These Terms & Conditions (“Terms”) apply when you use this website and when you engage BestCompare to design, build, host, or maintain a website, or to provide related services such as SEO, GEO, content updates, and technical support.
By using this website, sending an enquiry, accepting a quote, paying an invoice, or otherwise asking us to start work, you agree to these Terms. If a written quote, proposal, or custom contract says something different, that document prevails for the points it covers.
1. Who we are
BestCompare is a web development agency based in Sydney, Australia. We work with small local businesses across Australia.
- Email: hello@bestcompare.com.au
In these Terms, “you” means the person or business making an enquiry or buying our services.
2. The services
We provide managed website services. Typical work includes:
- custom responsive website design and build
- hosting, SSL, backups, and security updates
- contact forms, click-to-call, maps, and similar enquiry tools
- on-page SEO and, on selected plans, local SEO and GEO
- Google Business Profile setup or alignment
- content changes you send us, within the allowance of your plan
- ongoing maintenance and support
Unless we agree otherwise in writing, the website is a managed service. We host and maintain it while you stay on a plan. It is not a one-off project that we hand over for you to host and run yourself.
Custom booking systems, ecommerce, complex integrations, large content migrations, and other work outside a standard plan are quoted separately.
3. Plans, quotes, and scope
Published plan prices (Starter, Growth, and Pro) are monthly fees in Australian dollars. What is included in each plan is described on our pricing and services pages, and confirmed in your quote.
A quote is an offer to do the work described in it, for the fee and timeline stated, for a reasonable period (usually 30 days unless the quote says otherwise). Work starts when you accept the quote and we have any first payment or information we have asked for.
The scope is limited to what we have agreed in writing. Extra pages, features, integrations, or design rounds outside that scope are extra work and may be quoted separately.
We may refuse or stop work if the request is unlawful, misleading, or outside what we reasonably offer.
4. Fees and payment
- Fees are in AUD. We are not registered for GST, so GST is not added.
- Monthly plan fees are billed in advance for each month of service.
- The first payment is due as set out in the quote, usually before or when work starts.
- Invoices are payable by the due date shown on the invoice.
- Extra work is billed as agreed in the relevant quote, or at a rate we confirm before starting.
If a payment is late, we may pause design, build, updates, or hosting until the account is up to date. We will give you reasonable notice before taking a live site offline for non-payment.
Fees already paid are not refundable except as required by the Australian Consumer Law or as we agree in writing. If you cancel part-way through a paid month, that month is not usually refunded.
5. Timelines
Starter and Growth sites typically go live in about two weeks. Pro sites can go live in as little as three business days from design acceptance. These are estimates in Australian business days, not guarantees.
Dates depend on you giving us content, feedback, and design acceptance in a reasonable time. If you delay, the go-live date moves. We are not responsible for delay caused by you, a third party (such as a domain registrar or Google), or events outside our reasonable control.
6. Your responsibilities
You agree to:
- give us accurate business information, and tell us when it changes
- provide content, photos, logos, and access (for example to a domain or Google Business Profile) when we reasonably need them
- review designs and drafts in a timely way and say clearly when you accept them
- make sure you have the rights to everything you give us
- make sure the website’s claims about your business are true
- keep your domain registration in your name and pay any registrar fees
- use the website and our services lawfully
- pay invoices on time
If you do not provide what we need, we may pause the project or, after reasonable notice, treat the unused content allowance or stalled stage as completed for that period.
7. Our responsibilities
We will:
- provide the services with due care and skill
- build a mobile-first, responsive site within the agreed scope
- host and maintain the site while you remain on a plan and your account is in good standing
- make the content changes included in your plan when you send them to us
- take reasonable steps to keep the site secure and backed up
- communicate with you in plain English
We do not promise that the site will be uninterrupted or error-free at all times. Hosting, DNS, and the public internet can fail. If something breaks on a site we manage, contact us and we will investigate.
8. Design acceptance and content
We will present a design for you to review. Once you accept it, further design changes may count as extra work.
You can send us existing copy or we can draft content from what you tell us about the business. You are responsible for checking that published content is accurate before or promptly after it goes live.
Content change allowances (for example 30 or 60 minutes a month, or unlimited on Pro) do not roll over unless we agree otherwise. Unused time in a month expires.
Where a plan includes unlimited changes, this applies to reasonable modifications to your existing website. BestCompare reserves the right to determine whether a request falls within the reasonable scope of the service. Requests involving substantial redesigns, significant new functionality, large amounts of new content, third-party integrations, or work materially outside the original website scope may be treated as additional work and quoted separately.
9. Intellectual property
Your materials
You keep ownership of the materials you supply: your name, logo, trade marks, photos, videos, and existing copy (“Your Materials”). You grant us a licence to use them to provide the services.
You warrant that you have the rights to give us Your Materials and that our use of them for the site will not infringe anyone else’s rights.
Our materials
We keep ownership of our pre-existing tools, templates, code, design systems, processes, and know-how, and of the website codebase, theme, and technical implementation we create (“Our Materials”).
While you are on a plan, we give you a non-exclusive licence to use the live website for your business.
The live site is a managed service
The hosted website is part of the monthly service. It is not an asset we transfer to you to host yourself, unless we agree a separate handover in writing.
Handover
If the service ends, we stop hosting the site and it goes offline. Your domain stays yours. On request, we provide Your Materials and the source files of the site as built, at no additional charge, so you can continue elsewhere.
Work we create for you may not be reused by us for another client in a way that copies your distinctive branding or content.
10. Domain names
You remain in control of your domain. If you already have one, we can connect it to the new site. If you need one, we can help you choose and set it up. The domain should be registered in your name.
You are responsible for renewing the domain and for registrar account access. We are not the domain owner unless that is expressly agreed.
11. Hosting, security, and availability
Hosting, SSL, backups, and security updates are included in standard plans. We choose the hosting environment.
We take reasonable steps to keep the site available, but we do not guarantee 100% uptime. Planned maintenance, provider outages, attacks, or force majeure may cause downtime.
You must not use the site to distribute malware, spam, unlawful content, or anything that threatens the hosting environment. We may suspend the site immediately if it is being abused or is harming other services.
12. SEO, GEO, and search results
We build sites to be fast, search-friendly, and structured for local and generative search, as included in your plan. Growth and Pro add local SEO and GEO setup. Pro includes ongoing SEO, GEO, and monthly local content.
No reputable web developer can guarantee a particular Google ranking, map-pack position, AI-answer citation, or volume of leads. Search engines and AI products change their systems. Results depend on your market, competitors, reviews, and how you run the business.
We will not make false claims on your behalf to try to rank.
13. Third-party services
The services may rely on third parties, including Cloudflare, domain registrars, Google Business Profile, email providers, and payment or invoicing tools. Their terms apply to those products. We are not responsible for a third-party outage, policy change, account suspension, or feature removal that is outside our control.
We can help you configure email you already have, or point you to a provider. Business email is a separate service from the website unless we agree a custom managed arrangement.
14. Cancellation
Standard website management plans do not lock you into a long-term contract. You can cancel at any time by emailing us, unless we have agreed a custom contract for a specific project.
Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period, or on another date we both agree. When the service ends:
- we stop hosting and the site goes offline
- your domain remains yours
- we hand over Your Materials and the site’s source files, at no additional charge
- we are not obliged to keep the live site running after the paid period
We may cancel or suspend the service if you materially breach these Terms and do not fix the breach within a reasonable time after notice, or immediately if the breach is serious (including non-payment, unlawful use, or abuse).
15. Acceptable use of this website
You may use this marketing website to learn about our services and to contact us. You must not:
- attempt to break, scrape at scale, or overload the site
- submit false, abusive, or unlawful content through the contact form
- use our content, branding, or site design as if it were yours
All content on this website is owned by us or our licensors and may not be copied for commercial use without permission.
16. Confidentiality
Each of us must keep the other’s non-public business information confidential, and only use it to perform the services or as required by law. This does not apply to information that is public, already known, independently developed, or received from someone else who is allowed to share it.
We may list your business name and publicly live website in our portfolio unless you ask us not to.
17. Australian Consumer Law
Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts, or modifies any right, guarantee, or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law or any other law that cannot be excluded.
If the services fail to meet a consumer guarantee, your remedy will be as that law requires. For services that are not of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic, or household use, our liability for a failure that can be limited is limited to supplying the services again or paying the cost of having them supplied again.
18. Liability
To the extent permitted by law:
- we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, lost profits, lost leads, lost data, or loss of goodwill
- we are not liable for search-ranking changes, third-party outages, or results that depend on your market or conduct
- our total liability arising out of the services is limited to the fees you paid us for the services in the three months before the claim
This clause does not limit liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or any liability that cannot be limited.
You agree to cover us for claims that arise from Your Materials, from content you instructed us to publish, or from your breach of these Terms.
19. Privacy
We handle personal information as described in our Privacy Policy. You agree to comply with privacy law in respect of any personal information you give us, including information about your customers that passes through a site we host.
20. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. The current version is the one on this page. The “Last updated” date will change when we publish a revision.
Changes apply to new enquiries and, after notice, to ongoing plans. If you do not agree with a change to an ongoing plan, you may cancel under clause 14.
21. General
- If a part of these Terms is unenforceable, the rest still applies.
- If we do not enforce a right, that is not a waiver of it.
- You may not assign the services without our consent. We may use contractors to deliver parts of the work. We remain responsible to you for the services.
- These Terms, together with the accepted quote and our Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement for the services, unless we sign something else.
22. Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. The courts of New South Wales have non-exclusive jurisdiction, except that you may also bring a claim in the courts of your Australian state or territory if the law gives you that right.
23. Contact
Questions about these Terms:
BestCompare
ABN 63 992 990 594
hello@bestcompare.com.au
Sydney, Australia