Terms of Service
The contract between your website or app and the people using it.
A common term used for website and app “terms” that govern how users access and use an online service. Terms of Service typically cover acceptable use, account rules, content rules, IP, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and dispute resolution. For enforceability, terms are usually presented through clickwrap acceptance during sign-up or checkout.
- Business days
- 1–5Business days
- Lawyer reviewed
- 100%Lawyer reviewed
- Surprise bills
- $0Surprise bills
What a Terms of Service should include
Acceptance — how a user agrees, and how you evidence that they did.
Permitted use — what the service may be used for, and the conduct that gets an account closed.
Your content and theirs — what you own, what users own, and what licence you need to run the service.
Payment terms — where the service is paid, including renewal and refunds.
Disclaimers and liability — what the service does not promise, and the limit on what you owe if it fails.
Changes and termination — how you update the terms, and how either side ends the relationship.
When you need one
Before launch, if people can sign up, transact or post. Terms of service are also what let you remove a user who is abusing the product — without them, that decision is harder to defend.
How Ruby drafts it
Tell us what you need
Describe the agreement, your business context, and how fast you need it. A few smart questions, not a legal questionnaire. Your price and turnaround are confirmed before anything starts.
Ruby drafts it
Once pricing is confirmed a qualified Ruby lawyer is assigned to your file, and the first draft is built from your answers and real Canadian statute.
A licensed lawyer reviews every line
A lawyer licensed in Canada reviews and finalizes the document before it reaches you, and writes the plain-language summary that comes with it.
Signed, stored, and yours to revisit
You get the final agreement and its summary, stored so you can come back to it rather than hunting through email for the current version.
The fee is set before any of that starts. Hourly billing moves as scope does; a flat fee is one number, confirmed in writing, that doesn’t change after the work is done. See how Ruby prices agreements.
Or did you mean one of these?
These get confused with a Terms of Service often enough to be worth ruling out before you buy the wrong document.
Questions people ask
How the user agrees affects how easily the terms can be relied on later. A checkbox or an explicit "I agree" at signup is a stronger record than a link in the footer. If the terms matter to your business, make agreeing to them a deliberate step.
No, and they should stay separate. Terms of service govern use of the product. A privacy policy explains what personal information you collect and why. Combining them tends to make both harder to read and to update.
Usually only if the terms say how, and users get notice. A change-of-terms clause that lets you amend silently is common in templates and is worth looking at closely.
Looking for the plain definition rather than the document? See Terms of Service in the Ruby legal glossary.
This page is general information about Canadian business law and is not legal advice. Laws differ by province and change over time, and how they apply depends on your circumstances. For advice on your situation, speak with a lawyer licensed in your province.
Need a Terms of Service?
Ruby drafts it for a flat $499 CAD, confirmed before any work begins, with a licensed Canadian lawyer on every document.