Business Email Cost: Google, Microsoft or Your Host
Business email costs $1 to $14 per user a month. Yearly totals for 1, 3 and 10 people at Google, Microsoft, Zoho, Fastmail and Namecheap, read 6 Nov 2026.
Web Design
Website Terms and Conditions: What to Include, and How to Show Them So They Count
The pages that rank for this search are mostly template and generator sellers. They list clauses well, but they say little about the part a web designer controls: how the terms are shown and accepted. A US appeals court has spelled that part out in plain design language. This guide covers what to include for your type of site, then how to present it. It is general information, not legal advice. Checked 10 November 2026.
Key takeaways
- Terms and conditions set the rules for using your site. Terms of use, terms of service and terms and conditions are names for the same kind of agreement.
- They are usually optional; a privacy policy often is not. Termly and Ironclad both say terms are not legally required in most places. Selling online is different: UK law, for example, lists information a shop must give before an order.
- What you include depends on what the site does. A five-page service site needs far less than a shop, a booking site or a site with user accounts.
- How you show them decides whether they count. In Berman v. Freedom Financial Network (2022), the US Ninth Circuit said a court will enforce online terms only if the notice is reasonably conspicuous and the user takes an action that clearly shows agreement.
- Design details mattered in that ruling: tiny grey text, links that looked like plain text, and a "Continue" button that did not say clicking meant agreeing.
- Get a lawyer for anything with real risk: payments, subscriptions, user content, health, finance, or selling across borders.
The short answer
Put a terms page in your footer that says who runs the site, what visitors may and may not do with it, who owns the content, the limits of your responsibility, which law applies, how to reach you, and the date it last changed. If you sell, take bookings or open accounts, add the payment, cancellation, delivery and account rules, and ask people to agree at the moment they act: a checkbox or a button whose label says that clicking means agreeing, with a link that clearly looks like a link. Keep the wording in plain English and have a lawyer review it if money or personal data is involved.
Who is writing: Amariq designs and builds websites. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. The legal points below come from a published court opinion and a UK government page, read on 10 November 2026, and the design points are our reading of them.
What ranks for this search, and what it leaves out
On 10 November 2026 the first page of Google (US, English) for "website terms and conditions" was led by sellers of templates and generators: Termly (updated 8 October 2026), LawDepot (22 May 2026), TermsFeed (7 May 2026) and Enzuzo (2 April 2026). It also showed a law firm blog from Baker Data Counsel, a contract software company, Ironclad (14 October 2026), Forbes Advisor (8 June 2026) and Oracle's own terms of use.
These pages list clauses thoroughly. Ironclad and Termly both mention clickwrap and browsewrap. What none of them shows is how a court judged a real page design, or which clauses a small service site can skip. Termly calls browsewrap consent standard and suggests using both methods. The Ninth Circuit opinion read for this guide says courts are more reluctant to enforce browsewrap. That difference is worth knowing before you copy a template.
Terms and conditions, privacy policy, and the other legal pages
| Page | What it covers | Usually needed? |
|---|---|---|
| Terms and conditions | The rules for using the site and buying from it | Optional for a simple site; strongly advised once you sell or have accounts |
| Privacy policy | What personal data you collect and what you do with it | Often required by law once you collect personal data. See our privacy policy guide |
| Cookie notice | Which cookies and trackers you set | Depends on where your visitors are |
| Returns and refunds | How customers return goods and get money back | For shops; UK law sets cancellation rules |
| Shipping or delivery | Costs, times, areas | For shops that post goods |
Termly advises keeping the terms, privacy policy and cookie policy as separate documents. That also makes each one easier to find.
What to include, by type of site
Pick the column that matches your site. Clause names follow the lists on Termly and Ironclad; the sorting by site type is ours.
| Clause | Service or brochure site | Shop | Booking or appointments | Accounts or user posts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs the site, with contact details | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Permitted and prohibited use | Short | Short | Short | Detailed |
| Who owns the content and brand | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, plus rights in what users post |
| Accuracy and changes to the site | Yes | Yes, including price errors | Yes | Yes |
| Links to other sites | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Limits of responsibility and disclaimers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Prices, payment and taxes | No | Yes | If you take deposits | If paid plans |
| Delivery | No | Yes | No | No |
| Cancellation, returns and refunds | No | Yes | Cancellation and no-show rules | For paid plans |
| Account rules and passwords | No | If customers log in | If clients log in | Yes |
| Suspending or closing accounts | No | If accounts | If accounts | Yes |
| Copyright complaints (US DMCA notice) | No | No | No | Termly says US sites hosting user content should cover it |
| Governing law and disputes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Date of last change | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
A brochure site for a plumber or an accountant can have a page of five or six short sections. A shop with subscriptions can run to several pages. Length should follow what the site does, not what a generator offers.
If you sell online: what UK law asks for
Most terms pages are written as if there were no consumer law. For shops selling to UK customers, GOV.UK's guide on online and distance selling, read on 10 November 2026, lists information you must give before an order is placed, including:
- your business name, contact details and address
- the price including all taxes, how the customer can pay, and delivery arrangements and costs
- how to cancel and when the right to cancel is lost, with a standard cancellation form if they can cancel
- the minimum length of the contract and the conditions for ending it
For online selling it adds that you must make clear the customer has to pay when they order (it gives a "pay now" button as an example), list the steps to place an order, let customers correct mistakes, make sure customers can store and reproduce your terms and conditions, for example by downloading and printing them, and get consent, such as a ticked box, for optional extras. You must confirm the contract as soon as possible, for example by email.
On cancellation, GOV.UK says customers can cancel up to 14 days after delivery without a reason, and if you do not tell them about that right they can cancel at any time in the next 12 months. The page lists exceptions, including goods and services worth £42 or less.
Other countries have their own rules. The point for your website is practical: some of these items belong on product pages and in the checkout, not only in a terms page nobody opens. If you sell into the UK, our UK website redesign guide covers VAT display and cookies too.
How to show your terms so they count
This is where web design and law meet. In Berman v. Freedom Financial Network (US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, opinion of 5 April 2022, read on 10 November 2026), the court refused to enforce terms on two web pages. It set out two conditions for terms a user did not actually know about:
- The website gives reasonably conspicuous notice of the terms.
- The user takes an action, such as clicking a button or checking a box, that unambiguously shows agreement.
The opinion describes two kinds of agreement. Clickwrap, where users must check a box saying "I agree" to go on, which courts have routinely enforced. And browsewrap, where the terms sit behind a link and use of the site supposedly counts as agreement, which courts are more reluctant to enforce.
What failed on the pages in that case, in the court's words and ours:
| Design choice on the page | What the court said |
|---|---|
| Notice in tiny grey text, smaller than everything around it | The opposite of conspicuous; other elements drew attention away |
| Links shown only by underlining, in the same grey as the sentence | Underlining alone will often not tell a user a link exists; contrasting colour (typically blue) or capitals are customary signs |
| A big green "Continue" button with the notice nearby | Clicking a button means nothing on its own unless the user is told that clicking is agreeing |
| The notice said "I understand and agree" but not which action counted | It should have said what action means agreement |
The court suggested a fix of one line: wording such as "By clicking the Continue button, you agree to the Terms & Conditions." It also pointed to an earlier case where an app that said creating an account meant agreeing to the terms, with the terms shown as a blue underlined link, was enforced.
This is one US court applying its own law. Courts elsewhere use their own tests. But the design lessons are cheap to follow on any site.
A checklist for your checkout, sign-up and booking forms
- Put the notice next to the action, in text at least as large as the text around it, with good contrast.
- Make the link look like a link. A colour that differs from the body text plus an underline.
- Say what the action means. "By placing your order, you agree to our Terms and Conditions" or a checkbox labelled "I agree to the Terms and Conditions".
- Do not pre-tick the box. A ticked box the user never touched shows nothing about what they chose. GOV.UK also asks for a ticked box for optional extras.
- Keep the terms page in the footer too, so it can be found at any time.
- Date every version and keep old ones. Add "Last updated" at the top and save a copy of each version you publish.
- Send the terms with the confirmation email for orders and bookings, or a link to the version they agreed to.
- Check it on a phone. Small grey text on a desktop gets smaller on a phone.
Most platforms can do this without code. Shop builders have a checkout setting for a terms checkbox or notice, and form builders can add a required checkbox to a booking or contact form. Our Webflow forms guide shows the form side for Webflow.
Writing the page itself
- Plain words beat legal-sounding words. Termly and Ironclad both recommend clear language. Short headings help people find the part they need.
- Write about your actual business. If you do not ship goods, do not keep a shipping clause because the template had one.
- Do not copy another site's terms. Termly warns that terms are protected by copyright and will not fit your business. The short © line in your own footer is a separate thing; see our website copyright notice guide.
- Do not promise what you cannot keep. A terms page that says refunds are given within 5 days, when you take 14, works against you.
- Remember the limits. Termly also notes that terms cannot let you set any rule you like; you can only set rules within the law.
Template, generator or lawyer?
| Option | Fits | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Free template | A simple brochure site with no sales, accounts or user posts | Clauses that do not apply, and wording that does not match your business |
| Paid generator | Shops and sites with accounts that need many clauses kept up to date | You still answer the questions; wrong answers make wrong terms |
| Lawyer | Payments, subscriptions, regulated work, user content, selling across borders | Cost, but it is the only option that gives you advice |
How Amariq can help
We do not write legal terms. We build the parts of the site that make them work: a footer link on every page, a terms page that is easy to read on a phone, checkout, booking and sign-up forms with a clear notice and checkbox, and confirmation emails that include the terms. You or your lawyer supply the text. We work on Webflow, Framer, WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace or a custom stack. Each project is priced from its scope, never by the hour, with 40% to start, 30% at design approval and 30% before launch. Once the final payment is made, the design, copy and code belong to you, and your domain, hosting and analytics accounts sit in your name. See our web design service or ecommerce development.
Frequently asked questions
Do I legally need terms and conditions on my website?
Usually not for a simple site. Termly and Ironclad both say they are not legally required in most places. If you sell online, consumer law may require you to give certain information before an order, as GOV.UK sets out for the UK.
Are terms and conditions and terms of use the same thing?
Yes. Terms and conditions, terms of use and terms of service are names for the same kind of agreement.
Are website terms and conditions legally binding?
They can be. In the US Ninth Circuit, terms a user did not actually know about are enforced only if notice was reasonably conspicuous and the user took an action that clearly showed agreement, such as checking a box.
Where should terms and conditions go on a website?
In the footer of every page, and next to the button wherever people buy, book or sign up, with wording that says clicking means agreeing.
Can I copy another website's terms and conditions?
Termly warns against it: terms are protected by copyright and someone else's will not match your business.
What is the difference between clickwrap and browsewrap?
Clickwrap asks the user to check a box or click a button that says they agree. Browsewrap treats simply using the site as agreement. The Ninth Circuit says courts routinely enforce clickwrap and are more reluctant to enforce browsewrap.
Do I need a lawyer to write terms and conditions?
Not always for a simple brochure site. For payments, subscriptions, user content, regulated services or selling to other countries, a lawyer is the safe choice.
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