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Terms of Service

The rules for accounts, submissions, public content, verification, paid services and community use.

Last updated

9 min read

These Terms of Service govern access to and use of IndieTools, including its directory, profiles, social features, messages, public developer interfaces, verification tools and paid services. By creating an account, submitting content, making a purchase or otherwise using the service, you agree to these Terms and the Privacy Policy.

1. Eligibility and authority

You must be legally capable of entering a binding agreement. If you use IndieTools for a company, product or other organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to act for it and bind it to these Terms. If local law requires consent from a parent or guardian, you may use the service only with that consent.

2. Accounts and security

Provide accurate account information, keep credentials confidential and promptly update information that changes. You are responsible for activity through your account unless it results from a failure for which IndieTools is legally responsible. Tell us promptly about suspected unauthorised access.

One person or organisation must not use duplicate or deceptive accounts to evade review, limits, moderation, attribution rules or payment obligations. We may require email verification, a security challenge or additional evidence before allowing a sensitive action.

3. Product submissions and editorial review

IndieTools accepts live, usable digital products from founders, makers, teams and companies. Eligibility does not depend on funding, company size or having an X account. The current scope includes SaaS, apps, developer tools, online services, courses and downloadable digital resources. Duplicate listings, placeholder or unusable sites, deceptive submissions, adult content, physical goods and local offline services are not accepted.

Every submission is reviewed before publication. Payment never guarantees approval and never changes organic catalogue ranking. We may correct formatting, categorisation, product type, pricing facts, excerpts and other listing details when the live offer has changed, while preserving the product's meaning. Ordinary differences between an older submission and a current live offer do not by themselves require rejection. We may ask for changes, reject a submission or remove a listing that no longer meets the published standards. Review and response times are estimates only unless a specific purchase expressly says otherwise.

A listing may also be created from public information to keep the directory useful. A legitimate owner may claim, correct or request removal of such a listing through the available process.

Free listings can be published after editorial review without a website badge. Owners may add an IndieTools badge to their website and use Check badge in their dashboard to enable a followed website link. Authority includes a permanent followed website link and a verified product marker. Existing Pro purchases retain the same product-link and marker benefits originally granted. That marker identifies a paid listing entitlement; it is not proof of domain ownership, legal identity, product quality, security or endorsement.

A free listing normally uses a nofollow website link. A valid reciprocal IndieTools badge can earn a followed link while the exact badge and followed backlink remain present. If a confirmed badge removal is not corrected within the stated five-day grace period, only the badge-based link benefit is revoked. Independent paid, historical, editorial or administrative entitlements are not removed with it.

Authority includes the followed product-page and article links described on the pricing page. Historical Pro, Premium and Featured entitlements keep the link terms recorded when they were purchased. IndieTools does not promise that any link, verification or purchase will improve search rankings, Domain Rating, Domain Authority, traffic or sales.

5. Profiles, social features and messages

You remain responsible for posts, comments, messages, files, reactions, profile details and other material you provide. Respect other people, their privacy and their communication settings. Do not harass, threaten, impersonate, spam, expose private information or use messages for unsolicited bulk promotion.

Message requests, blocking, muting, reporting and moderation controls reduce risk but cannot eliminate it. Do not use IndieTools for emergency, health, legal or financial communications, and do not rely on message delivery as guaranteed.

6. Your content and licence

You keep ownership of content you own. You grant IndieTools a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, resize, format, display, distribute and make available that content only as reasonably needed to operate, promote and improve the service. For content you publish publicly, this includes delivery through search pages, social previews, public APIs, CLI, MCP and machine-readable catalogues.

You confirm that you have the rights and permissions needed to submit the content and that our permitted use will not violate another person's intellectual-property, privacy or publicity rights. Removing content ends this licence for future use except where continued processing is necessary for backups, legal obligations, dispute evidence, already-created promotional material or third-party caches.

7. Paid services, billing and refunds

Prices, currency, taxes, duration, capacity and included benefits are the ones shown at checkout or on the applicable offer page when you order. Dodo Payments acts as merchant of record and processes payment, tax, refunds, fraud checks and disputes under the checkout terms and privacy notice it presents. IndieTools does not store complete payment-card details.

Authority is a one-time purchase for one product and includes permanent product benefits, one reviewed article and one 30-day Featured period, which may be queued when inventory is full. Boost lets an owner choose any whole Energy amount from the published minimum. Each purchase is a separate lot bound to the selected published product, remains active for 30 days from verified payment, is not transferable or redeemable for cash, and affects only the labelled paid Energy Board. A new purchase does not extend an older lot. Energy never changes organic ranking. Other products can add or lose Energy at any time, so a purchase does not guarantee a particular place, duration at a place, traffic or result. Advertise is a separate 14-day campaign with the surfaces, creative and destination stated in its order. Pro and standalone Featured are no longer sold; historical purchases retain their original terms and are handled through support. Self-hosted newsletter placements are no longer offered.

If a paid submission is not approved and the applicable offer promises a refund, the payment will be refunded in accordance with that offer and the merchant-of-record process. Once a time-limited placement or service has begun or been delivered, it may be non-refundable to the extent permitted by law. A settled full or partial Boost refund records an immutable, order-scoped reversal and removes the corresponding proportional Energy from that purchased lot; it cannot affect Energy from another order. Refunds, disputes, chargebacks, fraud or reversal of a payment may revoke only the benefits delivered by that order. Mandatory consumer rights always prevail over conflicting wording here.

8. Advertising, sponsorship and affiliates

Paid placements are labelled as Featured, Sponsored or Advertisement as appropriate. They buy the disclosed placement or service; they do not buy editorial approval or organic ranking. Advertisers must have the rights to their creative, destination and claims, and must not submit deceptive, unlawful, unsafe or rights-infringing material.

The affiliate programme is operated with Affonso. Partners must disclose their relationship and follow the programme rules shown when they apply, including the prohibitions on self-referrals, cookie stuffing, forced clicks, spam, misleading claims, trademark impersonation and unauthorised paid bidding. Eligibility, attribution, holds, reversals and payouts are determined from provider records and the programme terms.

9. Acceptable use

You must not:

  • break the law, infringe rights, distribute malware or facilitate fraud;
  • submit false ownership, verification, traffic, pricing, identity or product claims;
  • scrape private data, probe security, bypass access controls, rate limits or robots instructions, or interfere with service operation;
  • automate account creation, votes, follows, reactions, messages, clicks, impressions or other engagement deceptively;
  • use public API, CLI, MCP or catalogue access beyond documented limits or in a way that degrades the service;
  • collect or republish personal data without an independent lawful basis; or
  • help another person do any of the above.

Public machine interfaces are read-only unless their documentation expressly says otherwise. We may apply reasonable limits, change schemas and suspend abusive clients.

10. Moderation, suspension and termination

We may investigate reports, restrict reach, unpublish content, suspend features, revoke verification, stop a campaign or suspend or terminate an account when reasonably necessary to enforce these Terms, protect users or systems, comply with law, respond to payment reversal or prevent harm. Urgent action may occur without advance notice. Where appropriate, we will explain the reason and offer a route to correct or contest the decision.

You may stop using the service and request account deletion. Some financial, security, moderation and legal records may be retained as explained in the Privacy Policy. Terms that by their nature should survive termination, including ownership, licence limits, payment obligations, disclaimers and liability limits, continue to apply.

If content on IndieTools infringes a right you own, send a notice through the contact page with the exact URL, identification of the protected work or right, your contact details, a good-faith explanation and a statement that the information is accurate and that you are authorised to act. We may ask for additional information, forward relevant parts to the person who posted the content and remove or restrict content while reviewing the complaint.

Do not submit knowingly false claims. Nothing in this section limits any procedure or right required by applicable law.

Profiles, listings and posts may link to products and services that IndieTools does not control. Connected sign-in, repository, analytics, payment, media, email and affiliate services have their own terms and privacy practices. We are not responsible for third-party content or availability, but this does not exclude responsibility that cannot lawfully be excluded.

13. Availability and disclaimers

The service is provided on an “as available” basis. We work to keep it useful and secure but do not guarantee uninterrupted operation, permanent storage, error-free data, a particular audience, placement outcome, search-engine treatment or commercial result. Directory information can be supplied by members or public sources; verify it before relying on it.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, implied warranties are excluded. Nothing in these Terms excludes warranties or remedies that applicable consumer law does not allow us to exclude.

14. Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, IndieTools and its operator are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss, or for lost profits, revenue, data, goodwill or opportunities arising from use of the service. For claims relating to a paid service, aggregate liability will not exceed the amount paid for the service giving rise to the claim during the twelve months before the event. These limits do not apply where liability cannot lawfully be limited, including for fraud or wilful misconduct.

15. Changes, applicable law and contact

We may update these Terms to reflect changes in the service, providers, risk or law. The date at the top identifies the published version. Material changes will be communicated through the service or by email when appropriate. Continuing to use the service after an effective update means the revised Terms apply, except where law requires a different form of consent.

Applicable law and competent courts are determined by the rules that apply to the operator and the user, including any mandatory consumer or data-protection rights that cannot be waived by contract. Before starting a formal dispute, contact us so the issue can be reviewed directly.

For questions or legal notices, use the contact page.