ZeRaLD remains in controlled closed Beta until SW11 Software Ltd announces wider commercial availability. Beta services are for testing/evaluation and must not be treated as production hosting or as the sole copy of important data unless SW11 Software expressly states otherwise. This document is the current published Terms version shown above.
1. Who provides ZeRaLD
ZeRaLD is a product of SW11 Software Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 16896573.
Registered office: 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ.
References to SW11 Software, we, us or our mean SW11 Software Ltd. References to you mean the person or organisation using ZeRaLD.
2. Personal and business accounts
When ZeRaLD asks how you use the service, choose Personal / consumer if you act wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft or profession. Choose Business / professional if you act wholly or mainly for one of those purposes.
If you use a business account on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind that organisation to these terms. If the nature of your use changes, you must update your account classification. We do not use account classification to remove rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.
3. Accounts and security
You must provide materially accurate account information, keep authentication details secure and promptly tell us through an available support route if you believe your account has been compromised. You are responsible for activity authorised through your account, subject to rights and protections that applicable law gives consumers.
You may not use ZeRaLD to interfere with the service, bypass technical or licensing controls, gain unauthorised access, distribute malware, unlawfully process another person's data, infringe intellectual-property rights, or deploy content or systems you do not have authority to operate.
4. The ZeRaLD service
ZeRaLD provides tools for preparing, deploying and managing software projects and servers, including automated server configuration, release deployment, runtime/dependency acquisition and optional AI-assisted workflows. Features can differ by release, plan or beta status.
During controlled beta, features may be changed, limited, withdrawn or replaced as the product is tested. We will not describe a beta feature as carrying a service level or guarantee unless we expressly say so.
Beta programme benefits and third-party offers
While you are an approved Beta tester, SW11 Software may make optional programme benefits available to you, including promotional credit, funded or discounted third-party services, trial infrastructure or other tester benefits. Each benefit may have its own availability period, eligibility requirements and third-party terms, and may be changed or withdrawn as the Beta programme develops.
Some Beta benefits may be provided through an affiliate or referral relationship between SW11 Software and a third-party provider. Where that applies, we will identify the relationship with the benefit or signup link. SW11 Software may receive commission, referral credit or another commercial benefit if you later buy eligible services from that provider. Accepting a funded or promotional Beta benefit does not require you to continue purchasing from that provider after the benefit ends, and does not prevent you from using another technically suitable provider with ZeRaLD.
Where a benefit requires us to apply credit or another entitlement to an account you create with a third party, we may ask you to send the relevant third-party account identifier to ZeRaLD Support so that the benefit can be arranged. Do not send passwords, authentication codes or other login credentials for the third-party account.
ZeRaLD Support: first-party support is provided for the ZeRaLD service and its operation. It does not include development, debugging, modification or review of your own website/application source code, business logic or application database. Support may ask for or use information reasonably necessary to understand a ZeRaLD service issue, subject to the Privacy Notice and the access controls built into the support system. The canonical support identity reserved for support communications is support@zerald.dev. The web support case is the authoritative support record; email support features are available only when they are enabled and operational. General, account-access and legally required support routes may be available without a linked installation. Product-technical support is provided only for signed-in accounts with an active linked ZeRaLD installation. Technical support may compare the installation version with its administrator-assigned release channel and current supported release. Where a newer supported release is available, Support may ask you to update before ordinary troubleshooting where practical; update-related failures remain supportable, and an administrator may record a time-limited or case-specific update-support exception.
ZeRaLD Guided: Guided is an educational and technical tutoring service. A tutor may help you plan work, structure AI-assisted development, explain code and architecture, review output, demonstrate changes, debug problems and assist with deployment. You remain responsible for your project, your product/content decisions, third-party services you choose, and whether or when you publish or operate the project. Guided does not transfer ownership or operational responsibility for your project to SW11 Software and does not guarantee a particular project or commercial outcome.
5. ZeRaLD Community
ZeRaLD Community is part of the ZeRaLD service and uses the same central ZeRaLD account relationship and legal framework. It may run on separately isolated infrastructure for security and resilience, but that technical separation does not create a separate provider, account contract, Privacy Notice or Terms agreement.
When Community functionality is available, it may allow users to create profiles, Spaces or groups, publish posts and replies, react to content, share permitted files or links, communicate privately, collaborate around projects and use other social or collaboration features. You remain responsible for content you submit and for having the rights and permissions needed to share it.
Community content and conduct may be subject to published Community Guidelines, Space rules and proportionate moderation. You must not use Community to publish or facilitate unlawful content, targeted harassment, threats, doxxing or unauthorised disclosure of personal information, malware, fraud, intellectual-property infringement, abuse of reporting systems or attempts to bypass safety, moderation, access or rate-limit controls. SW11 Software may remove or restrict content, features or accounts where reasonably necessary to enforce these Terms, Community rules, protect users or comply with law. Where an appeal or review process is provided for a moderation outcome, use of that process does not prevent SW11 Software taking urgent protective action where reasonably necessary.
Community access, private messaging or other features may be limited by age, safety, beta or eligibility controls. You must not circumvent those controls or misrepresent information used to apply them.
6. Your VPS and automated server administration
When you ask ZeRaLD to connect to or configure a VPS, you confirm that you own or control that server or otherwise have permission to administer it. You authorise ZeRaLD to perform the actions you request, which can include installing packages, changing configuration, creating services, managing web-server configuration, databases, certificates, releases and related server resources.
Server administration can affect availability and data. ZeRaLD includes safeguards intended to reduce deployment risk, but you remain responsible for maintaining backups appropriate to your project and for understanding the effect of material infrastructure changes. Temporary credentials supplied for an installation are handled as described in our Privacy Notice.
7. Customer projects, content and intellectual property
You retain ownership of project files, code, Community posts/messages and other content or material that you own. You grant SW11 Software only the rights reasonably necessary to receive, host, copy, process, transmit, display and temporarily or persistently store that material to provide the ZeRaLD functions you choose to use, including making Community content available to the audience you select or reasonably expect from the feature.
You are responsible for ensuring that you have the rights and permissions needed for material you upload, deploy, publish or send to another service. ZeRaLD does not acquire ownership of your project merely because the service processes it.
ZeRaLD itself, including its proprietary application code, branding, interface and documentation created by SW11 Software, remains owned by SW11 Software Ltd or its licensors. Your right to use ZeRaLD is limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable except where law requires otherwise, and subject to these terms. You may not redistribute the proprietary ZeRaLD software, defeat its licensing controls, or present ZeRaLD itself as your own software product.
8. AI Handoff and third-party AI services
AI Handoff is a user-directed mechanism for making selected project context available to a third-party AI service. You decide whether to create a handoff and what project material it contains. The receiving AI provider is a separate service with its own terms and privacy practices.
AI-generated code and advice can be incomplete or wrong. You are responsible for deciding whether to use an AI output and for reviewing and testing material before deploying it. Nothing in these terms makes a third-party AI provider our agent or subcontractor for every use merely because ZeRaLD can facilitate a handoff; the actual data-processing role depends on the workflow and provider involved.
9. Open-source software and third-party components
ZeRaLD is proprietary software but uses, integrates with and can install independently licensed software. Language runtimes and server dependencies may be obtained directly on your VPS from the operating-system package manager or relevant upstream source. Those components remain governed by their own licences and provider terms. See our Third-Party Software Notices.
10. Plans, charges and payment
Where ZeRaLD Guided is offered for payment, the package price, currency, included Guided time and other material purchase information are shown before checkout. Guided packages are one-time purchases unless a product is expressly described as recurring. Payment is collected through Stripe-hosted Checkout. Guided time is credited only after SW11 Software receives verified payment confirmation.
A confirmed paid Guided booking reserves the stated amount of Guided time. If you cancel or reschedule before the session starts, the booking system restores or carries forward the reserved Guided time as applicable. Cancelling a session restores service credit; it is not by itself a request for a cash refund. Technical Taster sessions do not consume paid Guided time.
Consumers: where a statutory cancellation right applies to a distance service contract, the normal cancellation period is 14 days after the contract is entered into. If you expressly request Guided to begin during that period, you may be required to pay a proportionate amount for service supplied before you cancel. If the service is fully performed during the cancellation period after the required request and acknowledgement, the statutory right to cancel that service can end. Any mandatory refund, cancellation or remedy rights continue to apply.
Business customers: statutory consumer cooling-off rights do not apply to purchases made wholly or mainly for business/professional purposes. Any additional refund arrangement shown in an applicable order or written commercial agreement continues to apply.
To request a cash refund or exercise a statutory cancellation right, contact ZeRaLD Support with enough information to identify the purchase. We will assess the request against the service already supplied, the applicable purchase terms and any rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.
11. Additional consumer rights
If you are a consumer, these terms do not exclude or restrict rights that cannot legally be excluded. If you later buy digital services from us at a distance, we will provide any legally required pre-contract information and cancellation information at the point of purchase. Where you expressly ask for digital services to begin during a statutory cancellation period, the consequences of that request will be explained before you give it.
Nothing in these terms requires a consumer to accept a shorter remedy, weaker standard of service or less favourable jurisdiction than mandatory law provides.
12. Business users
If you use ZeRaLD for business/professional purposes, you are responsible for your organisation's projects, backups, security configuration, lawful instructions, end-user notices and compliance obligations. Where SW11 Software processes personal data on your documented instructions as a processor, the ZeRaLD Business Data Processing Addendum is incorporated into these terms for that processing.
Unless expressly agreed in writing, ZeRaLD does not provide a bespoke service level, professional legal advice, security certification, regulatory approval or a guarantee that a customer project complies with laws applying to that customer's particular industry.
13. Store and Backup
Store/platform marketplace functionality, where enabled, may include separate listing, acquisition, licence or integration terms shown for the relevant feature. Backup/Backup Panel is separately release-gated and may carry Backup-specific operational and data-processing terms before it is made available. Nothing in these Terms represents an unreleased feature as generally available.
13. Availability, maintenance and changes
We aim to operate ZeRaLD reliably, but uninterrupted availability is not guaranteed. Maintenance, security work, upstream provider failures, internet/VPS failures and beta changes can interrupt functions. We may make changes reasonably required for security, law, compatibility or product development.
If a material change to these terms requires fresh agreement, ZeRaLD will version the document and obtain acceptance where appropriate rather than treating historic acceptance as acceptance of a different version.
14. Suspension and termination
We may restrict or suspend access where reasonably necessary to protect the service or other users, investigate suspected unlawful or abusive activity, respond to a legal obligation, address a material breach, or manage the controlled beta. Where reasonable in the circumstances, we will give notice and an opportunity to remedy.
You may request account closure through the account controls made available by ZeRaLD. Closure and deletion are subject to the retention, legal-hold and backup treatment described in the Privacy Notice and applicable retention policy.
15. Responsibility and liability
Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability where doing so would be unlawful, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or mandatory consumer rights.
For consumers: our responsibility to you is governed by applicable consumer law. We are not responsible for business losses arising from consumer use of ZeRaLD.
For business users: neither party is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business, anticipated savings or goodwill, except where such exclusion is prohibited by law. Any financial cap on business liability must be the cap expressly stated in the paid plan/order or other written commercial agreement applicable to that service; until such a cap is stated, these terms do not invent one.
You remain responsible for third-party hosting charges, domain charges and other external costs you authorise, and for losses caused by instructions, credentials, code or content supplied by you, except to the extent the loss was caused by SW11 Software's breach or other responsibility that cannot lawfully be excluded.
16. Privacy and data protection
Our Privacy Notice explains how SW11 Software handles personal data for its own account, security and service-administration purposes. Business-customer project data may place SW11 Software in a processor role for particular workflows; those processor obligations will be addressed by the applicable DPA/data-processing terms.
17. General
If part of these terms is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply. A delay in enforcing a right does not waive it. You may not transfer your contractual rights or obligations in a way that prejudices another party without any consent required by law; SW11 Software may reorganise or transfer the service only where doing so does not reduce mandatory consumer protections.
18. Governing law and disputes
For business users, these terms and non-contractual disputes are governed by the law of England and Wales and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction unless a written commercial agreement says otherwise.
For consumers, the law of England and Wales applies, but you retain any mandatory protections of the country in which you habitually live and may bring proceedings in any court available to you under applicable consumer law.
19. Contact and notices
Formal company correspondence may be sent to SW11 Software Ltd at the registered office above. Service-specific support and electronic contact routes may also be provided within ZeRaLD or on zerald.dev. We will use the email address associated with your account for service notices where appropriate.
