Terms of Service

Thank you for using PikaPods.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") apply to your use of our website, products, and services (collectively, the "Service"). Please read them carefully and contact us if you have any questions. By using PikaPods, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you are using PikaPods on behalf of an organization, you agree to these Terms on behalf of that organization.

1. Service Definition

PikaPods, operated by Peakford Ltd, provides a container-based hosting platform for open-source applications that are developed, maintained, and distributed by independent third-party authors and communities (the "Third-Party Developers"). The Service includes tools and templates designed to streamline the deployment and configuration of these applications for end-users.

PikaPods does not create, own, control, or modify the underlying source code, features, security, or functionality of the hosted applications. The applications are provided "as-is," and their development, maintenance, and updates remain the sole responsibility of the respective Third-Party Developers.

2. Liability for Hosted Applications

While PikaPods makes reasonable efforts to ensure a reliable hosting experience by conducting limited testing of updates, assisting with the resolution of user-reported issues in collaboration with Third-Party Developers, and promptly implementing critical updates for security or bug fixes, PikaPods does not guarantee the suitability, functionality, or security of any hosted application.

PikaPods serves solely as a hosting provider and does not warrant the quality, performance, or safety of any application hosted on the platform. Users are responsible for evaluating whether a selected application meets their specific requirements, including compliance with any applicable laws or regulations, such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act ("CRA") and other relevant cybersecurity or product liability laws.

Where applicable, responsibility for compliance with such laws lies with the relevant parties, which may include the third-party developers of the hosted applications or integrators using the PikaPods platform to host, deploy, or distribute these applications. PikaPods does not assume any responsibility for ensuring that hosted applications meet these legal or regulatory requirements.

By using the Service, you acknowledge that the use of any hosted application is at your own discretion and risk. PikaPods shall not be held responsible for any issues, including but not limited to malfunctions, vulnerabilities, or inadequacies in the applications, even where such issues may have legal or regulatory implications.

3. Age Requirements

You must be at least 13 years old (in the United States, per COPPA) or 16 years old (in the European Union, per GDPR) to create an account, or the minimum age required by applicable laws in your jurisdiction. If you are under 18 years of age, you must have parental or guardian consent to use our Service. We reserve the right to terminate accounts that we reasonably believe were created by users who do not meet these age requirements.

4. Uploaded Content

Users retain ownership of any files or content they upload to PikaPods. It is the user’s responsibility to ensure that they have the necessary rights and permissions to store or distribute uploaded content. If we become aware of content that violates applicable laws or these Terms, we reserve the right to remove such content without prior notice and may take further action as necessary to comply with legal obligations or prevent harm to our Service or users.

5. Service Abuse and Fair Use

PikaPods is committed to maintaining a fair and stable hosting environment. Users must not misuse the Service, including but not limited to:

1. Cause excessive resource consumption that may impact the performance of the Service for other users. Particularly by engaging in activities such as crypto mining, spamming, or other resource-intensive operations that go beyond the expected usage of the application.
2. Using the Service for any unlawful, harmful, or disruptive activities. This includes spamming, phishing, or port scanning.
3. Attempting to gain unauthorized access to other users' accounts or data.
4. Opening multiple accounts to circumvent usage limits or gain additional free promotional credits.

If abuse is detected, users will be issued a warning. Failure to address the issue promptly will result in account suspension. If the behavior persists, we retain the right to charge an administration fee equal to the remaining credit in the account.

Fair Use Policy: Excessive resource consumption is defined as any usage that exceeds the expected usage for the application in use for an extended period and has the potential to disrupt other pods on the same server. If your pod's memory usage is repeatedly exhausted, you will receive a notification. If this occurs repeatedly, we may automatically increase your memory allocation to keep your pod online and prevent service disruption. You can monitor your pod's resource usage in the control panel and adjust resources at any time via Edit Pod Settings > Resources.

Reporting Abuse: If you notice abuse or unauthorized material originating from our servers, please contact us at abuse@pikapods.com. We will review and take appropriate action, including content removal, within 24 hours.

6. Account Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, including but not limited to accounts involved in abuse, illegal content, or other prohibited activities. Upon discovering such activity or content, we will lock the affected account. If the violation is not resolved, associated data will be permanently removed after one week.

You may terminate your account at any time by navigating to Account > Profile > Remove account in the control panel. Upon account deletion, your data will be removed in accordance with our data retention policies.

7. Account Security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials, including your password and any API keys or access tokens. You agree to notify us immediately at support@pikapods.com if you become aware of any unauthorized access to or use of your account.

PikaPods shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from unauthorized access to your account resulting from your failure to safeguard your credentials or from any unauthorized use that occurs before you notify us of the breach.

8. Service Availability

PikaPods does not guarantee any specific level of uptime or availability. While we strive to maintain reliable service, interruptions may occur due to maintenance, technical issues, or circumstances beyond our control. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any damages resulting from service interruptions (see Section 15: Limitation of Liability).

Scheduled Maintenance: Minor service interruptions lasting less than one hour will be communicated via notifications in the control panel. For longer planned outages, we will send email notifications to all affected users in advance.

Application Discontinuation: We may occasionally need to discontinue applications due to lack of upstream maintenance or low user interest. In such cases, we will stop providing updates, but existing pods may continue running for up to six months following the discontinuation announcement.

No refunds will be issued for service interruptions. Please refer to Section 11 (Refund Policy) for our complete refund terms.

Force Majeure: Neither party shall be liable for any failure or delay in performing obligations under these Terms where such failure or delay results from circumstances beyond reasonable control, including but not limited to natural disasters, acts of war or terrorism, pandemics, government actions, power outages, internet or telecommunications failures, or failures of third-party service providers. Affected obligations shall be suspended for the duration of such events.

9. Payments and Billing

PikaPods is a hosting service and we bill you for the resources used on an hourly basis. There is no guarantee for the correct working of any app, as those are supplied by third parties.

All products are priced in USD and processed securely through our payment providers. When entering your payment details, they will be stored securely with our payment providers. We never see or process your payment details.

After using up any free credit, you can add credit to your account using a variety of payment methods. When running apps, you will be billed for actual resource usage only, as shown in your account dashboard.

If you notice any errors in your charges, please get in touch with support and we will rectify the problem.

10. Taxation

Users may be subject to value-added tax (VAT) based on their location and billing address. PikaPods complies with applicable tax regulations, including remitting VAT payments to relevant authorities. Business users in the EU with valid VAT numbers must provide these details during account setup to qualify for VAT exemptions.

11. Refund Policy

All account credit is non-refundable, but can be used for any app available on the platform and never expires. We encourage you to use the free welcome credit to ensure the chosen app works for your needs before adding paid credit.

Under EU Directive 2011/83/EU, EU-based consumers have a 14-day right to withdraw from distance contracts. By adding credit, you expressly request immediate access to our platform resources and acknowledge that any refund will be proportional to unused credit, minus resources already consumed. To withdraw, contact us at support@pikapods.com.

12. Unpaid Accounts

If your account lacks an active payment method and free credits are exhausted, services (e.g., hosted pods) will be paused. If the account remains unpaid for an extended period, we may delete your data and terminate the account after a reasonable grace period and notifications.

13. Trademarks

All product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with us. Product names are used solely for the purpose of identifying the specific products that can be deployed by our customers on our service in an unmodified form. Use of these names does not imply any co-operation or endorsement unless stated otherwise.

14. Data Backups

User Responsibility: You are solely responsible for maintaining backups of your data. PikaPods provides self-service backup tools that allow you to create, download, and restore your own backups at any time. More information is available at docs.pikapods.com/manage/backup.

PikaPods Backups: For disaster recovery purposes, we maintain server-wide offsite backups of user data in a separate geographic location. These backups are for our operational use and are not guaranteed to be available or complete.

Backup Restoration Service: If you need to restore data from our server backups and are unable to use your own backups, we may be able to provide you with a snapshot of your data for an administrative fee. We cannot guarantee the availability, completeness, or currency of backup data. This service is provided on a best-effort basis with no warranties.

No Backup Guarantee: PikaPods does not guarantee the integrity, availability, or recoverability of any backup data, whether created by you or by our systems. You acknowledge that data loss may occur and agree to maintain your own backup strategy.

15. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent allowed by law, PikaPods (and Peakford Ltd) shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses resulting from:

1. Your access to, use of, inability to access, or inability to use our service;
2. Any third party conduct or content on PikaPods, including any defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of third parties; or
3. Any unauthorized access, use, or alteration of your content.

16. Linked Products and Services

We are proud to be part of a wider community, which includes different open source projects and complementary services. Sites that we link to may contain links to websites, services, and advertisements that we neither own nor control. We don't endorse or assume responsibility for any third-party sites, information, materials, products, or services.

17. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless PikaPods, Peakford Ltd, and their officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with:

1. Your use of the Service;
2. Your content or data stored on our platform;
3. Your violation of these Terms; or
4. Your violation of any applicable laws or regulations.

18. Service Discontinuation

In the event that PikaPods ceases operations, we will provide a minimum of 180 days' notice to all users. During this notice period, you may continue to use any remaining account credit. Following the notice period, your data will be retained for three years to allow for retrieval. After this retention period, all data will be permanently deleted.

19. Entire Agreement

These Terms and our Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and PikaPods. If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions of these Terms will remain in full force and effect.

20. Modification

The Terms may be modified from time to time. If we make changes that we believe will substantially alter your rights, we will notify you. You'll agree to accept any changes or revisions to the Terms by continuing to use our service.

21. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by the laws of Malta, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

22. Privacy

Please see the Privacy Policy for information on data privacy.