Monthly care plan terms

Starting and renewing

Billing starts when payment is accepted and renews monthly until you cancel. Routine care begins after Stoa confirms the covered site and receives the access it needs. Unless checkout or a written order says otherwise, one subscription covers one organization and one primary website.

Care plans are for websites Stoa can safely and reasonably support. After checkout, Stoa will promptly confirm the covered site and collect access. If the site needs one-time stabilization, migration, major recovery, or backlog cleanup before routine care can begin, Stoa will explain and price that work separately. If Stoa cannot support the site and no substantive care work has begun, Stoa will cancel the plan and refund the first payment.

What the plan covers

The description of the plan you choose defines what is included. Stoa will apply reasonable judgment to prioritize requests and keep the covered website healthy. A redesign, new application, major feature, data migration, complex integration, or work on another website receives its own scope and price before that work begins.

You may add requests at any time. Stoa prioritizes them by urgency, impact, and readiness and works through the queue at the level of the selected plan; submitting a request does not guarantee completion in the same billing month. Care plans do not include round-the-clock or guaranteed emergency response. Stoa will tell you in writing before separately priced work begins.

On Keep improving, the monthly improvement is one plan-sized item agreed in writing and ready to work on. If required access, content, decisions, or approvals are not ready, Stoa will continue with other covered priorities where practical; a blocked item does not create an additional improvement obligation in a later month.

Hosting, software licenses, stock media, paid plugins, domain fees, and other third-party charges are separate unless the plan description or a written order specifically includes them.

How we work together

Work is coordinated in writing by email or in the workspace your team already uses, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Basecamp, or a shared project board. That leaves a clear record, makes approvals easier, and keeps requests moving without recurring meetings. If a short live conversation is clearly the fastest way through a particular issue, we can schedule one.

You agree to provide the access, source material, decisions, and approvals Stoa reasonably needs. Waiting for access, content, or an approval does not pause or extend a billing period. You are responsible for making sure content you provide is accurate, lawful, and yours to use.

Changing or canceling a plan

You can move to another plan or cancel through the billing portal. Plan changes take effect immediately, with a credit or charge for the remaining time in the current billing period; the portal shows that adjustment before you confirm. A cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid month, and service continues until then. Canceling does not prorate or refund the current paid month except where the law requires it or Stoa is unable to provide the service.

You can also email stephen@stoa.works for help with a change or cancellation.

Billing

Stripe processes subscription payments and stores payment details. Applicable taxes may be added where required. If a renewal payment fails, Stripe may retry it and Stoa may pause work until the account is current. Public agencies that need a purchase order or invoice can contact Stoa before starting.

Ownership and confidentiality

You keep ownership of the content and materials you provide. Once the related payments are complete, you own custom website changes made specifically for your organization. Stoa keeps ownership of its pre-existing tools, reusable components, methods, and general know-how, while giving you the rights needed to use the completed work on your site.

Stoa will treat nonpublic access credentials, drafts, and organization information as confidential and use them only to provide the service, subject to ordinary legal and security obligations.

Reliability and outside services

Stoa will provide the service with reasonable care, but no website or third-party platform is available without interruption. Stoa is not responsible for outages, policy changes, security incidents, or failures caused by a hosting provider, content system, payment processor, domain registrar, or another service outside Stoa's control. Stoa will still help diagnose and respond to those problems when the selected plan covers that work.

When Stoa may end service

Stoa may pause or end service for nonpayment, unlawful use, abusive conduct, or a material breach of these terms. Stoa may otherwise end a plan at the close of a paid monthly period with reasonable notice. If Stoa ends service during a paid period for a reason other than your breach, Stoa will refund the unused portion.

Limits

To the extent the law allows, neither side is liable to the other for indirect, special, or consequential losses. Stoa's total liability related to a care plan will not exceed the amount you paid for that plan during the three months before the event giving rise to the claim. These limits do not apply where the law does not permit them.

Law and updates

California law governs these terms, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be handled in the state or federal courts located in Santa Clara County, California. If Stoa makes a material change to these terms, current customers will receive notice before the change applies to a future monthly period.