Terms of service template for startups.
Terms of service are the contract between you and everyone who uses what you built: what they may do, what you promise, what you exclude, and which law decides a dispute.
This template drafts website terms of use that stand on their own and sit cleanly alongside a separate customer agreement when your product needs one, so the two never contradict each other.
The moments this document comes up.
- People can sign up to anything on your site, even a waitlist.
- You are about to take payment and need what you sell, and on what terms, written down.
- A dispute, chargeback, or abusive user makes you reach for terms you do not have.
- A customer's legal team asks which law governs the relationship.
What the template covers.
The sections below mirror the document the generator drafts. Every template is a starting point, not legal advice, and says so on its face.
01
Use of the site
02
Accounts and the service
03
Intellectual property
04
Liability
05
Changes
06
Governing law
Drafted from choices you make.
A downloaded template hands you someone else's prose with holes in it. Here the document is generated from a settings sheet, so the wording follows your answers, and changing an answer later regenerates the parts it touches.
TERMS OF SERVICE
SETTINGS- JurisdictionEngland & Wales
- Separate customer agreementYes
- User contentNot accepted
- Commercial reuseBy permission
After generating, the document opens in the editor like any other: edits arrive as tracked changes you accept or reject, compliance checks run against real rulepacks, and exports come out as print-ready PDF or DOCX your lawyer can redline. What a compliance check actually does →
Fair questions.
Are terms of service and terms and conditions the same thing?
In practice yes: terms of service, terms of use, and terms and conditions are different names for the same document. What matters is scope. Website terms govern visitors browsing your site; a customer or subscription agreement governs paid use of the product. This template drafts the former and is written to sit alongside the latter without conflict.
How do users actually accept the terms?
For paid products, acceptance should be explicit: a checkbox or a clearly labelled button at sign-up that references the terms. For plain browsing, the terms state that use of the site means acceptance. The stronger the obligation you want to rely on, the more explicit the acceptance should be.
Can I just copy another startup's terms?
You can, and it usually shows: their refund promises, their jurisdiction, their product's risks, none of which are yours. A copied document is also frozen in time. Here the template is generated from your settings and re-checked when your details change, which is the part a copy can never do.
Related templates.
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