Effective date: August 2026
Overview
These Terms of Service explain the basic rules for using CMT Web’s website design, website development, hosting, maintenance, SEO, and support services.
Work begins from a written proposal. By approving a proposal, submitting a payment against it, approving work in progress, or continuing to use CMT Web services, the client agrees to these terms. Where a signed proposal or written agreement covers a point differently, that document controls and these terms fill in the rest.
If a person engages CMT Web on behalf of a business or organization, that person confirms they have authority to make decisions for that business or organization.
Services
CMT Web may provide services such as:
- Discovery, scoping, sitemaps and content models
- Custom website design
- Custom website development, including application work, portals and integrations
- Copywriting, unless the client prefers to supply it
- Content editing setup for the parts of a site that change
- Domain, DNS and SSL/HTTPS setup
- Migration, redirect mapping and launch support
- Managed hosting
- Technical and local SEO
- Ongoing support and small content updates
The exact scope of any engagement is whatever the written proposal says. CMT Web does not sell fixed packages or tiers, so nothing is included or excluded by virtue of a plan name.
Proposals, Scope and Pricing
Pricing is quoted per project and is not published. After a short conversation about the work, the client receives a written proposal stating a fixed price, a fixed timeline, the scope, and the exclusions.
The price is fixed for the scope described in that proposal. CMT Web does not bill hourly, and the final invoice for an agreed scope will not exceed the agreed figure.
Hosting and SEO are ongoing services priced separately from the build and quoted alongside it. The build itself is a one-off cost.
Changes to Scope
If the client asks for something outside the agreed scope, CMT Web will price it separately and tell the client what it costs before doing the work. The client decides whether to proceed.
Nothing is added to an invoice the client has not already agreed to.
What Is Not Included
Unless a proposal says otherwise, project fees do not cover paid advertising, photography, stock licences, or third-party software and platform fees. Where a project will require any of these, CMT Web will identify them before the client commits rather than after.
Payments
For a standard project, payment is half at the start and half at launch. Larger platform projects are split across milestones instead, as set out in the proposal.
Hosting and SEO, where taken, are billed monthly. Clients are responsible for reviewing the scope, price and billing schedule in the proposal or invoice before submitting payment.
Recurring fees must be paid on schedule to keep ongoing services active. If a payment fails, is reversed, or remains unpaid, CMT Web may pause work and suspend hosting or support until the account is current. Because the client owns the site and its domain, the client may move the site to another provider at any time, including while an invoice is outstanding; unpaid fees remain payable.
Clients are responsible for fees charged by banks, credit card providers, or payment processors.
Timelines
A typical project runs three to four weeks from kickoff. A simple site may run closer to two to three, and custom platforms are scoped individually. The proposal names real dates before the client commits.
If a date is going to slip, CMT Web will say so as soon as it knows rather than at the deadline. Dates assume the client supplies content, feedback and approvals reasonably promptly; where they are delayed, the timeline moves accordingly.
Revisions and Approvals
Two rounds of design revisions are included in the project price. Further rounds, or changes that amount to a new design direction rather than a revision of the agreed one, are treated as a change of scope.
Clients are responsible for reviewing designs, website content and domain preferences for accuracy before and after launch.
Client Responsibilities
Clients are responsible for providing accurate information, content, approvals, requested access, images, logos, service descriptions, pricing, legal notices, domain preferences, business names, spelling, and any other materials needed for the website.
Clients are responsible for confirming that they have the right to use all submitted content, including text, photos, videos, logos, trademarks, fonts, and other materials.
A typical project asks for roughly three to four hours of the client’s time in total: a kickoff call, feedback on the design, and the materials only the client can provide.
Website Content
Clients may not use CMT Web services for unlawful, deceptive, harmful, abusive, infringing, malicious, or high-risk content.
Prohibited activity includes malware, phishing, scams, copyright infringement, harassment, spam, credential theft, illegal activity, or attempts to disrupt websites, servers, or third-party systems.
CMT Web may refuse, suspend, or terminate service if a website creates legal, security, performance, abuse, or reputational risk.
Domains
Domains are registered in the client’s name, in the client’s own registrar account. CMT Web sets this up with the client rather than on the client’s behalf, so the client holds the account credentials and controls the domain from the first day.
Because the domain is the client’s, no transfer, release or domain-handover fee is ever charged by CMT Web, and no transfer is required if the client leaves — there is nothing to transfer.
Clients are responsible for registrar fees, renewals, and keeping registrant contact details accurate. CMT Web is not responsible for a domain that lapses because a renewal went unpaid on the client’s registrar account.
Where a client already owns a domain, CMT Web may request the access or temporary permissions needed to update DNS records, configure SSL/HTTPS, and launch the website.
Clients who make their own DNS changes are responsible for making them carefully; incorrect DNS changes can affect the website, email, SSL, forms, and other domain-connected services. If repairing client-made changes falls outside the support included in an active hosting arrangement, CMT Web will quote it before starting billable work.
Ownership
The client owns the website. This is a deliberate term of business rather than a concession, and it applies whether or not the client hosts with CMT Web.
Source code. The full source for the client’s website is handed over at launch. It is built on standard, widely-used tools and documented so that any competent developer can pick it up. CMT Web retains no rights over that code that would restrict the client from using, modifying, hosting, relicensing or transferring it, and imposes no fee or condition on doing so.
Content. Copy, images and structure belong to the client, including copy and other material CMT Web wrote for the project, provided the client has the legal right to any materials they supplied.
Domain. The domain is registered in the client’s name and remains theirs, as described in the Domains section.
Two ordinary limits apply, neither of which restricts what the client can do with their site. Third-party and open-source components included in a build remain governed by their own licences, which CMT Web cannot alter or assign. And CMT Web remains free to reuse the general skills, methods and knowledge it applies across projects — this does not extend to the client’s code, content, designs, data or business information.
Hosting
Hosting is optional and separate from the build. The site is the client’s either way, and there is no fee to take it elsewhere.
Where a client takes managed hosting, it is billed monthly and includes:
- Deployment across a global network
- SSL, DDoS protection and daily backups
- Uptime monitoring
- Software updates and security patches
- Small content changes
Hosting runs month to month. Either party may end it with 30 days’ notice. There is no minimum term, no termination fee, and no charge for leaving.
On cancellation, CMT Web will provide a working export of the site and reasonable assistance moving it to the client’s chosen provider, at no additional cost.
Hosting Service Limitations
CMT Web’s hosting is intended for business websites and for the custom applications it builds. Unless specifically agreed in writing, it does not include enterprise hosting, 24/7 emergency support, HIPAA-compliant hosting, financial compliance hosting, or a guaranteed uptime level.
Uptime monitoring is not an uptime guarantee. No hosting provider can guarantee uninterrupted service at all times, and service may be affected by maintenance, updates, security issues, third-party outages, internet routing problems, client-side errors, or events outside CMT Web’s control.
Support and Ongoing Work
Small content changes are included with managed hosting: text edits, image replacements, business information and pricing updates, link and form corrections, and similar ordinary updates to an existing site.
Larger work is quoted first. That includes redesigns and rebuilds, substantial new pages or sections, new application functionality, e-commerce or booking systems, major copywriting or brand work, and third-party licences or subscriptions.
Where a request goes beyond what is included, CMT Web will say so and price it before starting, rather than invoicing for it afterwards.
SEO and Search Results
CMT Web may provide search-ready structure, metadata, indexing guidance, local SEO setup, Google Business Profile setup and management, and on-page SEO improvements depending on what has been agreed. Ongoing SEO engagements include monthly reporting in plain English.
CMT Web does not guarantee search engine rankings, traffic, leads, sales, or specific placement in Google or any other search engine.
Cancellation
Hosting, SEO and other monthly services can be cancelled with 30 days’ notice, with no termination fee. Cancellation requests can be sent to hello@cmtweb.com.
If a project is cancelled while in progress, the client is billed for the work completed to that point and receives the source for it.
On cancellation the client keeps the site, the source code, the content and the domain, and receives a working export and reasonable migration assistance as described in the Hosting section. CMT Web will stop hosting the site and discontinue related managed services once the notice period ends or the site has moved, whichever is sooner.
Refunds
Because pricing is fixed per project and billed against milestones, refunds are handled by reference to work completed rather than by a blanket rule. Fees for work already performed are non-refundable, and a monthly fee is not refunded part-way through a billing period that has already begun.
Where a project is cancelled before the work covered by a payment has been done, the unearned portion is returned.
Backups and Data
Daily backups are included with CMT Web managed hosting. Where a client hosts elsewhere, backups are the client’s responsibility or their provider’s.
Clients should still keep their own copies of important content, images, documents, login information and business information. A backup held by one provider is not a substitute for the client holding their own.
Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent allowed by law, CMT Web is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, lost business opportunities, reputational harm, or service interruptions.
CMT Web’s total liability for claims related to services is limited to the amount paid by the client to CMT Web for the affected service during the three months before the issue occurred.
Changes to These Terms
CMT Web may update these Terms of Service from time to time. The updated version will be posted on this page with a revised effective date.
Changes do not alter the price, scope or timeline of a proposal the client has already approved. Continued use of ongoing CMT Web services after updates means the client accepts the updated terms.
Contact
Questions about these terms can be sent to: