Terms of Service

For app development and consulting engagements. Last updated 8 October 2026.

This English version is the legally binding text. The German version (AGB) is a translation for information; in case of any inconsistency, the English version prevails.

1. Scope

These Terms govern all contracts for app development, software architecture consulting and related services between

DigitalFreedom Global LLC, 30 N Gould St, Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States (the "Provider"), brand DigitalFreedom / The App Architect,

and the Client. Conflicting terms of the Client are expressly excluded.

2. Formation of contract

A contract is concluded by the Provider's written order confirmation (signed offer or e-mail exchange with clear scope confirmation). No oral side agreements. Changes must be made in writing; e-mail is sufficient.

3. Scope of services

3.1 The Provider delivers the services described in the offer. The exact specification follows from the written project brief, signed off by both parties before project start.

3.2 Unless otherwise agreed, the Provider owes a result that conforms to the signed-off brief, not any further commercial outcome. The services are services, not a sale of goods; Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code does not apply to the extent permitted by law.

3.3 Scope changes after contract formation require a written change order with adjusted price and date.

4. Pricing and payment

4.1 All prices are net. Businesses in the EU with a valid VAT ID are normally invoiced under the reverse-charge procedure; the Client accounts for the VAT as the recipient of the service. Applicable taxes and any reverse-charge treatment are confirmed in the proposal before contract. Any tax that the Client owes itself under the law of its own country is borne by the Client.

4.2 Unless otherwise agreed, the fixed-price model applies. The offer divides the project into milestones, each with its own fixed price (Section 4.5). An advance payment of 30 % of the total fixed price is due on project start (after sign-off of the brief); it is credited against each milestone invoice at 30 % of that milestone's price. Each milestone is invoiced once it has been delivered and accepted (Section 7.1). The offer may set the milestones as monthly stages. A milestone is paid within the meaning of Section 8 when its invoice has been paid in full.

4.3 Invoices are due within 14 days of the invoice date, without deduction. Overdue amounts bear interest at one percent (1 %) per month from the due date until payment, but not more than the maximum rate permitted by applicable law.

4.4 Third-party costs (Apple Developer Program, Google Play, OpenAI, hosting, app store fees, domain registration) are passed through at cost or booked directly by the Client.

4.5 The offer sets a fixed price for each milestone, covering the scope agreed in the signed-off brief. Prices published on the Provider's websites ("from" prices) are entry prices; the binding fixed price per milestone is set in writing after scoping. Work, features, integrations or effort not covered by the signed-off brief are not part of the contract; they are carried out and billed only on the basis of a change order agreed in writing under Section 3.3, with its own price.

4.6 Ongoing operation, hosting, maintenance, support and third-party consumption are not included in a fixed development price, with the exception of the free bug-fixing under Section 9.4. Operation is billed at the monthly flat fee under Section 9.5. Hosting and third-party consumption are billed separately on a usage basis (Section 4.4); hosting costs scale with actual traffic and may grow as the app grows. Maintenance and support outside an operation agreement are provided only on the basis of a separate written order (Section 3.3 applies accordingly).

4.7 By way of derogation from Section 4.2, the App Check is invoiced in full at its fixed price when ordered and is paid in advance; work starts once payment has been received, and delivery periods stated in the offer run from that day. The App Check counts as one milestone; as it is paid in advance, its results are deemed paid within the meaning of Section 8 on delivery. If the Client orders a next step from the Provider (for example a takeover, a rescue or a first version) within 60 days after delivery of the App Check report, the amount paid for the App Check is credited in full against the invoices for that next step, starting with the first, until the credit is used up. The credit applies to one next step only, is capped at the total price of that next step and is not paid out.

5. Delivery dates

5.1 Delivery dates are binding once agreed in the offer. They extend correspondingly when the Client fails to meet its cooperation duties (Section 6) on time or in case of force majeure.

5.2 On request, deliveries follow two-week milestones with clickable build demos.

6. Client cooperation

The Client provides in time:

Access to all required third-party accounts (Apple Developer, Google Play Console, cloud providers)
Content, logos, images, text for the app
Feedback and approvals within 5 business days of request
One binding point of contact with decision authority

6.1 If operating the app requires special permissions, approvals, licenses, registrations or professional qualifications (e.g. regulatory, medical, financial, data-protection or trade authorizations), the Client must obtain, hold and provide these. The Provider develops and, where separately agreed, operates the app solely on behalf of and by instruction of the Client. The Provider assumes no liability for missing permits, licenses or qualifications of the Client, nor for the lawfulness of the Client's intended use of the app.

7. Acceptance

7.1 The completed work is provided to the Client for acceptance. Acceptance is given by explicit declaration in writing (e-mail is sufficient), by productive use, or by expiry of a 10-business-day review window without raised objections.

7.2 Minor defects do not entitle the Client to refuse acceptance.

8. Rights of use and ownership of code

8.1 The source code is kept in the Client's repository from the start of the project. Upon payment of each milestone, all right, title and interest, including copyright, in the work product delivered up to that point (source code, build pipelines, infrastructure configuration, design assets) pass to the Client. To that extent the Client may use, modify, exploit, transfer and sublicense the work product without restriction as to time or territory.

8.2 Rights in work product from milestones not yet paid remain with the Provider. Until that payment, the Client may use such work product for review, testing and acceptance only; productive use is not permitted. If the Client nevertheless puts it into productive use, the milestone is deemed accepted under Section 7.1 and payment becomes due. The Client's access to its own repository is not affected.

8.3 Open-source components are subject to their respective licenses. Libraries and tools of the Provider not specifically created for the Client remain with the Provider; the Client receives a simple, non-exclusive right of use within the delivered solution.

8.4 The Provider may name the project as a reference after go-live (name, logo, short description) unless the Client objects in writing (e-mail is sufficient). Code, data models and non-public business logic are not disclosed without explicit consent.

9. Warranty

9.1 The warranty period is 12 months from acceptance of the final milestone (final acceptance). Defects must be notified within this period.

9.2 For justified defect notices the Provider remedies defects within a reasonable period at its choice by rework or new delivery. If supplementary performance fails, the Client may reduce the price or rescind the contract.

9.3 Excluded are defects caused by third-party interventions, Client modifications or improper use. Adapting the app to platform updates released after final acceptance (in particular major iOS and Android releases) is not a defect remedy under the warranty and not part of the free bug-fixing under Section 9.4. It is part of an operation agreement under Section 9.5; without one, it is carried out only on the basis of a separate written order (Section 3.3 applies accordingly).

9.4 In addition to the warranty, the Provider fixes free of charge errors in the delivered work product (deviations from the signed-off brief) that are reported within 90 days after launch. Launch means the first release to the app stores or into production; for the takeover or rescue of an app that is already live, it means the first release to the app stores or into production upon or after acceptance of the final milestone. If the launch has not taken place within 90 days after final acceptance for reasons not attributable to the Provider, the 90-day period starts on the 90th day after final acceptance. The exclusions in Section 9.3 apply accordingly. This free bug-fixing does not extend the warranty period and does not cover new features or changes in scope.

9.5 Where the Client books ongoing operation for a flat monthly fee, the scope of services follows from the operation tier booked (App Care, Full Service or Your Technical Lead) as described in the offer. Releases, bug-fixing beyond security issues and outages, technical responsibility and supplier questionnaires are included only where the booked tier provides for them. Every tier includes, as specified in the offer, an emergency handbook and an account register that the Provider keeps current, and a supplier pack for the vendor reviews of the Client's customers. The emergency handbook documents the app, its accounts and its operation and is intended to enable another experienced developer to continue from the documented state; the Provider does not owe a named substitute, nor a particular outcome of a handover to a third party. The supplier pack and any supplier questionnaires answered contain prepared answers and evidence about the Provider's services; they are not a certification and not legal advice. Unless the offer provides otherwise, the Provider responds to critical outages within 4 hours on business days and to all other notifications within one business day; the response time is the time until work on the notification starts, not a commitment to resolve it within that time. Business days within the meaning of these Terms are Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays at the Client's registered office, unless the offer specifies other days or service hours. Hosting and third-party services are billed at cost on top (Section 4.4).

10. Liability

10.1 The Provider has unlimited liability for intent, gross negligence and wilful or wanton misconduct, for death or personal injury, and to the extent liability cannot be excluded or limited under mandatory applicable law, including product liability law.

10.2 For slight negligence regarding essential contractual duties (duties whose fulfilment makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on which the Client may rely), liability is limited to the contract-typical foreseeable damage, capped at the total fixed price under the respective offer; for ongoing services, at the fees paid for the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

10.3 Otherwise, liability for slightly negligent breaches of duty is excluded. In particular, liability for lost profit, indirect and consequential damages is excluded in such cases.

10.4 The Provider is not liable for third-party outages (Apple App Store review, Google Play, cloud providers, OpenAI) nor for damages arising from platform policy changes.

10.5 The Provider is not liable for the Client failing to hold or provide permissions, approvals, licenses or qualifications required to operate the app, nor for the lawfulness of the Client's intended use. The Provider acts solely as implementer and, where agreed, operator on the Client's behalf and instruction.

11. Confidentiality

Both parties treat all confidential information received under the contract as confidential and use it solely for performance. This duty survives for 5 years after contract end. Excluded: information already public without fault, lawfully known before, or required to be disclosed by law.

12. Data protection

Where the Provider processes personal data of the Client or its customers in delivering the services, the parties conclude a data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR. Otherwise, the Privacy Policy applies.

13. Term and termination

13.1 Projects with a fixed scope end with final acceptance. Sections 8 to 12 and 14 and the obligations under Sections 9.1 to 9.4 survive. Ongoing services (in particular operation under Section 9.5) run for the minimum term agreed in the offer; for the operation tiers, this is the minimum term stated in the offer for the booked tier. They renew automatically for the same period unless terminated in writing (e-mail is sufficient) at least 4 weeks before expiry. Where the Client is a consumer, the agreement instead continues for an indefinite period after the minimum term, and the Client may terminate it at any time on one month's notice.

13.2 The right to extraordinary termination for cause remains unaffected.

13.3 When an operation agreement under Section 9.5 ends, for whatever reason, the following applies as specified in the offer and in the exit plan agreed there. The Provider hands over the current emergency handbook, account register and exit plan. It returns the Client's data held by it (in particular backups and configuration) in a common machine-readable format and then deletes its copies, unless the law requires it to retain them; where a data processing agreement under Section 12 applies, its rules on return and deletion take precedence. It removes all of its own access to the Client's accounts, repositories and systems and confirms the removal in writing (e-mail is sufficient). Unless the exit plan sets other deadlines, both take place without undue delay after the end of the term or, where the handover services under the offer require the data or the access, after those services have been completed. It provides the handover services set out in the offer; further support for a successor is provided only on the basis of a separate written order (Section 3.3 applies accordingly). During the term, a handover is rehearsed once a year as described in the offer; the rehearsal is included in the monthly fee. Section 8 remains unaffected.

14. Final provisions

14.1 Governing law: The laws of the State of Wyoming, United States of America, apply, excluding its conflict-of-law rules and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). Where the Client is a consumer, this choice of law does not deprive the Client of the protection of the mandatory provisions of the law of the Client's country of habitual residence (Art. 6 (2) Rome I Regulation and equivalent rules).

14.2 Jurisdiction: If the Client is a business or a public body: claims against the Provider may be brought exclusively before the courts of Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. The Provider may in addition bring claims against the Client before the courts having general jurisdiction over the Client.

14.3 Severability: If any provision of these Terms is invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions remains unaffected. The invalid provision shall be replaced by a regulation that comes closest to the economic intent.

14.4 Written form: Changes and additions to these Terms must be made in writing; e-mail is sufficient. The same applies to amending this clause.