Terms of Service

1. Agreement

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Velcio platform and related services (collectively, the "Service") operated by Velcio LTD ("Velcio LTD", "Velcio", "we", "us", or "our"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. What Velcio provides

Velcio is a managed handoff and hosting platform for buyer-funded software projects. Buyers fund projects, agree pricing with assigned developers, and authorise payment through Stripe. Developers work off-platform, submit delivery artifacts, and receive payouts through Stripe Connect after buyer acceptance. Velcio builds, deploys, and may host the delivered project on your behalf.

Supported project types, platforms, and runtimes are those offered in the Service at the time you use them; see product documentation for current scope. Today, Velcio supports Worker processes (long-lived apps such as Discord or Telegram bots and similar jobs) and Web HTTP apps, in Python or Node.js, submitted as a ZIP upload or a GitHub repository snapshot via the Velcio GitHub App.

Buyers may hire developers directly (including by username or email invite), browse opted-in developer profiles, or post open project listings for proposals. Those discovery features are part of the Service but do not make Velcio a party to any off-platform freelance contract between buyer and developer.

Velcio is a managed handoff platform, not a generic freelance marketplace, escrow agent, arbitrator of freelance contracts, or legal advisor. Developers may opt in to a public developer directory (marketplace profiles and reviews). Those profiles and reviews are user content: Velcio does not endorse developers, guarantee assignments or outcomes, and may remove or suspend directory content or accounts that violate these Terms or create risk for the platform or other users.

We provide tooling and infrastructure; buyers and developers remain responsible for their project agreements, delivered software behaviour, and compliance with third-party rules (including platform terms for Discord and other integrated services). Any agreement you make outside Velcio is solely between you and the other party.

Untrusted code. Delivery archives (ZIP uploads and GitHub snapshots) and dependency install steps run on Velcio build and hosting infrastructure. Submitted code is treated as untrusted. You are responsible for what that code does once built or deployed (including in Discord or other third-party services). Except as required by law and subject to Section 12, Velcio is not liable for harm caused by submitted or deployed code, including supply-chain behaviour during builds.

3. Eligibility and accounts

• You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter a binding contract.
• Authentication is provided through Clerk. You are responsible for safeguarding your login credentials and for activity under your account.
• You must provide accurate account information and keep it up to date, including contact details used for project notifications and payouts.
• You must choose a username. Usernames are public identifiers used for assignment and marketplace discovery. Once set, a username is immutable and cannot be changed or removed through the Service.
• To delete your account, use Account settings (Your data) to schedule deletion, or email support@velcio.dev from the address associated with your account. Scheduled deletion includes a grace period during which you may cancel before your profile is anonymised and sign-in access is removed.
• You must not use the Service if you are prohibited from receiving services under the laws of England and Wales, or under applicable UK, EU, or US sanctions or export-control rules. You must not use the Service for prohibited industries or activities that Stripe or card networks disallow.

4. Buyer responsibilities

• You may create projects, assign or invite developers, post open listings, negotiate price, and fund projects only when you have authority to do so.
• Payment authorisation through Stripe Checkout holds funds until delivery is accepted or the review window ends under our published workflow. Authorisation is not the same as final capture; see Section 6.
• You own and manage production secrets (for example API tokens and bot credentials). Velcio stores secrets encrypted for deployment but does not take ownership of your intellectual property or third-party credentials.
• When you accept a project delivery or an accepted revision through the Service, you receive full ownership of the delivered source code and related work product for that project, to the extent the developer had rights to assign. You may download the delivery archive (ZIP), modify the code, and host it outside Velcio.
• You must review deployed delivery during the review period and accept or dispute in good faith. If you neither accept nor open a valid in-app dispute before the review deadline (default 7 days), Velcio may automatically accept the delivery: payment may be captured, ownership may transfer under Section 9, and the free review runtime may stop. Restarting a paused preview does not extend the review deadline.
• During review, you may test the live delivery on Velcio infrastructure at no extra charge (Worker logs and process health, or a Web preview URL where applicable). Developer verification deploys before review use the same continuous session cap. Each continuous preview session is time-capped (default 120 minutes). When the cap is reached the runtime pauses; you may restart preview from the project page. Confirming delivery into review starts a fresh buyer review window. See our Pricing page and product documentation.
• You may cancel a project for free while it is a draft or funded (before the developer accepts). After the developer accepts and before buyer review starts, cancellation charges a cancellation fee from the authorised hold as described in Section 6. Once the project is in review, use accept or dispute instead of cancellation.

5. Developer responsibilities

• You must accept assigned projects within the published acceptance window or the assignment may expire and payment authorisation may be released to the buyer.
• You deliver work off-platform and submit a compliant delivery through Velcio (ZIP upload or GitHub snapshot). You represent that you have the rights to deliver the submitted code and that it does not knowingly violate applicable law or third-party terms.
• When a buyer accepts your delivery, you assign full ownership of that delivered source code and related work product to the buyer, to the extent you have rights to assign. You retain no right to reuse, copy, distribute, or sublicence that code for other clients or projects unless the buyer agrees separately in writing outside Velcio.
• You must complete Stripe Connect onboarding before receiving payouts. Velcio uses Express connected accounts; payout timing and holds follow our documented payment rules. Tax forms and payout identity checks are handled by Stripe under Stripe's terms.
• You must not attempt to access buyer production secrets unless explicitly permitted by the buyer in the Service.
• If you opt into the developer marketplace or submit proposals on open listings, your public profile fields and proposal content must be accurate and not misleading.

6. Payments, fees, and hosting

• Project payments are processed by Stripe. Velcio may charge a platform fee on captured project payments as disclosed at checkout or in product documentation. Fee rates may change with notice through the Service or documentation.
• You must not circumvent Velcio fees by arranging payment outside the Service for work that was introduced, assigned, listed, or proposed through Velcio, except where we expressly permit it in writing.
• Funds are typically authorised at checkout and captured after buyer acceptance, applicable auto-accept rules, or a post-accept cancellation fee. Free cancellation before the developer accepts releases the authorisation without capture. If you cancel after the developer has accepted and before review starts, Velcio captures a cancellation fee of 25% of the agreed project price from the authorised hold (configurable in product settings) and releases the remainder. Velcio retains its ordinary platform fee percentage on that cancellation fee; the rest of the fee is paid to the developer subject to documented payout holds. Projects in review cannot be cancelled this way; use accept or dispute.
• Platform fees on refund. On a full buyer refund after a buyer-win in-app dispute (or equivalent full refund of that captured payment), the payment is refunded through Stripe and the platform fee on that payment is not retained. Card-network chargebacks and related recovery remain separate and may involve additional follow-up.
• Optional hosting subscriptions are billed separately through Stripe on a recurring basis for self-serve plans (for example Starter, Standard, and Pro). Trial terms, plan limits, and cancellation behaviour are described on our Pricing page, in the product UI, and in documentation. Higher compute tiers (for example Scale) may be available only by contacting us and are not self-serve Stripe Checkout. When a hosting subscription ends, is cancelled, or becomes past due beyond any grace period, Velcio may stop the managed Worker or Web deployment (including public preview URLs where applicable). Unused subscription time is generally non-refundable except where required by law or expressly stated otherwise. Delivery archives and encrypted secrets may be retained according to our Privacy Policy and operational needs; stopping hosting does not delete your account or project history by itself.
• Communications. We send transactional emails needed to operate your account and projects (for example invites, funding, delivery, and hosting status). You may control some of those categories in Account settings. Optional marketing email (product updates and offers) is sent only if you opt in, and you may withdraw that consent at any time in Account settings. See our Privacy Policy.
• In-app project disputes. Buyers may open a dispute during review when delivery is unsatisfactory. An open dispute blocks payment capture. Resolution is by buyer/developer agreement or Velcio admin (release to developer or resolve for buyer) per workflow rules. Velcio is not an escrow agent and does not arbitrate the underlying freelance contract between buyer and developer. Admin decisions on in-app disputes are final for the platform payment flow (capture, release, refund, and related payout holds). They do not decide ownership disputes outside the Service or replace court or consumer remedies where those apply.
• Stripe chargebacks. Bank or card-network disputes initiated after capture through Stripe are separate from in-app disputes. They are handled under Stripe and card-network rules and may trigger payout holds, transfer reversals, or admin follow-up per documented payment policies. Where permitted by law, you remain responsible for chargeback fees and related losses attributable to your use of the Service. Repeated or abusive chargebacks may lead to suspension.
• Revisions. Buyers may fund paid revision jobs on completed projects. Revision payments follow the same authorisation and capture rules as the original project. When a buyer accepts a revision delivery, ownership of the updated code transfers to the buyer on the same terms as the original handoff; the developer assigns rights to that revision work and may not reuse it elsewhere without separate buyer consent.

7. Acceptable use, content, and moderation

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for unlawful, fraudulent, or abusive purposes.
• Deploy malware, phishing, credential theft, spam, or apps that violate third-party platform terms (including Discord, Telegram, or other integrated services) or that harm users or infrastructure.
• Use Velcio infrastructure for cryptocurrency mining, bulk unsolicited messaging, or similar resource abuse.
• Attempt to bypass security, escape containers, access other users' data or co-tenant workloads, or interfere with Velcio workers, build systems, or hosting infrastructure.
• Reverse engineer or scrape the Service except where permitted by law.
• Post false, harassing, or infringing marketplace profiles, reviews, proposals, open listings, or project messages.

We may remove or restrict user content (including profiles, avatars, reviews, messages, listings, and proposals), suspend or terminate access, or take other moderation actions for violations, suspected fraud, lawful requests, or risk to the platform or other users. Users may report content through the Service; reports are reviewed by Velcio staff and do not guarantee a particular outcome. You may also block other users where the product provides that control; blocking limits certain interactions but does not erase historical project records.

8. Service availability

We aim to keep the Service available but do not guarantee uninterrupted access, builds, or hosting. Maintenance, outages, third-party failures (including Stripe, Clerk, GitHub, cloud providers, container registries, email providers, or platforms your app connects to), and events beyond our reasonable control may affect the Service. Except as required by law and subject to Section 12, Velcio is not liable for downtime or delayed deploys arising from such events.

9. Intellectual property

Velcio retains ownership of the Service, branding, and platform software. Velcio does not claim ownership of delivered project source code.

Handoff. When a buyer accepts a project delivery through the Service (including by auto-accept under Section 4), the buyer receives full ownership of the delivered source code and related work product, to the extent the developer had rights to assign. The developer assigns those rights to the buyer as of acceptance and retains no licence to use, copy, distribute, or sublicence that delivered code for other clients or projects unless the buyer agrees separately in writing outside Velcio.

Revisions. Work submitted and accepted under a funded revision job is treated the same way: upon buyer acceptance, the buyer owns the resulting code and the developer's assignment rights for that revision delivery end.

You grant Velcio a limited licence to host, build, deploy, and process delivery artifacts and related metadata solely to operate the Service.

10. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Velcio LTD and its officers, directors, and agents from and against claims, losses, damages, and reasonable costs (including legal fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your content, delivery archives, or deployed code; (b) your breach of these Terms or of third-party platform or service terms; (c) infringement of intellectual property or other rights in materials you submit; (d) misuse of secrets or credentials; (e) personal data about end users of your deployed app that you cause to be processed through Velcio; or (f) unlawful or abusive use of the Service. This indemnity does not apply to the extent a claim is caused by Velcio's wilful misconduct or where UK law prohibits such an indemnity against a consumer.

11. Disclaimers

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any rights you have as a consumer that cannot be excluded or limited under UK law, including under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 where it applies.

SUBJECT TO THE PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE UNINTERRUPTED HOSTING, ERROR-FREE BUILDS, OR SPECIFIC WORKER OR WEB APP UPTIME.

12. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under UK law (including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud).

SUBJECT TO THE PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH AND TO MANDATORY CONSUMER RIGHTS, VELCIO LTD WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) AMOUNTS YOU PAID TO VELCIO LTD FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM OR (B) ONE HUNDRED POUNDS STERLING (GBP 100).

13. Changes and termination

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will post the revised Terms on this page and update the "Last updated" date. For material changes, we will provide notice through the Service or by email where appropriate and may require you to accept the updated Terms before continuing to use account features. If you do not agree to material changes, you should stop using the Service and contact us to close your account. Non-material updates (clarifications, formatting, or changes required by law) take effect when posted.

You may stop using the Service at any time. To delete your account, schedule deletion in Account settings or email support@velcio.dev. We may suspend or terminate your account if you breach these Terms or if required for legal, security, or operational reasons.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, without regard to conflict of law principles. Courts in England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, subject to mandatory consumer protections in your country of residence where applicable.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms: support@velcio.dev

Velcio LTD is the contracting party for the Service. Registered address: Office 6995, 58 Peregrine Road, Hainault, Ilford, Essex, IG6 3SZ.