Service Agreement
Effective Date: July 30, 2026
These are the standard terms that apply to website design, hosting, and maintenance services from Royalty Star Inc., a California S Corporation (California Secretary of State Entity No. 6036272), doing business as Starbeam Hosting, located at 1801 Flower Ave Suite 21, Duarte, CA 91010 (Duarte Business License No. 0140174).
Every client signs a copy of this agreement with their own plan and pricing filled in on Exhibit A. The terms below are word-for-word what you will sign — nothing is different, and nothing is added later.
We have written this in plain language on purpose. If anything here is unclear, please ask us before you sign. We would much rather explain something twice than have you agree to something you did not fully understand.
1. What We Will Do
For the package you select, we will:
- Design and build your website, including the pages and features listed for that package.
- Host your website on secure hosting, including an SSL certificate so your site loads over https.
- Keep the software current — WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates.
- Run regular backups of your site.
- Monitor for security issues and uptime.
- Make the number of content edits per month included in your package — things like updating hours, swapping a photo, or changing prices.
- Provide support for problems with your site’s normal operation.
2. What Is Not Included
The following are not covered by your monthly fee. We are happy to do any of it, but we will quote you in writing and get your approval before starting:
- Additional pages beyond what your package includes.
- Logo design, professional photography, and written copy, unless purchased as an add-on.
- Managing paid advertising campaigns.
- Content edits beyond your monthly allowance.
- Fees charged by third parties — domain registration and renewal, premium plugin or theme licenses, and payment processing fees.
3. What We Need From You
- Your content — text, photos, logo, and any other materials — in a reasonably timely way.
- Feedback and approvals when we ask for them, so the build can keep moving.
- Current payment information on file.
- Confirmation that you have the legal right to use everything you give us.
Please understand that build timelines depend heavily on this. In our experience, the most common reason a website launches late is not our build time — it is waiting on content and approvals. If we are waiting on you, the timeline extends accordingly, and that is not a breach by either of us.
4. Your Two Payment Options
(a) Pay-in-Full. You pay the one-time Build Fee upfront. You own your website as soon as it is built and the Build Fee is paid. From then on, you pay only the monthly Ongoing Rate, which covers hosting, updates, and maintenance.
(b) Rent-to-Own. You pay nothing down. Your Build Fee, plus a financing charge, is spread across 36 fixed monthly payments that also include your hosting and maintenance. When the 36th payment is made, you own your website outright, and your monthly payment drops to the standard Ongoing Rate.
The exact amounts that apply to you are written in Exhibit A of your signed agreement.
5. Billing
5.1 Your monthly payment is charged on the same calendar day each month to the payment method you authorize.
5.2 Your monthly rate is fixed and will not increase, with one exception: if a third-party service we rely on raises its prices, we may pass that increase through. We will tell you in advance and in writing before that happens.
5.3 If you prefer to prepay a full year of hosting, updates, and maintenance in one payment, we will take 10% off that year’s total. Just ask and we will set it up as an annual invoice instead of monthly billing.
6. If a Payment Is Missed
This is the one area where this agreement is firm, because your monthly payment is what funds the hosting, updates, and support that keep your site online. Here is exactly what happens, step by step, so there are no surprises:
- We email you to let you know a payment did not go through.
- You have ten (10) calendar days from that email to bring the account current. Nothing happens to your website during those ten days.
- If the account is still not current after ten days, a late fee of $25 or 5% of the monthly payment (whichever is greater) is added.
- We will send one more email before taking any action on your site.
- If the account remains unpaid, we may suspend your website — meaning we take it temporarily offline — until the account is brought current.
- Suspension is not termination. As soon as your account is current, your site goes back online, unchanged.
- If your account is still unpaid thirty (30) days after suspension, we may end this agreement under Section 8.
7. Ownership
7.1 Before full payment. Until the Build Fee is fully paid — for Rent-to-Own clients, that means completing all 36 payments — Starbeam Hosting owns the website design and build.
7.2 When ownership transfers to you. If you chose Pay-in-Full, ownership transfers once the Build Fee is paid and the site is delivered. If you chose Rent-to-Own, ownership transfers when your 36th monthly payment is made. Either way, we will confirm the transfer to you in writing.
7.3 What is always yours, no matter what. Your business name, your logo, your trademarks, your photos, your product and service descriptions, your testimonials, and any other content you gave us are yours at all times. Nothing in this agreement changes that, and nothing about a cancellation, suspension, or dispute changes that either.
7.4 Your domain name. Your domain name is yours, at all times, regardless of the status of this agreement, as long as it is registered in your name and paid for. Your domain is never held as security for anything.
7.5 Third-party items. Some things in your site may be licensed from someone else — premium plugins, themes, fonts, or stock photography. Those are not ours to give away, so they are not part of what transfers to you. They stay under their own license terms, and after ownership transfers, keeping those licenses current is your responsibility. We will give you a written list of them at transfer so you know exactly what they are.
8. Ending This Agreement
8.1 Cancelling ongoing service. You may cancel ongoing hosting, updates, and maintenance at any time by contacting us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing cycle.
8.2 Ending a Rent-to-Own plan before month 36. If you end a Rent-to-Own plan before completing all 36 payments, two things happen. First, we take the website offline, because ownership has not transferred yet. Second, the remaining unpaid portion of your Build Fee becomes due. This is not a penalty and it is not a charge for future months of service you will not receive — it is the unpaid balance of design and development work already completed for you. We will always give you that exact figure in writing, with the math shown, before anything is finalized.
8.3 Paying off early. You may pay off your remaining Build Fee balance at any time in a single payment and take ownership immediately. Just ask us for the payoff figure.
8.4 If we end the agreement. We may end this agreement for non-payment as described in Section 6, or for a material breach of this agreement that you do not fix within fifteen (15) days of our written notice.
8.5 If we let you down. If we materially fail to do what we promised — for example, an extended unexplained outage, or failing to perform the maintenance you are paying for — and we do not fix it within fifteen (15) days of your written notice, you may end this agreement immediately and you will owe no remaining Build Fee balance. That is the fair outcome and we will honor it.
9. Refunds
- If you cancel before we have begun any design or development work, we refund your Build Fee in full.
- Once design or development work has begun, the Build Fee is not refundable, because it reflects work already performed. That said, if you are unhappy with the quality of what we delivered, tell us — we will work with you to make it right.
- Monthly fees for a period already billed are not refunded on a partial-month basis.
- If you prepaid a year and cancel partway through, we refund the unused prorated portion, less the discount that was applied to it.
10. Your Files If We Part Ways
If this agreement ends for any reason, we will make your own content — the text, images, and materials you supplied — available to you on request for thirty (30) days. If ownership of the design and build has not transferred to you yet, we are not obligated to hand over the design files or code, but we will never hold your own content or your domain hostage.
11. Third-Party Services
We rely on third parties to deliver these services — our hosting provider, Stripe for payment processing, and plugin and theme developers, among others. We are not responsible for their outages, price changes, feature changes, or policy changes. What we will do is tell you when something changes in a way that affects your site, and find a reasonable alternative where one exists.
12. What We Promise — And What We Do Not
12.1 We will perform our services in a professional manner, consistent with generally accepted industry standards.
12.2 We do not promise specific business results. We cannot and do not guarantee search engine rankings, traffic volume, leads, sales, or revenue. Any company that guarantees you a #1 Google ranking is not being straight with you.
12.3 We do not promise 100% uptime, because no hosting provider can honestly promise that. We do promise to monitor uptime and respond promptly when something goes wrong.
12.4 Beyond the specific commitments written in this agreement, the services are provided as is, without other warranties, express or implied.
13. Limit on Damages
If something goes wrong and you have a claim against us, our total liability is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve (12) months before the claim arose. Neither of us is liable to the other for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages — things like lost profits or lost data — even if we were warned they were possible. Nothing in this section limits liability for fraud, gross negligence, or willful misconduct, and nothing here limits any right you have that cannot be limited under California law.
14. Your Content, Your Responsibility
You confirm that you have the legal right to use everything you give us to put on your website — photos, logos, text, music, video, and anything else. If someone claims that content you supplied infringes their rights, you agree to cover us for the costs and claims that result. We are not in a position to verify the ownership of materials handed to us, so this one has to sit with you.
15. Confidentiality
Each of us agrees to keep the other’s non-public business information confidential, and to use it only to carry out this agreement. This obligation continues for two (2) years after this agreement ends.
16. Showing Your Website In Our Portfolio
We may display your website in our portfolio and marketing materials as an example of our work. If you would rather we did not, just tell us in writing and we will respect that, no explanation needed.
17. Things Outside Anyone's Control
Neither of us is responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control — natural disasters, widespread internet or power outages, third-party provider failures, or government action. Whoever is affected will let the other know promptly and resume as soon as reasonably possible.
18. If We Disagree
18.1 Talk to us first. Before either of us starts any formal proceeding, we agree to raise the issue in writing and make a genuine effort to work it out in a conversation, for at least fifteen (15) days. In our experience almost everything gets resolved here.
18.2 Mediation. If that does not resolve it, either of us may ask for mediation with a neutral mediator, and the other agrees to participate in good faith. We split the mediator’s fee equally.
18.3 If it still is not resolved. Any remaining dispute may be brought in arbitration in Los Angeles County, California, under the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association, before a single arbitrator — or either of us may instead bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies.
18.4 Governing law. This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules.
19. If We Cannot Continue In Business
If Starbeam Hosting ceases operations or becomes unable to keep hosting your site through no fault of yours, we will provide you with a complete backup and export of your website as it then exists, within thirty (30) days, so that you are not left stranded without the site you have been paying for. We think you are entitled to that regardless of where you are in your payment schedule.
20. Housekeeping
20.1 Entire agreement. This agreement, together with Exhibit A of your signed copy, is the complete agreement between us about your website, and replaces any earlier discussions or proposals.
20.2 Changes. Any change to this agreement has to be in writing and signed by both of us.
20.3 Transfers. You may not transfer this agreement to someone else without our written consent. We may transfer it if we sell or reorganize our business, and we will tell you if that happens.
20.4 If part of this is unenforceable. If a court or arbitrator decides any part of this agreement cannot be enforced, the rest of it still applies, and the unenforceable part will be read as closely as possible to what we originally intended, within what the law allows.
20.5 Notices. Notices under this agreement may be sent by email to the addresses each of us has on file, and are effective when delivered.
20.6 Our relationship. We are an independent contractor. This agreement does not make either of us the other’s employee, partner, or joint venturer.
Standard Rates
| Package | Build Fee | Rent-to-Own (36 mo) | Ongoing Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $800 | $101/mo | $75/mo |
| Standard | $1,500 | $198/mo | $150/mo |
| Restaurant | $1,800 | $208/mo | $150/mo |
| Nonprofit | $1,400 | $170/mo | $125/mo |
| Premium | $3,500 | $362/mo | $250/mo |
These are standard starting rates for typical projects. Your individual quote may differ based on scope, and whatever is written on Exhibit A of your signed agreement governs your plan.
Questions about these terms?
admin@starbeamhosting.com · (626) 371-3311 · Mon–Sat, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Royalty Star Inc. d/b/a Starbeam Hosting · 1801 Flower Ave Suite 21, Duarte, CA 91010