Who you are dealing with.

This agreement is between AXIOM WEB (PTY) LTD, registration number K2026177931 (2026/177931/07), a private company registered in South Africa ("AXIOM", "we", "us"), and the client named on the accompanying invoice ("you"). We contract as an independent contractor. Nothing in this agreement creates an employment, partnership, joint venture, or agency relationship between us, and neither party may bind the other.

We will design and build the website described on the invoice (the "Site"). Where the invoice shows a monthly fee, we will also host and maintain the Site (the "Care Plan"). The invoice is the scope. Anything not listed on it — additional pages, new features, redesigns, integrations, copywriting, photography, or work arising from a change of direction — is outside this agreement and will be quoted separately and agreed in writing before it starts. Where the invoice is for a WhatsApp assistant, we will set up and run an assistant that answers your customers on WhatsApp on your behalf, using the business details you give us, and — if you add phone answering — a phone number that answers calls the same way; clause 10A sets out how that subscription works.

We will present the Site for your review before it goes live. The build fee includes two rounds of revisions to the agreed scope; further rounds are charged at our then-current hourly rate, quoted to you first. You will give content, feedback, and approvals within a reasonable time. If we are waiting on you and cannot carry on, we will send you a written reminder saying so. If we are still waiting 30 days after that reminder, we may invoice for the work completed to that point and pause the project — the rest of the work stays available to you for 12 months at no extra cost, whenever you are ready. If we are still waiting 90 days after the reminder, we may close the project, and what has been invoiced covers the work done. Nothing in this clause lets us charge you for work we have not done.

You confirm that you own, or are licensed to use, all text, images, logos, trade marks, and other material you give us, and that it does not infringe anyone's rights or break any law. Where we draft copy or source stock imagery for you, it is a first draft for you to check — you are responsible for the accuracy of everything published under your name, including prices, qualifications, registrations, claims, and legal notices. You will keep your own account credentials secure and tell us promptly if they are compromised.

The one-time build fee is payable on acceptance, through the payment link we send you. Where the invoice shows a monthly fee, it is collected automatically from the card you save at checkout, on the start date shown on the invoice and monthly thereafter, using Paystack. Card details are captured and stored by Paystack, a PCI-DSS compliant payment provider; we never see or store your card number. All fees are in South African Rand. AXIOM is not currently registered for VAT, so no VAT is charged; if we become VAT-registered, VAT will be added to fees from that date. We may change the monthly fee on 30 days' written notice, and you may cancel before the change takes effect.

Amounts not paid when due carry interest at the rate prescribed under the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975, calculated daily from the due date until payment. We may also recover reasonable costs of collection. We will always tell you before charging interest, and we would far rather sort out a payment problem by talking about it.

Where you already own a domain, you keep it and remain responsible for renewing it; losing a domain through non-renewal takes the Site offline and is not something we can reverse. Where we register a domain for you, we register it in your name or your company's name, and the registration fee is either shown on the invoice or passed on at cost. A domain registered for you is yours, and we will transfer control of it to you on request at any time.

This clause covers websites; clause 10A covers WhatsApp assistants and phone answering. You have 7 days from the day you pay to change your mind. Tell us within that time and we refund the build fee in full — for any reason, or none — and the money reaches you within 30 days. We give you this whether or not the law requires it in your case. If you take that refund the agreement ends, your licence to use the Site ends with it, we take the Site offline, and any monthly fee stops. After those 7 days the build fee is not refundable: the Site has been built and handed over, and it is yours. You may cancel the Care Plan at any time from your billing page — it ends at the close of the month you have paid for, that month is not pro-rated, and there is no notice period and no cancellation fee. Either of us may end this agreement immediately by written notice if the other materially breaches it and does not put it right within 14 days of being asked to, or becomes insolvent or is liquidated. Nothing in this clause limits any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.

Once the build fee is paid in full, you own the Site's content, its design as delivered to you, and the domain name. We keep ownership of our tools, templates, component libraries, code, and know-how, including anything we develop generally in the course of our work, and grant you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to use them as part of the Site. Third-party components remain subject to their own licences. Until the build fee is paid in full, all rights in the Site remain ours. If the Care Plan ends, we will supply a copy of the Site files within 14 days of your written request, after which hosting and maintaining it is your responsibility.

Unless you tell us otherwise in writing, we may show the Site, screenshots of it, and your business name and logo in our portfolio, on our own website, in proposals, and on social media, and describe the work we did. We will never publish anything you have marked confidential, any of your customers' personal information, or any commercial figures that are not already public. You may ask us to take it down at any time and we will, within 14 days.

You will not use the Site, or ask us to build anything, that is unlawful, defamatory, obscene, infringing, or misleading, or that sends unsolicited bulk email, distributes malware, or breaches any industry regulation that applies to your business. If we reasonably believe the Site is being used in breach of this clause, we may suspend it and will tell you why. Repeated or serious breach is a material breach of this agreement.

Each of us may learn things about the other's business that are not public. Neither of us will disclose the other's confidential information to anyone else, or use it for anything other than performing this agreement, except where the law or a court requires it, or where it is already public through no fault of ours. This obligation continues for three years after this agreement ends. It does not prevent us showing the work under clause 12.

Where we process personal information on your behalf — for example enquiries submitted through the Site — we act as your operator under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013. We will process it only on your documented instructions, keep it confidential, apply reasonable technical and organisational security measures, notify you without undue delay if we become aware of a compromise, and return or delete it when this agreement ends. You remain the responsible party for your customers' information, for having a lawful basis to collect it, and for your own privacy notice. Our own privacy practices are set out on our website.

Neither party is liable for failing to perform where the cause is outside its reasonable control, including load-shedding and grid failure, network or undersea cable outages, failure of a third-party provider, fire, flood, civil unrest, epidemic, or an act of government. The affected party will tell the other as soon as it reasonably can and will do what it reasonably can to limit the effect. If the situation continues for more than 60 days, either of us may end this agreement by written notice without penalty.

We may use subcontractors to help deliver the work, and we remain responsible to you for anything they do. Neither of us may transfer this agreement to anyone else without the other's written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld, except that either of us may transfer it as part of a sale or restructure of its business on written notice to the other.

Notices under this agreement may be sent by email to the addresses on the invoice, and are treated as received on the day they are sent unless the sender gets a delivery failure. Each party will tell the other if its address changes. A notice ending this agreement must also be sent to our registered address if you ask us for it.

South African law governs this agreement. Before either party starts legal proceedings, we will both try in good faith to resolve the dispute by discussion within 14 days. If that does not work, either party may refer the dispute to mediation, and failing that to the courts of South Africa, to whose jurisdiction both parties consent. Nothing in this clause prevents either party from applying urgently to court for interim relief, or you from approaching the National Consumer Commission or a relevant ombud where the Consumer Protection Act applies to you.

This document and the invoice are the whole agreement between us and replace any earlier discussion or proposal. A change to this agreement is only binding if it is in writing and agreed by both of us. If either of us does not enforce a right straight away, that does not waive it. If any part of this agreement is found unenforceable, it is severed and the rest continues to apply. Clauses that by their nature should survive termination — including ownership, confidentiality, liability, and indemnity — do.

You accept this agreement by ticking "I accept the terms" and paying the invoice through the payment link. Electronic acceptance is binding under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002. We record the date, time, and IP address of your acceptance, together with the version of these terms you accepted, and keep a copy of the documents sent to you. You may ask us for that copy at any time.