Terms of Service

By accessing or using the Ancla platform and related services (collectively, the "Service"), operated by Sidequest Labs ("Ancla," "we," "us," or "our"), you ("Customer," "you," or "your") agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"), our Privacy Policy, and our Data Processing Agreement (collectively, the "Agreement"). If you are accepting on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind that entity.

If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not access or use the Service. We may update these Terms from time to time. We will provide at least thirty (30) days' prior written notice of material changes via email to the address associated with your account or through a prominent notice within the Service. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service before the changes take effect.

Ancla is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that provides container orchestration, automated image builds, zero-downtime deployments, encrypted secrets management, TLS certificate provisioning, process scaling, and related infrastructure services. The Service enables organizations to deploy, manage, and operate web applications and backend services across supported languages and frameworks.

We may enhance, modify, or discontinue features of the Service. For material changes that reduce core functionality, we will provide at least sixty (60) days' prior notice and, where applicable, assist with migration to alternative solutions.

You must provide accurate, complete, and current information when creating an account. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials, including passwords, API keys, session tokens, and CLI authentication tokens. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account, whether authorized by you or not.

You must be at least eighteen (18) years of age or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, whichever is greater, to use the Service. If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to accept these Terms on the organization's behalf.

You agree to notify us immediately at security@ancla.dev upon becoming aware of any unauthorized access to or use of your account. We will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect your account credentials.

You may use the Service only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You agree not to use the Service to host, transmit, store, or distribute any content that: (a) violates any applicable law, regulation, or third-party right; (b) is illegal, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable; (c) contains malware, viruses, or other harmful code; or (d) is designed to disrupt, overburden, or impair the Service or any connected network.

You may not use the Service to: (a) mine cryptocurrency or perform resource-intensive computations unrelated to your deployed applications; (b) send unsolicited bulk communications or spam; (c) host or distribute content that infringes on intellectual property rights; (d) attempt to gain unauthorized access to other accounts, systems, or networks connected to the Service; (e) perform vulnerability scans or penetration tests against the Service without our prior written consent; or (f) resell, sublicense, or redistribute the Service without authorization.

We reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate action, including suspension or termination of your account, if we reasonably believe you have violated these acceptable use terms. Where practicable, we will provide notice and an opportunity to cure before taking action, except in cases of severe or repeated violations.

You retain all ownership rights in and to all content, code, data, configuration, environment variables, and other materials you deploy to, upload to, or store on the Service ("Your Content"). By using the Service, you grant Ancla a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, process, transmit, and display Your Content solely as necessary to provide, maintain, and improve the Service in accordance with these Terms.

You represent and warrant that you have all necessary rights, licenses, and permissions to use, deploy, and grant us the rights described herein for Your Content. You are solely responsible for the legality, reliability, integrity, and appropriateness of Your Content. Ancla does not monitor, review, or endorse Your Content, and disclaims all liability arising from Your Content.

You may export or delete Your Content at any time via the Service's API, CLI, or web interface. Upon account termination, we will retain Your Content for a grace period of thirty (30) days to allow you to retrieve it. After the grace period, we will delete Your Content from our active systems within thirty (30) days. Backup copies may persist for up to ninety (90) days in accordance with our data retention practices, after which they are permanently destroyed. Deletion is subject to applicable legal obligations requiring retention.

The Service, including all software, infrastructure, documentation, trademarks, and visual design elements, is the proprietary property of Ancla and its licensors, protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. Nothing in these Terms grants you any right, title, or interest in the Service itself, except for the limited right to use the Service as described herein.

You may provide feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the Service ("Feedback"). You grant Ancla a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, modify, and incorporate Feedback into the Service without obligation to you. Feedback is provided voluntarily and is not confidential unless separately agreed in writing.

Each party ("Receiving Party") agrees to protect the confidential information of the other party ("Disclosing Party") using at least the same degree of care it uses to protect its own confidential information, but no less than reasonable care. Confidential information includes, without limitation, account data, API keys, pricing terms, security configurations, and any information designated as confidential or that a reasonable person would understand to be confidential given the nature of the information and circumstances of disclosure.

Confidential information does not include information that: (a) is or becomes publicly available through no fault of the Receiving Party; (b) was known to the Receiving Party prior to disclosure; (c) is independently developed by the Receiving Party without reference to the Disclosing Party's confidential information; or (d) is rightfully received from a third party without restriction.

A Receiving Party may disclose confidential information to the extent required by applicable law, regulation, or legal process, provided it gives the Disclosing Party prompt written notice (to the extent legally permitted) and reasonable assistance to contest or limit the scope of disclosure.

We target a monthly uptime of 99.9% for the Service, calculated as total minutes in the calendar month minus downtime minutes, divided by total minutes in the month. "Downtime" means the Service is materially unavailable to you, excluding: (a) scheduled maintenance communicated at least forty-eight (48) hours in advance; (b) force majeure events; (c) issues caused by your applications, content, or third-party services; and (d) features explicitly designated as beta or preview.

If we fail to meet the 99.9% uptime target in a given month, you may be eligible for service credits as specified in your subscription agreement. Specific SLA terms, credit calculations, and claim procedures are outlined in the applicable service level agreement for your plan tier. Enterprise customers may negotiate custom SLA terms.

Certain features or tiers of the Service require payment. Pricing, billing frequency, and payment terms are communicated before you incur any charges and are detailed on our pricing page or in your subscription agreement. All fees are stated exclusive of applicable taxes, which you are responsible for paying.

Fees are non-refundable except as expressly provided in these Terms, required by applicable law, or agreed in your subscription agreement. We may change pricing with at least thirty (30) days' prior written notice. If you do not agree to the revised pricing, you may cancel your subscription before the new pricing takes effect, and you will not be charged the revised rate.

If payment is overdue, we may suspend access to the Service after providing at least fourteen (14) days' written notice and an opportunity to cure the payment failure. Suspension does not relieve you of your payment obligations.

Ancla warrants that: (a) the Service will perform materially in accordance with its documentation; (b) we will provide the Service using commercially reasonable skill and care; and (c) we will not materially diminish the core functionality of the Service during your subscription term.

EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH IN THESE TERMS, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ANCLA DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, NEITHER PARTY SHALL BE LIABLE TO THE OTHER FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, USE, GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF THE PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

EACH PARTY'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (A) THE AMOUNTS PAID BY CUSTOMER TO ANCLA IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM; OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

THE LIMITATIONS IN THIS SECTION DO NOT APPLY TO: (A) EITHER PARTY'S INDEMNIFICATION OBLIGATIONS; (B) EITHER PARTY'S BREACH OF CONFIDENTIALITY OBLIGATIONS; (C) CUSTOMER'S BREACH OF ACCEPTABLE USE TERMS; OR (D) LIABILITY THAT CANNOT BE LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW.

By Ancla. Ancla will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Customer from and against any third-party claim that the Service, as provided by Ancla and used in accordance with these Terms, infringes or misappropriates any third party's intellectual property rights, and will pay any resulting damages finally awarded or settlement amounts agreed to by Ancla.

By Customer. Customer will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Ancla, its officers, employees, and agents from and against any third-party claim arising from: (a) Customer's use of the Service in violation of these Terms; (b) Customer's Content; or (c) Customer's violation of applicable law or any rights of a third party. Customer will pay any resulting damages finally awarded or settlement amounts agreed to by Customer.

The indemnifying party's obligations are conditioned on the indemnified party: (a) providing prompt written notice of the claim; (b) granting sole control of the defense and settlement; and (c) providing reasonable cooperation at the indemnifying party's expense.

To the extent that Ancla processes personal data on your behalf in connection with the Service, the terms of our Data Processing Agreement apply and are incorporated into these Terms by reference. The DPA sets forth the parties' obligations with respect to data protection, including compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other applicable data protection laws.

Our Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and protect information in connection with the Service and applies to all users.

You represent that you are not located in, or a national or resident of, any country subject to U.S. trade sanctions or embargoes, and that you are not on any U.S. government restricted party list. You agree to comply with all applicable export control laws and regulations in connection with your use of the Service.

By Customer. You may terminate your account at any time through the Service settings or by contacting us at support@ancla.dev. Termination takes effect at the end of your current billing period unless otherwise agreed.

By Ancla. We may terminate or suspend your access to the Service: (a) immediately, if you materially breach these Terms and fail to cure within thirty (30) days of written notice (or immediately for violations of Section IV that pose a security risk); (b) immediately, if required by law; or (c) upon thirty (30) days' written notice for any reason.

Effect of Termination. Upon termination, your right to access the Service ceases. You will have thirty (30) days after termination to export Your Content. After the export period, we will delete Your Content as described in Section V. Any prepaid fees for unused periods after termination by Ancla without cause will be refunded on a pro-rata basis. Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including Sections V through XIII, XV, and XVI through XVIII.

Neither party shall be liable for any failure or delay in performing its obligations under these Terms (other than payment obligations) to the extent such failure or delay is caused by circumstances beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, riots, embargoes, acts of government, epidemics or pandemics, failure of third-party infrastructure providers, internet or telecommunications failures, or power outages. The affected party must provide prompt notice and use commercially reasonable efforts to mitigate the impact and resume performance.

The parties agree to attempt to resolve any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms through good-faith negotiation for a period of thirty (30) days following written notice of the dispute.

If the dispute is not resolved through negotiation, either party may initiate binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Commercial Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be conducted in English by a single arbitrator in the State of Texas. The arbitrator's award shall be final and binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect its intellectual property rights or confidential information.

Governing Law. These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to its conflict of law principles.

Entire Agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, DPA, and any applicable subscription agreement or order form, constitute the entire agreement between you and Ancla with respect to the Service and supersede all prior or contemporaneous agreements, representations, and understandings.

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. The invalid or unenforceable provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your rights hereunder without our prior written consent. Ancla may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of all or substantially all of its assets, provided the assignee agrees to be bound by these Terms. Any attempted assignment in violation of this section is void.

Waiver. No waiver of any term or condition shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other term. Ancla's failure to enforce any provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.

Notices. Notices to Ancla must be sent to legal@ancla.dev. Notices to you will be sent to the email address associated with your account. Notices are deemed received when delivered by email.