “as is”. We do not warrant uninterrupted operation of third-party services, future platform changes beyond agreed support windows, or outcomes that depend on factors outside our control (such as market response or third-party API changes).

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability arising from an engagement is limited to the fees you paid for the work out of which the claim arose. Neither party is liable for indirect, incidental or consequential damages, lost profits or lost data.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot legally be limited (for example, liability for intent or gross negligence where such limitation is void).

Either party can end an engagement with written notice as described in the project agreement. You pay for all work performed up to the termination date, and we hand over everything completed to that point, including source code and documentation.

We may suspend or end work immediately if a client materially breaches these Terms or engages in unlawful conduct.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction stated in your project agreement, or — for site use — the jurisdiction of our registered place of business. We may update these Terms from time to time; the “last updated” date at the top reflects the current version, and the version in force is the one linked from the site at the time you engage us.

Questions about these Terms, or ready to start a project? Reach us through the contact section of this site. We are happy to walk through any clause before you sign anything.