Terms of service

1. The service

Steeple (“we”, “us”) provides hosted church management software at this domain (the “Service”): a people directory, giving tools, groups, service planning and scheduling, presentation output, check-in, events and facilities, messaging, staff records, forms, prayer, follow-up workflows and reports.

The Service is offered to churches and similar organizations (“you”, “Customer”). By creating a church workspace or accepting an invitation to one, you agree to these terms on behalf of yourself and, where applicable, the organization you represent.

2. Accounts and roles

• Each user has one account identified by email address and may belong to more than one church.
• The person who creates a church workspace is its owner and is responsible for who is invited, what roles they hold, and what they do with the Service.
• Keep your password confidential. Tell us at once if you believe an account has been compromised.
• You must be at least 18 to hold an account. Records about children may be stored in the Service by adults acting for the church (see the privacy policy).

3. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• send messages to people who have not consented to receive them, or ignore an opt-out;
• upload content that is unlawful, infringing, or that you do not have the right to share;
• attempt to access another church's data, probe or overload our systems, or bypass usage limits;
• resell the Service or use it to operate a service for third parties without our written agreement.

Text messaging is subject to carrier and regulatory rules. You are responsible for obtaining the consent your jurisdiction requires and for the content of messages you send. We handle STOP and START keywords automatically and will not let you text someone who has opted out.

4. Plans, payment and limits

• The Free plan costs nothing and includes every module with limits on the number of people and monthly text messages, as published on the pricing page.
• Paid plans are billed monthly in advance through Stripe. Prices are in US dollars and exclude any taxes we are required to collect.
• You may upgrade, downgrade or cancel from Settings at any time. Downgrades and cancellations take effect at the end of the current billing period. We do not offer refunds for partial months except where required by law.
• We may change prices with at least 30 days' notice by email to your owner and admins. Changes apply from your next billing period after the notice.
• If you exceed a plan limit we will notify you and give you a reasonable period to upgrade or reduce usage before restricting the affected feature.

5. Giving and payments to your church

Online giving and event payments are processed by Stripe on a Stripe account that belongs to your church and is connected to Steeple. Your relationship with Stripe is governed by Stripe's own agreements. Stripe bills its processing fees to your account directly. We do not add a processing spread or take a percentage of donations unless a platform fee is clearly disclosed to you in writing before you enable it.

You are responsible for donor receipts, tax statements and compliance with the charitable-giving rules that apply to you. The Service provides tools (receipts, statements, fund designations) to help, but we do not provide tax or legal advice.

6. Your data and our licence to it

You own the data you and your people put into the Service (“Customer Data”). You grant us a licence to host, process, back up and display Customer Data only as needed to provide the Service to you, to comply with law, and as described in the privacy policy and data processing addendum.

• You can export the whole workspace at any time from Settings without contacting us.
• We will not sell Customer Data, use it to build marketing profiles, or share it with third parties except the subprocessors listed below.
• You are responsible for having the right to store the data you upload, including personal data about members, donors and children.

7. Subprocessors

We use these providers to deliver the Service. Each processes Customer Data only for the purpose stated:

• Stripe: payment processing and payouts on your connected account.
• Twilio: sending and receiving SMS.
• Resend: sending email and reporting delivery events.
• Anthropic: optional AI features (drafting sermon slides and messages) that run only when a user invokes them.
• Hosting provider [name and region]: application servers, database and backups.

We will update this list on the website and notify owners by email at least 14 days before adding a subprocessor that will process personal data.

8. Retention and deletion

• Customer Data is retained while your workspace exists.
• You can delete your workspace from Settings. Deletion removes Customer Data from production systems promptly and from backups within [30] days.
• We may retain records required for legal, tax or fraud-prevention purposes (for example, invoices and audit logs of our own billing) for as long as the law requires.
• Free workspaces with no sign-in for [12] months may be deleted after we email the owner with at least 30 days' notice.

9. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service and delete your workspace at any time. We may suspend or terminate access if you materially breach these terms, if required by law, or if your use creates a security or legal risk for us or other customers. Except where immediate action is needed, we will give notice and a chance to fix the problem, and we will keep your data available for export for at least [30] days after termination.

10. Availability, changes and support

We aim to keep the Service available at all times but do not guarantee uninterrupted operation. We may change or retire features with reasonable notice when the change is material. Support is provided by email at [email protected] during business hours.

11. Warranties and disclaimer

We will provide the Service with reasonable skill and care. Otherwise, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose. We do not warrant that the Service will meet regulatory requirements that are specific to you.

12. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for loss of profits, revenue or data, arising out of these terms. Our total liability for all claims in any 12-month period is limited to the amount you paid us for the Service in that period, or [US $100] if you are on the Free plan. These limits do not apply to a party's breach of confidentiality, misuse of the other party's intellectual property, or liability that cannot be limited by law.

13. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of [State / Country], without regard to conflict-of-law rules. The courts of [venue] have exclusive jurisdiction, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction. Before starting a claim, the parties agree to try in good faith to resolve the dispute by discussion for at least 30 days.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. For material changes we will email owners and admins at least 30 days before they take effect. Continuing to use the Service after that date means you accept the updated terms.

Questions: [email protected]. Legal entity: [Steeple legal entity name and address].