Terms of Service

1. Who we are and acceptance of these terms

EchoThread is operated by VectraSEO LLC, a Pennsylvania limited liability company ("EchoThread", "we", "us", or "our"). These Terms of Service (the "Terms") form a binding agreement between you and VectraSEO LLC and govern your access to and use of the echothread.io website, the EchoThread dashboard, the EchoThread embeddable comment widget, our APIs, and related services (collectively, the "Service").

By creating an account, clicking to accept these Terms, installing the widget on a site you control, or otherwise accessing or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you accept these Terms on behalf of a company or other organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization, and "you" refers to that organization.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old to use the Service. The Service is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly allow anyone under 16 to create an account. If you are using the Service in a jurisdiction with a higher age of digital consent, you must meet that age. By using the Service you represent that you meet these requirements and that you are not barred from receiving the Service under applicable law.

3. Accounts and authentication

EchoThread uses passwordless authentication. Site owners and commenters sign in using a magic-link email, a passkey, or a social provider (Google, GitHub, X, or Facebook), as available. You are responsible for keeping access to your email account and authentication methods secure, and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us at security@echothread.io if you believe your account has been accessed without authorization.

4. The Service and your sites

EchoThread lets site owners register websites, embed a comment widget on pages they control, and moderate the resulting discussions. As a site owner, you are responsible for the sites you connect, for configuring moderation to suit your audience, and for complying with all laws that apply to operating a comment section on your site — including, where applicable, providing your own visitors with any notices or choices required by privacy and electronic-communications law.

We may update, improve, or change features of the Service over time. We may also suspend or discontinue a feature, but we will not paywall a free "Hobby" site you have already set up out from under you, consistent with what we say on our pricing page.

5. Plans, billing, automatic renewal, and cancellation

5.1 Free and paid plans

EchoThread offers a free Hobby tier and paid plans (such as Pro). Current prices and what each plan includes are shown on our pricing page. The Hobby tier is free for personal sites and does not require a credit card.

5.2 Automatic renewal

Paid plans are subscriptions that renew automatically. Unless you cancel, your subscription will automatically renew at the end of each billing period (monthly or annual, depending on the plan you selected) and the payment method on file will be charged the then-current price for that plan and billing period. By subscribing to a paid plan you provide your express affirmative consent to this automatic renewal. We present the price, billing frequency, and renewal terms before you complete checkout.

5.3 Price changes

We may change subscription prices. If we change the price that applies to your subscription, we will give you reasonable advance notice by email before the change takes effect, and the new price will apply to your next billing period. If you do not agree to a price change, you may cancel before it takes effect.

5.4 How to cancel

You can cancel a paid plan online at any time, with no phone call or email required: open Billing in your dashboard and use Manage subscription to cancel through the same online flow you used to subscribe. Cancellation stops future renewals; your paid features remain active through the end of the billing period you have already paid for, after which the site reverts to the free Hobby tier.

5.5 Refunds

Your first payment on a paid plan is refundable for 14 days, no questions asked. Email us within 14 days of that first charge and we refund it in full; you do not have to give a reason. After that window, cancelling stops the next renewal and your paid features remain active through the period you have already paid for, as described in 5.4. If you cancel an annual plan partway through a paid year, we refund the unused whole months on a pro-rata basis. Renewal payments outside the 14-day window are otherwise not refunded, except where a refund is required by law. Nothing in this section limits any non-waivable refund or cancellation rights you may have under the consumer-protection laws of your state or country. The refund answer on our pricing page states this same policy; if the two ever differ, this section governs.

5.6 Taxes

Prices shown exclude taxes unless stated otherwise. You are responsible for any applicable taxes other than taxes based on our net income. Payments are processed by Stripe; your use of payment features is also subject to Stripe's terms.

6. User content and comments

"User Content" means comments, replies, images, names, and any other content submitted to the Service by you, your site's commenters, or content you import (for example, when migrating discussions from another platform).

As between you and EchoThread, you and your commenters retain ownership of User Content. You grant EchoThread a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, transmit, and process User Content solely as needed to operate, secure, moderate, and provide the Service (including spam detection and delivering comments to the sites where they were posted). We do not sell User Content and we do not use the text of comments to train models for third parties.

You are responsible for the User Content on the sites you operate, including obtaining any rights or consents needed to import or display it. You represent that User Content you submit or import does not infringe others' rights or violate law.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to, and not to allow others to:

• post or transmit content that is unlawful, infringing, defamatory, harassing, hateful, or that sexually exploits minors;
• use the Service to send spam or to deploy bots that post or vote on comments;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other accounts, or our systems, or interfere with or disrupt the Service;
• probe, scan, or test the security of the Service except under a written authorization or our Vulnerability Disclosure Policy;
• scrape or harvest data from the Service except as expressly permitted, or reverse engineer the Service except to the extent that restriction is prohibited by law;
• use the Service in violation of applicable export, sanctions, privacy, or anti-spam laws; or
• misrepresent your identity or affiliation, or use the Service to violate others' privacy.

We may remove content, and suspend or terminate accounts or sites, that we reasonably believe violate these Terms or applicable law, or that create risk or legal exposure for us or others.

8. Copyright and DMCA

We respect intellectual-property rights and respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement involving content hosted through the Service. If you believe content accessible through the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice with the information required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512) — including identification of the work, the allegedly infringing material and its location, your contact information, and the required good-faith and accuracy statements — to our designated agent at dmca@echothread.io. We may remove allegedly infringing content and will terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of repeat infringers. For reference, the statutory notice-and-takedown framework is published in 17 U.S.C. § 512.

Our designated agent to receive notices of claimed infringement is:

If your content was removed or disabled in response to a notice and you believe that was the result of a mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notification to the same designated agent. Your counter-notification should identify the removed material and the location where it appeared before removal, include your name, address, and telephone number, state under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification, and consent to the jurisdiction of the U.S. federal district court for the district where you are located (or, if outside the United States, any district in which we may be found). We may restore the material as permitted by 17 U.S.C. § 512(g).

9. Third-party services

The Service relies on third parties to function — including AWS (hosting, email, storage), DigitalOcean (hosting), Stripe (billing), Google, GitHub, X, and Facebook (sign-in), and KLIPY (GIF search in comments). Your use of those features may be subject to the third party's own terms, and we are not responsible for third-party services. The third parties that process personal data on our behalf are described in our Privacy Policy.

10. Our intellectual property

The Service, including the EchoThread software, widget, website, and brand, and all related intellectual-property rights, are owned by VectraSEO LLC or its licensors. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the Service in accordance with these Terms. We welcome feedback; if you send us suggestions, you grant us a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free license to use them without obligation to you.

11. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that it will meet your requirements. We are not responsible for User Content or for the conduct of any user of the Service. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of these exclusions may not apply to you.

12. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, EchoThread and VectraSEO LLC will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or relating to the Service. To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us for the Service in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100). These limits do not exclude liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law, and some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these limits may not apply to you.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless VectraSEO LLC and its officers, members, and employees from any claims, damages, liabilities, and reasonable expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of your use of the Service, your sites, your User Content, or your violation of these Terms or applicable law. This section does not apply to the extent a claim arises from our own violation of law.

14. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially breach these Terms, if required by law, or to protect the Service or other users. On termination, your right to use the Service ends. We will make a reasonable effort to let you export your data before deletion, and you may also export comment data at any time from the dashboard. Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including content licenses you have granted, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and the governing-law and dispute provisions — survive.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make a material change, we will provide reasonable notice — for example, by email to the address on your account or by posting a notice on the Service — before the change takes effect. Changes will not apply retroactively to a dispute that arose before the change. Your continued use of the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms; if you do not agree, you should stop using the Service and may cancel any paid plan.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Pennsylvania, and you and EchoThread consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. Nothing here prevents either party from seeking injunctive relief, or from bringing a qualifying claim in small-claims court. If you are a consumer, this section does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory consumer-protection rules of the country or state where you live.

17. General

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any plan terms shown at checkout, are the entire agreement between you and EchoThread regarding the Service. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. Neither party is liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond its reasonable control.

18. Contact us

Questions about these Terms? Contact us at:

support@echothread.io

Supporting references: Stripe Services Agreement for payment processing terms, and 17 U.S.C. § 512 for DMCA notice requirements.