1. Introduction
Welcome to smll.io (“we,” “us,” or “our”). By creating an account, purchasing credits, or using any of our Services (“Services”), you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree to these Terms, you must discontinue use of our Services immediately.
2. Nature of Services
2.1 Development Use — Our Services are provided solely for development, testing, evaluation, and hobbyist use. The Services operate with characteristics typical of development environments, including variable performance, periodic restarts, resource constraints, and possible data loss.
You acknowledge that the Services are not designed or intended for production use, commercial production workloads, commercial hosting, or enterprise infrastructure, mission-critical applications, or any situation where failure, interruption, or data loss could lead to personal, financial, or business impact. The Services should not be relied upon to generate revenue, operate production workloads, or support business-critical operations.
2.2 No Uptime Guarantees — The Services operate without uptime guarantees, service level agreements, or business continuity commitments. You are solely responsible for implementing appropriate backup procedures, redundancy measures, and fallback systems. We do not guarantee data persistence or integrity, and data may be subject to periodic purging. You assume all risk associated with using the Services in any environment beyond development or evaluation purposes.
2.3 Hosting Services Expansion — Our initial offerings include database hosting for development purposes. We may expand our Services to include Docker containers, website hosting, object storage (including S3-style storage), and related infrastructure features (together, “Hosting Services”). Any Hosting Services remain provided primarily for development, testing, evaluation, and hobbyist use and are subject to the same reliability considerations and limitations described in these Terms. We may introduce technical limitations, feature restrictions, or service modifications designed to maintain the development-focused nature of the Services.
2.4 Development Platform Limitations — In order to maintain the development and evaluation nature of the Services, we may introduce technical limitations, usage restrictions, feature changes, or service modifications at any time. These may include limits on storage, compute resources, network usage, connection counts, runtime behaviour, or other system characteristics. Such limitations may be implemented automatically or operationally and may affect service availability, performance, persistence of data, or feature availability. These limitations are part of the design of the Services and do not constitute a service failure or breach of these Terms.
3. Account Creation and Credits
3.1 You must be at least 18 years old, or of legal age in your jurisdiction, to create an account and use the Services.
3.2 Users may add credits (“Credits”) to their account to access certain Services.
3.3 The Services operate on a prepaid credit system. Credits represent prepayment for use of development and testing Services. Current credit rates and conversion values are published on our pricing page.
3.4 Credits can be used for all available development Services at published rates. Credits expire after 12 months of account inactivity. We will provide 30 days' notice before credits expire due to account inactivity. Expired credits cannot be reinstated or refunded. Credit rates may be changed with notice as specified in section 3.5.
3.5 We will provide written notice for changes to the Services as follows:
- 14 days' notice for changes to credit values or how credits are consumed for Services
- 14 days' notice for changes to credit system functionality
- 30 days' notice before any Service discontinuation
All notices will be sent to your registered email address.
3.6 We may suspend or revoke credits without prior notice for:
- Suspected fraudulent activity
- Legal requirements or court orders
- Material breach causing security risk
- Clear violation of development-only usage restrictions
For all other cases, including non-critical breaches of Terms of Service or technical changes requiring credit system updates, we will provide 14 days' notice.
3.7 All notices will be sent to your registered email address and include:
- The reason for the change/action
- Effective date
- Any available remedy options
- Impact on existing credits
3.8 Credits are generally non-refundable once purchased. Limited refunds may be provided only in cases of:
- Material failure to provide the development service
- Error in credit allocation
- Service discontinuation with no alternative offered
- As required by applicable law
No refunds will be provided for:
- Service interruptions or development environment issues
- Expired or unused credits
- Credits revoked due to fraudulent activity, legal requirements, security risks, or violations
3.9 Credit purchases are processed via Stripe in British Pounds Sterling (GBP). All prices are exclusive of VAT/taxes where applicable. You are responsible for any applicable taxes.
3.10 Service Interruptions and Billing — Where the Services experience downtime or unavailability, you acknowledge there is no recourse. We may, in our discretion, adjust credits to reflect periods of material service unavailability and you will not be charged credits for time periods where the affected service is not available.
3.11 Automated Service Actions — Where account credits fall below zero, automated systems may suspend services and delete associated development databases or infrastructure resources. These automated actions are part of the service architecture and may occur without additional notice once credit balances are exhausted.
4. Account Suspension and Termination
4.1 We may suspend access to your account:
- For investigation of suspected violations of these Terms
- If required by law or regulation
- To address technical or security issues
- For non-payment or expired credits
4.2 For technical issues and non-payment, we will provide notice of suspension where practical. For suspected violations, legal requirements, or circumstances described in section 3.6, we may suspend access immediately without notice. During suspension, you may not have access to your account or data. We will restore access once the underlying issue has been resolved to our reasonable satisfaction.
4.3 We reserve the right to terminate your account and deny access to the Services:
- Immediately, with notice, for material breach of these Terms, suspected fraudulent activity, or as required by law or regulation
- With 30 days' written notice for any other reason
Upon termination, your right to access or use the Services ceases on the termination date.
4.4 During any suspension period or following termination, your obligations under these Terms continue. You remain responsible for all fees and charges incurred before or during suspension or up to termination. Where we terminate under:
- Section 4.3(a), you are not entitled to any refund except as required by law
- Section 4.3(b), you are entitled to a pro-rata refund of any unused prepaid Credits
5. User Responsibilities
5.1 You agree to use the Services in compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and guidelines.
5.2 You are solely responsible for any data, content, code, or materials you store, test, or deploy using our Services. You must ensure that such data does not violate any laws, regulations, or third-party rights.
5.3 You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials and must not share or transfer account access. You must notify us immediately of any unauthorised access or security concerns.
5.4 Hosted Content Responsibility — You are solely responsible for all content, materials, code, data, files, websites, applications, containers, and other information you upload, store, host, process, transmit, make available, or otherwise use in connection with the Services (together, “Hosted Content”). You represent and warrant that you have all rights, permissions, and lawful basis necessary to use and make available the Hosted Content and that your use of the Services does not infringe any third-party rights or violate any applicable law.
5.5 No Duty to Monitor — We are not obligated to monitor Hosted Content. However, we may conduct periodic reviews and use automated tools or third-party services (including security and scanning services) to detect unlawful, prohibited, or harmful activity, protect the Services, and enforce these Terms.
5.6 Enforcement and Removal — We may remove, disable access to, suspend, restrict, or delete any Hosted Content and/or suspend or terminate your account at any time, with or without notice, where we reasonably believe: (a) the Hosted Content or your use of the Services violates these Terms; (b) the Hosted Content is unlawful, harmful, unethical, or otherwise objectionable; (c) your use of the Services creates risk to the Services, other users, third parties, or us; or (d) action is required to comply with law, regulation, court order, or lawful request by an authority. You acknowledge that we may act at our sole discretion and you are not entitled to any compensation for removal or restriction of Hosted Content.
5.7 Preservation of Evidence and Cooperation with Authorities — Where we identify or are notified of potentially unlawful activity or Hosted Content, we may preserve relevant metadata, logs, hashes, identifiers, and other technical records, and we may cooperate with law enforcement or competent authorities as required by applicable law. We may remove and securely delete unlawful Hosted Content and take steps designed to ensure it is not recoverable.
5.8 Abuse Reporting — Reports of abuse or suspected violations may be submitted to: abuse@smll.io. We may investigate reports in our discretion and are not required to disclose investigation outcomes.
5.9 Sanctions and Restricted Locations — The Services are not available to persons or entities located in, ordinarily resident in, or subject to sanctions, embargoes, or restrictions under applicable law (including UK sanctions regimes). We may restrict, suspend, or terminate access where required to comply with sanctions laws, payment processor restrictions, or risk controls.
5.10 Domain Mapping and DNS Configuration — Where you connect, map, or point any domain name to the Services (including by CNAME, A record, or any other DNS configuration), you represent and warrant that you are the lawful registrant of that domain or have full authority and permission from the lawful registrant to use and configure the domain in connection with the Services.
You are solely responsible for all domain registration, renewal, DNS configuration, and compliance with the terms of your domain registrar. We do not provide domain registration services and are not responsible for domain availability, expiration, misconfiguration, or disputes relating to domain ownership.
You must not connect any domain name in a manner that infringes third-party rights, impersonates another entity, creates confusion, or violates applicable law. We may suspend or disable any domain mapping where we reasonably believe it violates these Terms or creates legal, reputational, or security risk.
6. Acceptable Use Policy
6.1 You agree to use the Services in accordance with these Terms and all applicable laws. Prohibited activities include, without limitation:
- Illegal Content and Activity: hosting, storing, transmitting, or facilitating any unlawful content or activity, including content that violates criminal law, encourages illegal acts, or is otherwise prohibited by applicable law
- Adult Content: pornographic, obscene, sexually explicit material, sexual services, or any content that could seriously endanger the morals of children or young people
- Gambling: online gambling services, betting, or content primarily intended to promote or facilitate gambling, where unlawful or otherwise prohibited by us
- Piracy and Infringement: content that infringes intellectual property or other rights (including copyright, trademarks, database rights, and related rights), including but not limited to piracy, IPTV services, ROM distribution, or similar infringement-related services
- Hate, Harassment, and Extremism: hate speech, harassment, intimidation, violent extremist content, or content that offends common decency, incites violence, or targets protected groups
- Fraud and Harmful Activity: phishing, scams, deceptive practices, malware distribution, botnets, credential theft, or any activity designed to harm others or compromise systems
- Crypto Mining and Resource Abuse: crypto mining, unauthorised high-resource workloads, or usage intended to function as production infrastructure or generate revenue in a way that is inconsistent with the development and hobbyist nature of the Services
- Anonymity/Relay Services: TOR exit nodes, VPN services, proxy/relay services, or similar infrastructure intended to obscure identity or facilitate abusive traffic
- Security and Platform Integrity: attempting to breach or compromise system security, circumventing access controls, probing, scanning, or testing vulnerabilities without our express permission
- Disruption and Abuse: excessive or abusive usage that may impact system resources, interfere with or disrupt the Services, or negatively affect other users
- Unauthorised Automation: automated usage, scraping, or high-volume operations without our express permission
- Misrepresentation: impersonation, false association, or misleading statements regarding affiliation with us or the Services
- Crypto and Financial Services: cryptocurrency exchanges, token/coin offerings, investment services, brokerage, lending, or other financial products or services, and content primarily intended to promote or facilitate such services, where prohibited by us
6.2 Resource Consumption and Limits — You must maintain reasonable resource consumption levels consistent with development and evaluation use. We may impose technical limitations on resource usage at any time, including storage limits, compute/processing capacity, bandwidth, connection limits, and other constraints. We may suspend or restrict your access where your usage creates risk to service stability or other users.
6.3 Enforcement — Violations of this Section may result in immediate restriction, suspension, termination, content removal, deletion, or other enforcement action in accordance with these Terms.
7. Disclaimers and Limitations of Liability
7.1 We provide the Services on an “as-is” and “as-available” basis for development and testing purposes only. We expressly disclaim all warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement.
7.2 We do not guarantee any level of service availability, performance, or uptime. We do not provide Service Level Agreements (SLAs). You acknowledge that temporary service interruptions, performance variations, and periodic system maintenance are normal aspects of development and testing environments.
7.3 We are not responsible for the security, integrity, or accuracy of your data. We may experience downtime, data corruption, or data loss, and you agree that you will maintain your own backups and security measures. You acknowledge that data may be periodically purged from development environments. You agree that the Services are not designed or intended for production workloads, commercial hosting, or business-critical infrastructure.
7.4 We are not liable for any financial losses, lost profits, revenue, data, or opportunities, nor any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damages arising from or relating to your use or inability to use the Services. This includes, without limitation, any losses incurred due to downtime, data inaccuracies, or data breaches.
7.5 To the extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability to you, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, arising from or in connection with the Services shall be limited to the total amount paid by you for the Services in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the claim.
7.6 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for:
- Fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation
- Any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by applicable law
7.7 Indemnity — You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless smll.io and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, contractors, and agents from and against any claims, proceedings, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your Hosted Content; (b) your use of the Services; (c) your breach of these Terms; or (d) your infringement or alleged infringement of any third-party rights or violation of any applicable law. We may assume the defence of any matter subject to indemnification and you agree to cooperate as reasonably requested.
8. No Guaranteed Support
8.1 We are under no obligation to provide support services. While we may, at our sole discretion, provide limited technical support or guidance, we do not guarantee the availability, accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any support provided. You acknowledge that the Services are provided without any commitment to technical support, response times, or issue resolution.
9. Modifications to the Terms or Services
9.1 We reserve the right to modify, update, or replace these Terms at any time. We will make reasonable efforts to inform you of significant changes. Your continued use of the Services following the posting of revised Terms constitutes your acceptance of those changes.
9.2 We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Services at any time, with or without notice, and without liability to you. We may expand, modify, or relocate our infrastructure, service providers, or hosting locations in order to maintain or improve service delivery. Such changes may affect how and where services operate but will not reduce the core development functionality of the Services.
10. Data Protection and Processing
10.1 We provide development infrastructure services. For personal data you store or process using our Services, you are the data controller, and we are the processor. For account management and service operations, we are the controller.
10.2 We process personal data for:
- Account administration and authentication (via Supabase)
- Payment processing and credit management (via Stripe)
- Infrastructure hosting and service delivery (via Hetzner)
- Service monitoring and error logging (via Sentry)
- Basic service analytics (via Google Analytics)
10.3 You control any data you choose to store or process in our development infrastructure. You are responsible for:
- Ensuring you have the right to process any personal data
- Using appropriate test data in development environments
- Implementing security measures appropriate for your data
- Maintaining your own data retention policies
- Responding to data subject requests for data you control
10.4 We use the following sub-processors:
- Supabase for user authentication and data storage
- Stripe for payment processing and fraud prevention
- Hetzner for infrastructure hosting
- Google Analytics for basic service analytics
- Sentry for application error logging
We will notify you of material changes to our sub-processors.
10.5 Our services may involve data transfers outside the UK/EEA. We ensure appropriate safeguards through:
- UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA)
- EU Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs)
- Additional technical measures where required
10.6 We implement security measures appropriate for development infrastructure and will notify you of security incidents affecting our infrastructure. You are responsible for securing any data you store or process, and development environments may be subject to periodic purging.
10.7 Data Retention and Deletion — Account data is retained while your account remains active. Following account termination, we may retain limited account information, billing records, and security logs in accordance with the retention periods described in our Privacy Policy, including where required to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce these Terms, or maintain system integrity. Development data stored within the Services may be subject to periodic purging. Upon account termination, development data and associated infrastructure resources will generally be deleted within thirty (30) days, unless retention is required for legal, security, or compliance purposes. You are responsible for maintaining backups of any data you store or process through the Services.
10.8 We use essential cookies for service functionality and Google Analytics for basic service monitoring. You control any cookies in your development applications.
10.9 For Account Holders: you have rights regarding your account personal data including access, correction, and deletion. Contact us at contact@smll.io to exercise these rights, and we will respond to requests within one month. These rights may be limited where we have compelling legitimate grounds or legal obligations. For Development Data: you are responsible for handling data subject rights requests for any personal data you store in development environments, and we will provide reasonable assistance where required. Given the development nature of the Services, we recommend against storing actual personal data in development environments.
10.10 For complete information about our data practices, please refer to our Privacy Policy.
11. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
11.1 These Terms and your use of the Services are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.
11.2 Any disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms, or the Services shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
12. Severability and Waiver
12.1 If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, that provision shall be deemed severed from the Terms and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.
12.2 Failure or delay by us to enforce any right or provision under these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.
13. Entire Agreement
13.1 These Terms, together with any policies or guidelines referenced herein, constitute the entire agreement between you and smll.io regarding your use of the Services, and supersede all prior agreements, understandings, and communications.
14. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or inquiries about these Terms or the Services, please contact us at: contact@smll.io.
For abuse reports, please contact: abuse@smll.io.
