Terms of Sale

BeforeTheApp is operated by EcoStack Technology OÜ (registry code 16935780, VAT EE102714663), Pallasti tn 50-18, 11413 Tallinn, Estonia ("we", "us"). You can reach us at [email protected].

These terms apply to every purchase of a membership on beforetheapp.com and its redirecting domains. By completing a purchase you confirm that you have read and accepted them. The version in force when you buy is stored with your order.

• Club: the iOS club or the Mac club. They are separate; a membership in one gives no rights in the other.
• Grid (epoch): a sales round of a club, shown as a founder grid of cells: 16 × 16 (256 cells) on the platform clubs; a category club may use a smaller layout, which is shown on the grid before you buy and never changes once the grid is on sale.
• Square (slot): a 1×1, 2×2 or 3×3 area on a grid that you buy. A square you have bought or reserved is never split or merged. Unsold 2×2 and 3×3 blocks split into single squares one by one as the grid fills, in the order and at the points shown on the grid page.
• Membership: the rights described in section 4, tied to one square.
• Supporter seat: a single seat on a grid's separate supporter grid, which has one seat per cell of the founder grid. It gives the narrower supporter rights described in section 4 for that grid's apps only.
• Developer partner: the independent developers who build the club's apps. Their role is a production role; it creates no obligation of theirs towards you.

You need an account to buy. You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority where you live) and give accurate information. An account is personal; one person may not use several accounts to gain extra votes.

You are responsible for keeping your sign-in methods secure. Tell us promptly if you suspect misuse.

A one-time, non-transferable founder membership in one club, bought in a specific grid and tied to one square. What you buy is a place in the process of making the club's apps. You are not buying the apps themselves, a copy or a licence of them, or any particular feature.

The membership covers the apps of your club that are published on this site: apps released before you joined, apps in production and apps made later. Your rights last as long as we operate the site and, for each app's member benefit, as long as that app is offered.

Rights that start as soon as your payment is confirmed:

• access to the detailed roadmap, production log and founder-only updates;
• idea and feature requests;
• one vote in every open poll of your club (one vote per person, whatever the size or number of squares);
• priority invitations to prototypes and closed betas when they exist;
• a public, moderated profile on your square, and on a 2×2 or 3×3 square an image of your choice (see the Profile Rules);
• access to the member benefit of each app of your club once that app is released (section 5).

Supporter seats. Grids also sell supporter seats (one per cell of the founder grid, 256 on a 16 × 16 grid) at a standard price that is the same on every grid (currently $9) and never more than that grid's founder 1×1 price. Supporter seats go on sale with the grid and stay on sale after its founder sale ends, until all of them are sold or we end their sale; a supporter who joins after the grid's app selection has closed has no vote in it. A supporter seat is a one-time, non-transferable membership in that grid only, and like a founder membership it is a place in the process of making apps, not the apps themselves. A supporter has one vote in the grid's app selection and, for each app the grid makes, exactly the supporter rights that app lists on the grid's supporter page: for example votes in that app's polls, feature requests, its production updates, a beta place after the founders, or a supporter benefit. Each app's list is shown before you buy; we may add to it at any time but never remove a right from it once the grid has supporters. A supporter seat gives no rights in the apps of other grids, in club-wide polls, or in the member benefits of section 5, and no square on the founder grid or profile image. Founders of a club already hold every supporter right of its grids and cannot also buy a supporter seat there. A supporter may upgrade: when they buy a founder square in the same club, what they paid for their supporter seats there is taken off its price (the charge is at least $1), and those supporter seats end once the founder square is paid, since the founder membership includes all of their rights.

Every grid guarantees at least one app. Whether further apps are made in the same grid is our decision. A membership is not equity, a share of company or app revenue, a loan or an investment, and it gives no ownership of any app or intellectual property.

Members choose which candidate app is built next. The winning app is built once its developer partners confirm scope and capacity; if a result cannot be implemented we explain why and publish the new plan. Every decision and its reasons stay public.

In-house apps. We may also build apps for a club ourselves, outside its grids ("in-house apps"), for example so the club has apps from its first day. An in-house app is not part of any grid, is never an option in a grid's app selection and does not count as the app a grid guarantees; it takes no share of grid sales. Otherwise it is an app of the club like any other: every founder of the club has the rights of section 4 in it, including its member benefit, whichever grid they joined in. Supporter seats cover only their grid's own apps, not in-house apps. We may move an in-house app into a grid's candidate pool, where it is a candidate like any other, or build a candidate in-house instead; an app selected into a grid never becomes an in-house app.

Each app has a member benefit, set and versioned per app: for example premium access, a member price or an offer code. Benefits are delivered in the app through the App Store's own mechanisms, such as offer codes and App Store pricing, and follow its rules; what you pay us for is your membership, not app features or in-app content. Until an app's benefit is decided it is shown as "to be announced". Benefits are not fixed: we may add to or extend them at any time. A published benefit version is never changed retroactively to your disadvantage while the app is offered.

If we discontinue an app, we announce it on this site in advance, where possible at least 30 days before. Where this takes away something members were promised, we offer a fair alternative, for example a comparable benefit in another app of the club or a replacement app.

To keep apps from being lost, every developer partner gives us continuous access to their app's source code, assets and build settings, and is paid in stages as the app ships rather than in advance. If a partner stops working on an app, another partner may complete it, or members may vote on a replacement app for its place in the grid. Your waiting-limit refund in section 8 applies either way.

Release dates are estimates with a stated confidence level. Apps that are planned are shown as roadmap targets, never as available products.

AI credits and other usage-based services (model calls, generation, tokens, third-party APIs, extra storage) are never included and are priced separately where offered.

Prices are shown in US dollars and include any VAT we are required to charge. Each grid has its own published founder and supporter prices; prices shown for grids that have not opened yet are planned and may change until that grid opens, after which they stay fixed for as long as it is on sale. A later grid never costs less than an earlier one. The price of a square is calculated on our server when you reserve it and locked into your order; later price changes, and later splits of unsold blocks, never lead to refunds or extra charges.

When you start checkout your square is held for 40 minutes and the secure payment page stays open for 30 minutes. Payments are processed by Stripe; we never see or store your card details. Your membership starts only after our server has verified the payment.

Squares obtained with a grant code we issued carry the same rights as purchased squares. Grant codes have no cash value and cannot be exchanged or refunded.

If a payment succeeds but the square cannot be delivered (for example because of a technical conflict), we offer an equivalent square or a full refund.

If you are a consumer in the EU or EEA you may withdraw from your purchase within 14 days of the day your membership started, without giving a reason. Tell us by email at [email protected] with your order details, or with any other clear statement. We refund the full price to your original payment method within 14 days of receiving your request. In return you give up the membership: your square or seat leaves the grid and every right in section 4 ends at the same time. What you paid for is the membership, not the apps, so nothing else is owed either way.

You can use the model withdrawal form in the Refund Policy, but you don't have to. The Refund Policy explains this and every other refund case in detail.

Before a grid goes on sale we publish its last selection date, its update cadence and its maximum waiting limit. Unless the grid page states otherwise, if no closed beta of the grid's guaranteed app opens within nine months of the selection vote, you may request a full refund.

Every grid is on sale for a limited time, and the end of its sale is shown on the grid page while it is on sale. A grid does not have to sell out: its sale ends on that date, when the last square is sold, or when we close it earlier, whichever comes first. Founder squares that are unsold at that point stay empty and are not sold later, and the club's next grid opens; the grid's supporter seats stay on sale. Either way the selection vote ends no later than 3 days after the sale ends, or on the published last selection date if that comes first.

We may suspend or end a membership, after notice where possible, if the account is used for fraud, vote manipulation (for example multiple accounts), illegal or infringing content, harassment, or if the payment is reversed through a chargeback. Where the cause is not your fault, section 8 and the Refund Policy apply.

You can delete your account at any time on your account page, or ask us to do it by writing to [email protected]. Deleting an account ends its memberships without a refund unless a refund right applies, so request any refund first.

We may update these terms, for example to reflect new features or legal requirements. Material changes are announced by email and on the site at least 30 days in advance. Changes never reduce rights you have already paid for, and your order keeps the version you accepted.

Nothing in these terms limits your statutory rights as a consumer or our liability for intent, gross negligence, or death or personal injury caused by negligence.

Otherwise our total liability in connection with a membership is limited to the amount you paid for it. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for delays and changes to apps described as estimates or roadmap targets.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Estonia. If you are a consumer, you also keep the protection of the mandatory rules of the country where you live.

Please contact us first at [email protected]; we answer within 14 days. Consumers can also turn to the Estonian Consumer Disputes Committee (Tarbijavaidluste komisjon) at the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority, ttja.ee, or to the courts of their country of residence. Other disputes are settled by Harju County Court, Tallinn.