Plan terms

1. About these terms

These terms describe Plain Sight’s hosting plans: Essential, Retainer and Partner. They form part of any agreement with Plain Sight that refers to them. “The client” means the client named in that agreement, and words the agreement defines have the same meaning here. If these terms and the agreement conflict, the agreement governs.

Each version of these terms has a number and a date, and stays published at its own address. An agreement is bound to the version it names. A later version applies to the client only if the client agrees to it in writing.

2. What every plan includes

Every plan includes hosting, SSL, security and software updates, backups, uptime monitoring, site statistics, and the Plain Sight Dashboard. From the Dashboard, the client can see how many people visited the site, where they came from and which pages they read; read the inquiries sent through the site’s forms; ask Plain Sight for changes; manage the announcement banner, on a site that has one; and see its invoices and payments. Posting or scheduling an announcement is never a change.

Fixing a fault in Plain Sight’s work or hosting is never a change, and Plain Sight does it at no charge on every plan: an error in the site’s code, a change not made as the client instructed, or an outage of the hosting Plain Sight provides. A problem the client caused is sized and billed like any other change.

3. The plans

Small changes, on every plan. Plain Sight makes small changes in the order it receives them, each within one business day of its request or of the completion of the small change before it, whichever is later, and usually the same day. Ten small changes requested on one day can take up to ten business days.

Essential includes ten small changes per calendar month. The count resets on the first day of each month, whatever the billing date, and unused small changes don’t roll over. Once a month’s ten are used, the client chooses, for each further small change, whether it waits for the next month or is done now and billed by time. Medium and large changes are billed by time.

Retainer and Partner include every small and medium change, with one request open at a time: Plain Sight starts the next request when the one before it is done. Large changes use the month’s developer hours first, and any time beyond them is billed by time.

Developer hours cover work beyond a change: new pages, new sections and components, integrations and features. Unused hours roll forward for 30 days, then expire.

4. Billed work

Work a plan doesn’t include is billed by time: Plain Sight’s hourly rate under the client’s agreement, charged by the minute, with a 30-minute minimum per change. When the client asks in one request for several small changes beyond the month’s ten, they are billed together as one change, so the minimum applies once.

Plain Sight gives the client an estimate before any billed work starts, and starts only once the client approves it. On monthly billing, approved work goes on the next monthly bill. On yearly billing, Plain Sight invoices it when it is done, and the invoice is due within 15 days.

5. Change sizes

A change is a request to edit the website after launch. Plain Sight sizes every change as small, medium or large, and whether the client’s plan includes a change depends on its size.

Small

A request is small when every one of these is true:

1. It adds, replaces, removes or moves one item. An item is one of:
   • text of up to two paragraphs and 200 words, in one place: a heading, a sentence, a paragraph, a button label, or a page’s search title and description;
   • one fact, everywhere it appears on the site: a phone number, an email or street address, opening hours, a price, a name or title, a date, a link’s destination, or the address a form sends to. Adding a second one alongside it, such as another phone number, also counts as one item;
   • one image, video or document file, in a place the page already has for one;
   • one embed from a link the client supplies, such as a YouTube or Vimeo video or a Google map, placed where the client says;
   • one entry with no more than two parts, added to a list the site already has: an FAQ question and its answer, a testimonial and who gave it, a service and its description, a logo and its link, or a drop-down option. Removing an entry, or editing one part of it, is small however long the entry is;
   • one menu item, for a page that already exists;
   • one existing section, removed or moved up or down its page;
   • one style on one kind of element across the site, such as the size of every heading or the colour of every button.
2. The client supplies every part of it: the text word for word, the files, and exactly where it goes. A new list entry comes with every part the existing entries have. A style is one of the site’s existing colours or text sizes, or an exact value.
3. Nothing has to be decided: no writing, rewording, choosing, cropping by eye or design judgment. Plain Sight may resize and compress a supplied image to fit its place.
4. Nothing new is built: no new section, page, component, form field or kind of content.
5. The client can’t make the edit itself. Content the client edits in its own content management system, or from the Dashboard, such as the announcement banner, stays the client’s to edit.

Each item counts as one small change. A request that changes four items counts as four small changes, whatever kind of content they’re in.

Medium

A change that fails the small checklist, uses only what the site already has, and is estimated at up to 2 hours. A change is usually medium because Plain Sight has to write, reword or choose something, or because an item goes over a small limit. A change that needs anything new is large.

Large

Any change estimated at over 2 hours, and any of these, whatever its estimate:

• a new page, even when the client supplies the material;
• a new template, or a component or section type the site doesn’t have yet;
• design work: a new layout, a new visual style, a redesign;
• setting up a third-party service, or connecting one to the site’s own forms or data. Adding an embed code that the client or the service supplies is medium, not large;
• on a site with a content management system, a new content type, or a change to an existing type other than adding a field;
• a change to how the site works rather than what it says: new behaviour or logic. Adding a field to an existing form is medium.

Examples

These illustrate the definitions above. Where an example and a definition disagree, the definition applies.

Small, when the client supplies the content and says where it goes:

• Facts, everywhere they appear: a phone number, an email or street address, opening hours, a price, a date, a name or job title, the address the contact form sends to
• Text: fix a typo, replace a paragraph or two, add or remove a sentence, change a button’s wording or a page’s search title and description
• Links: change where a button, a link, a social profile or a booking link goes
• Files: replace or remove a photo; replace a video or a downloadable file such as a menu or fee schedule; embed a YouTube video or a Google map
• Lists: add an FAQ question, a testimonial, a service, a partner logo or a drop-down option; remove an entry; edit one part of an entry, such as a team member’s title
• Arrangement: add, rename, remove or reorder a menu item; remove a section, or move it up or down its page
• Style: make every heading on the site one size larger

Medium, usually under an hour:

• Writing: a short passage from the client’s notes, such as a bio or a service description, or a page’s search title and description
• Beyond a small limit: more than two paragraphs on one page; an entry with three or more parts, such as a team member’s profile with a photo, name, title and bio
• Photos and video: crop a photo, or choose one from several; add a video file to a page that has none, which means compressing it and choosing how it plays
• Built from what the site has: a section of an existing type, with supplied content; a field on a form; a drop-down in a menu that already has them
• Embeds: a chat, booking or newsletter widget, from code that the client or the service supplies
• Layout: spacing or alignment described by how it should look rather than by an exact value

Medium, usually one to two hours:

• Page rework: most of a page replaced with new material, or a page restructured from the client’s notes, with Plain Sight deciding the order and wording
• Writing: a section of several paragraphs from the client’s notes
• Bulk updates: many entries at once, such as several new team members; a new photo gallery that needs sorting and cropping
• Site-wide rewording: a service renamed, where the wording around it changes on each page

Large:

• New pages and sections: a new service, location, careers or landing page; a kind of section the site doesn’t have, such as a pricing table or a timeline
• Design: a redesign of a page or of the site’s look, including a new logo and colours
• Forms and services: a new form, such as a quote request or an intake form; setting up or connecting booking, payments, a newsletter, live chat, a CRM, a calendar or a review feed
• New functionality: search, filters, a calculator, a members’ area, another language, drop-down menus on a site that has none
• Content work: writing a whole page; moving content into a content management system

How Plain Sight sizes a change

• Plain Sight replies to every request with its size, and with a time estimate for anything that isn’t small. A small change the plan includes starts without approval. Billed work starts only after the client approves the estimate, and the client can withdraw a request at no cost before approving it.
• Plain Sight quotes every large change before any work starts, on every plan, including work paid from developer hours. The quote gives the estimated time and how it will be paid: from developer hours, by time, or both. Work starts only after the client approves the quote in writing.
• Plain Sight sizes a change as small by the checklist, and as medium or large by its estimate. A change on the large list is large whatever its estimate.
• Related requests are sized together. Several medium changes that together build a new page count as one large change.
• A request that asks for unrelated things counts as several changes. “Update the hours and replace the hero image” counts as two. Plain Sight may split a request this way, and the client sees the split before approving.
• Work stops on a change that turns out bigger than its size, or that will run more than 10% over its estimate. Plain Sight tells the client as soon as it expects either, gives a new estimate, and continues only after the client approves. The client is never charged more than 10% over an approved estimate without approving it first.
• Each change includes one round of revisions. A second round counts as a new change.

6. Changing plans and prices

The client can move to another plan at any time. A move to a higher plan takes effect immediately, with the fee prorated; a move to a lower plan takes effect at the next renewal. Plain Sight gives 60 days’ written notice of any price increase.

7. Cancellation

The client can cancel its plan at any time from the Plain Sight Dashboard, without notice. The plan continues to the end of the month or year already paid for, and fees already paid are not refunded. Plain Sight may end a plan on 30 days’ written notice, and refunds the unused part of any period already paid for. A website paid for by subscription has its own minimum term and cancellation terms, set in its agreement.

If the client owns its site under its agreement, it keeps the site and its domain on cancellation, and Plain Sight provides an export so the client can host it elsewhere. The client can also ask for a copy of the site’s source code at any time. The Plain Sight Dashboard and the services that run through it, including the announcement banner and the stored form inquiries, are not part of the site, and they end when the client no longer has a plan.

8. Form inquiries and privacy

Each party complies with applicable privacy laws. The client is responsible for the lawfulness of the personal information its site collects, and for the site’s privacy policy and any consent notices, unless its agreement says otherwise.

Plain Sight stores the inquiries sent through the site’s forms so the client can read them in the Dashboard. Plain Sight treats them as the client’s confidential information, uses them only to provide the plan, and keeps them secure on servers in the United States. Plain Sight tells the client without undue delay if it learns of any unauthorized access to, or loss of, the stored inquiries, and deletes them within 30 days after the client no longer has a plan.

The client can turn off the storing of inquiries from the Dashboard at any time, and turn it back on. While it is off, inquiries arrive only by email and don’t appear in the Dashboard, and an inquiry whose email fails to send can’t be recovered.

Sites on a plan use Plausible for visitor statistics and PostHog for visitor behaviour, including click heatmaps. Plain Sight tells the client before adding any other analytics tool, so the client’s privacy policy can name it.

9. Unpaid fees

Plan fees are due on each billing date. If a payment is more than 7 days late, Plain Sight sends a written reminder. If it is still unpaid 14 days after its due date, Plain Sight may take the site offline on 3 days’ further written notice, and restores it once the balance is paid. If it is still unpaid 30 days after its due date, Plain Sight may end the plan. If the client owns its site, it can then ask for an export of the site files, and Plain Sight keeps a copy available for 30 days after the plan ends before deleting it.