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Published 5 August 2026 · Version 2026-08-03

AcademyBase Customer Terms of Service

Version: 2026-08-03 Effective date: 3 August 2026

These Terms of Service (the Terms) are the agreement between AcademyBase (AcademyBase, we, us or our) and the person or organisation that creates or uses an AcademyBase customer account (Customer, Academy, you or your). They govern your AcademyBase account, every academy you own or manage through that account, and the AcademyBase platform services you use.

These Terms are written for academy owners and operators. They are not the terms between an Academy and its learners, parents, guardians, teachers or other customers. Each Academy is an independent business and must maintain its own appropriate terms, privacy notice, cancellation and refund rules and other legally required information.

1. Accepting these Terms and authority

You accept these Terms by selecting the acceptance box and creating or continuing to use an AcademyBase customer account, accepting an AcademyBase quote or order, or using a service that states it is subject to these Terms.

If you accept for an organisation, partnership, school, sole proprietorship or other business, you confirm that you have authority to bind it. If no separate legal entity is named in an accepted order or quote, the individual accepting these Terms is the Customer and is personally responsible for the Customer obligations.

You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into this agreement. Customer accounts are for business and professional use. Learners do not become AcademyBase customers merely because they use an Academy's website or classroom.

2. What AcademyBase provides

AcademyBase provides software and related platform services that help Academies create, operate and manage online education businesses. Depending on your selected configuration and enabled services, this may include an academy website, account and administration tools, catalogues, bookings, communications, payment integrations, learner and teacher workspaces, an integrated online classroom, support, reporting and other features described in your accepted order, quote or service description.

AcademyBase is the supplier of the AcademyBase platform to the Academy. AcademyBase is not the supplier of the Academy's lessons, courses, teaching, qualifications, learner support or other educational services. AcademyBase does not employ the Academy's teachers or staff and does not become the Academy's partner, agent, franchisee, joint venturer, fiduciary or representative.

AcademyBase may provide setup, configuration, migration or support assistance. This assistance does not transfer the Academy's legal duties to AcademyBase and is not legal, tax, accounting, safeguarding or educational-accreditation advice.

3. The Academy is an independent service provider

The Academy is solely responsible for the business it conducts through the platform, including:

• the lessons, courses, packages, subscriptions and other services it advertises or provides;
• the accuracy of its descriptions, prices, schedules, staff profiles, claims, testimonials and marketing;
• teacher and staff recruitment, vetting, qualifications, conduct, supervision and payment;
• learner admission, identity and age checks, guardian authority and consent, safeguarding and emergency procedures;
• teaching quality, learning outcomes, attendance, assessment, certificates and any accreditation claims;
• its contracts and communications with learners, parents, guardians, teachers, contractors and suppliers;
• consumer rights, cancellations, refunds, complaints, chargebacks, taxes, licences, permits, insurance and recordkeeping;
• compliance with education, child-protection, employment, accessibility, advertising, privacy, direct-marketing and other laws that apply where it and its users operate; and
• all decisions made using information, reports or tools available through the platform.

The Academy must not state or imply that AcademyBase endorses, accredits, guarantees or operates the Academy or its services. The Academy must use its own legal business identity in its customer-facing documents and must promptly correct misleading or unlawful content.

Disputes about an Academy's lessons, teaching, learner payments, cancellations, refunds or representations are between the Academy and the affected person. AcademyBase may forward a complaint, preserve available platform records, assist with a lawful investigation or take platform action, but AcademyBase is not the Academy's complaint adjudicator, refund guarantor or insurer.

4. Academy legal documents and customer-facing obligations

The Academy must prepare, publish and keep current the legal documents required for its own business and users. These normally include academy-specific terms of service, a privacy notice, cancellation and refund rules, payment information, legally required supplier details and any child or guardian notices and consents.

AcademyBase may provide document fields, templates, prompts or publishing tools. They are operational aids only. The Academy must decide what its documents need to say, ensure they match its real practices and obtain professional advice where necessary. AcademyBase does not approve an Academy's legal compliance merely because a document is stored, marked ready or published through the platform.

Where an Academy privacy notice describes the platform, it should clearly distinguish:

• processing the Academy controls, such as deciding which learner details to collect, who may access them and how they are used for teaching, marketing, refunds or other academy purposes; and
• processing AcademyBase controls for its own purposes, such as AcademyBase customer accounts, platform security, service operation, support, usage measurement and AcademyBase billing.

The Academy remains responsible for its staff's access to personal information and for any export, copying, disclosure or off-platform use by the Academy or its users.

5. Learner payments and payment providers

Payments for the Academy's lessons and other educational services are made to the Academy or its chosen payment provider. Unless an accepted order expressly says otherwise, AcademyBase is not the merchant of record, does not receive or hold learner funds for the Academy and is not a bank, payment intermediary or escrow service.

The Academy contracts directly with each payment provider it chooses. It is responsible for provider fees, verification, settlement details, reserves, disputes, fraud, refunds, reversals, chargebacks, tax treatment and compliance with the provider's rules. AcademyBase may securely store configuration, display provider readiness and technically facilitate a payment flow, but the payment provider authorises, processes and settles the payment.

The Academy must promptly refund or otherwise remedy learner transactions when required by its contract or applicable law. AcademyBase may disable a payment integration that is unsafe, unlawfully used, misconfigured or no longer authorised by its provider.

6. AcademyBase prices and billing

The Academy pays AcademyBase the charges shown in the accepted quote, order, pricing schedule or enabled paid-service terms. Unless stated otherwise, charges are in the currency shown on the relevant pricing document or invoice and exclude taxes that AcademyBase is legally required to add.

AcademyBase's standard platform pricing may include:

• a one-time setup or migration fee;
• one combined AcademyBase charge for each completed lesson, with the rate determined by the supported lesson duration; and
• separately accepted optional services, usage charges, minimums or custom work.

The combined completed-lesson charge includes the platform operating and integrated-classroom cost components used by AcademyBase. Those internal components may be measured separately for cost and reliability purposes, but they are not separate customer charges for the same completed lesson.

A lesson becomes billable when the platform receives and records a valid completed-lesson event. The price is the published or agreed rate applicable at the lesson's scheduled start time and is preserved with the usage record for billing and audit. A lesson recorded as cancelled and not completed is not billed as a completed lesson. Corrections, duplicates, test activity and disputed events may be removed or adjusted after review.

The Academy must keep booking and completion records accurate and must not manipulate lesson status or duration to avoid charges. It must raise a good-faith usage or invoice query through the AcademyBase support or accounts channel within 14 days after the relevant invoice is made available. AcademyBase will investigate reasonably supported queries and correct proven errors.

Invoices are payable by the due date and method shown on the invoice or accepted order. The Academy is responsible for reasonable collection costs and lawful interest resulting from overdue undisputed amounts. AcademyBase will not suspend an Academy for a genuinely disputed amount while the Academy responds promptly and pays all undisputed amounts.

7. Price changes

AcademyBase may change its prices prospectively. AcademyBase will give an affected Academy at least 30 days' written electronic notice before a price increase takes effect. An increase will not change a completed lesson or other usage event whose applicable price was already recorded. A price decrease or correction that benefits the Academy may take effect sooner.

The notice will identify the affected charge, the new price and its effective date. Continuing to use the affected paid service after that date means the new price applies. If the Academy does not accept an increase, it may give notice before the effective date to stop the affected service or terminate this agreement in accordance with section 20. Charges already incurred remain payable.

An individual quote, order or written fixed-price commitment may protect a price for the period it specifies. If it conflicts with a public price, the specific accepted commitment controls for that period.

8. Accounts, users and security

The Academy must provide accurate account information, keep authorised contacts current and ensure each person uses an individual account where the platform supports it. Login credentials must not be shared. The Academy is responsible for actions taken through its accounts unless caused by AcademyBase's breach of its security duties.

The Academy must use reasonable security measures, promptly remove access for people who no longer require it and notify security@academybase.co.za without undue delay if it suspects unauthorised access, credential theft, harmful content or another security incident.

AcademyBase may require identity, email, domain, payment-provider or authority verification. We may temporarily restrict an account where reasonably necessary to protect users, data, infrastructure or funds while we investigate a credible risk.

9. Acceptable use

The Academy and its users must not use the platform to:

• break the law, facilitate fraud or evade sanctions, taxes, court orders or regulatory requirements;
• exploit, groom, abuse, harass, threaten or endanger a child or any other person;
• publish deceptive, defamatory, discriminatory or unlawfully harmful material;
• infringe intellectual-property, privacy, publicity or confidentiality rights;
• distribute malware, steal credentials, test vulnerabilities without written permission or interfere with service integrity;
• send unlawful spam or direct marketing, scrape data or create fake accounts or activity;
• bypass access, metering, billing, usage, security or technical restrictions;
• resell or provide the platform as a competing general-purpose service unless AcademyBase agrees in writing; or
• use content or data obtained through one Academy for another business without lawful authority.

The Academy must ensure that its own terms and moderation practices impose suitable rules on its learners, staff and other users.

10. Content, moderation and lawful requests

The Academy retains ownership of content it or its users lawfully upload, create or configure (Academy Content). The Academy grants AcademyBase a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, copy, transmit, format, back up, display and otherwise process Academy Content only as reasonably required to provide, secure, support and improve the contracted services, comply with law and exercise these Terms. This licence ends when the content is deleted from active systems, subject to backups, legal holds and lawful retention.

The Academy confirms that it has the rights and permissions needed for Academy Content and for AcademyBase to process it as described. AcademyBase does not routinely approve or endorse Academy Content and is not required to monitor every lesson, message, file, profile or transaction.

AcademyBase may investigate, restrict, preserve or remove content, features or accounts when we reasonably believe this is necessary to enforce these Terms, protect a person or the platform, respond to a credible rights complaint, or comply with a valid legal or regulatory request. Where lawful and reasonably safe, we will notify the Academy and allow it to respond. We may act without advance notice in urgent, confidential or legally restricted circumstances.

Notices about unlawful content, intellectual-property infringement, privacy abuse or safety concerns may be sent to security@academybase.co.za with enough detail to identify the material, the complainant's basis and the requested action. Knowingly false or abusive notices are prohibited.

11. AcademyBase intellectual property

AcademyBase and its licensors own the platform, software, system design, documentation, brand, templates, aggregated service insights and all related intellectual-property rights, excluding Academy Content. No rights are transferred except the limited right to use the contracted services during this agreement.

The Academy may not copy, reverse engineer, decompile, remove proprietary notices from or create a competing derivative of the platform except to the limited extent a restriction is prohibited by applicable law. Feedback may be used by AcademyBase without restriction or payment, but we will not identify the Academy publicly as the source without permission.

12. Personal information and data-processing responsibilities

Each party must comply with the privacy and data-protection laws that apply to its own processing.

For AcademyBase customer accounts, AcademyBase billing, platform security, fraud prevention, service analytics, support and legal compliance, AcademyBase decides why and how relevant personal information is processed and acts as the responsible party or controller. Our public privacy notice explains this processing.

For learner, guardian, teacher and Academy-customer information that the Academy chooses to process through its academy runtime, the Academy normally decides the purpose and means and acts as the responsible party or controller. To the extent AcademyBase processes that information only to provide the service on the Academy's documented instructions, AcademyBase acts as the Academy's operator or processor.

For that operator or processor activity, AcademyBase will:

• process personal information only to provide the service, follow lawful documented instructions, secure the platform and comply with law;
• require people authorised to process it to protect confidentiality;
• maintain reasonable technical and organisational safeguards appropriate to the risk;
• use service providers only under suitable data-protection commitments and remain responsible for their processing as required by law;
• notify the Academy without undue delay after confirming a security compromise affecting Academy-controlled personal information, and provide reasonably available information for required notices;
• reasonably assist with data-subject requests, security assessments and legally required consultations, considering the nature of the processing and information available to AcademyBase; and
• on termination, return, delete or render inaccessible Academy-controlled personal information in accordance with the service's export capabilities, documented retention schedule, backup cycle and legal obligations.

The Academy instructs AcademyBase to process Academy-controlled information as needed to provide the selected services and authorises lawful cross-border processing and the use of service providers where appropriate safeguards or another lawful transfer basis applies. The Academy must give all required notices, establish a lawful basis, collect only appropriate information, configure access correctly, respond to data-subject requests and tell AcademyBase when an instruction changes.

The Academy must not upload special, sensitive or children's personal information unless it has identified a lawful basis, implemented the required safeguards and determined that the platform configuration is suitable. The Academy must obtain valid parent or guardian authorisation where required. The platform is not a substitute for the Academy's safeguarding or privacy programme.

If an applicable law requires additional written processor terms, the parties will complete a reasonable data-processing addendum. Until then, this section records the core processing instructions and safeguards between the parties.

13. Confidential information

Each party may receive non-public business, technical, security, pricing or personal information from the other (Confidential Information). The receiving party may use it only for this agreement, protect it with reasonable care and disclose it only to personnel, professional advisers and service providers who need it and are bound to protect it.

Confidential Information does not include information that the receiving party can show was lawfully public, already known without restriction, independently developed or lawfully received from another source. A party may disclose information when legally required, but should give advance notice where lawful and reasonably possible.

14. Service operation, changes and availability

AcademyBase will use reasonable care and skill to provide the services and maintain reasonable administrative, technical and organisational safeguards. We may perform maintenance and make changes needed for security, legal compliance, reliability, providers, accessibility or product improvement.

No online service can be guaranteed uninterrupted or error-free. Availability may be affected by maintenance, internet conditions, the Academy's configuration, third-party providers and events beyond reasonable control. AcademyBase will use reasonable efforts to communicate material incidents and restore affected services.

If AcademyBase materially reduces a core paid service during a committed paid term and does not provide a reasonably comparable alternative, the Academy may terminate that affected service by written notice. This does not apply to beta, preview, free or clearly experimental features.

15. Third-party services

The platform depends on third-party hosting, authentication, communications, classroom, analytics and infrastructure providers. The Academy may also connect its own payment, email, domain or other providers. Third-party services are governed by their own terms and may change or become unavailable.

AcademyBase is responsible for selecting and managing its platform service providers with reasonable care. AcademyBase is not responsible for the Academy's separate provider contract, account, fees, configuration or acts, or for a third-party failure outside AcademyBase's reasonable control. We will take reasonable steps within our control to reduce disruption and support migration where practical.

16. Warranties and important disclaimers

Each party warrants that it has authority to enter into these Terms and will comply with laws applicable to its performance.

AcademyBase warrants that it will provide paid services with reasonable care and skill and substantially as described in the accepted order or service description. If AcademyBase breaches this warranty, the Academy must describe the problem promptly and allow a reasonable opportunity to correct or re-perform the affected service.

Except for express commitments in these Terms, an accepted order and rights that cannot lawfully be excluded, the platform is provided on an as-available basis. AcademyBase does not guarantee the Academy's revenue, enrolments, learner results, accreditation, legal compliance, uninterrupted operation or the conduct of the Academy's users or providers. AcademyBase does not warrant that a template, setting, report, automated suggestion or platform status is legal or suitable for every country, Academy or learner.

17. Limitation of liability

This section limits financial responsibility. Please read it carefully.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither party is liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for lost profits, revenue, goodwill or anticipated savings, to the extent those losses were not the direct and reasonably foreseeable result of the breach.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, each party's total aggregate liability arising from the services and these Terms will not exceed the AcademyBase fees paid or payable by the Academy during the 12 months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim.

The exclusions and cap do not apply to fraud, wilful misconduct, gross negligence, death or personal injury caused by negligence, an Academy's payment obligations, infringement or misuse of the other party's intellectual property, breach of confidentiality, a party's unlawful processing of personal information, indemnity obligations in section 18, or any liability that applicable law does not permit the parties to exclude or limit.

Nothing in these Terms removes a right or remedy granted by applicable consumer or data-protection law where that right cannot lawfully be waived.

18. Claims caused by the Academy's business

The Academy will defend, indemnify and hold AcademyBase and its personnel harmless from a third-party claim, regulatory demand, loss or reasonable cost arising from:

• the Academy's lessons, educational services, representations, Academy Content or customer relationship;
• injury, safeguarding failure, discrimination, employment conduct or professional acts by the Academy or its personnel;
• learner payments, taxes, refunds, reversals, chargebacks or the Academy's payment-provider account;
• the Academy's breach of law, section 9, or another person's intellectual-property, privacy or confidentiality rights; or
• the Academy's unauthorised or unlawful instructions, access, disclosure, export or use of personal information.

The Academy is not responsible to the extent the claim was caused by AcademyBase's breach, gross negligence, wilful misconduct or unlawful act. AcademyBase must notify the Academy promptly, allow reasonable control of the defence and not settle a claim in a way that admits Academy wrongdoing or imposes a non-financial duty without the Academy's consent. The Academy may not settle a claim in a way that admits AcademyBase wrongdoing or restricts AcademyBase without our consent.

19. Suspension

AcademyBase may suspend all or part of an account when reasonably necessary because of a serious or repeated breach, overdue undisputed charges, unlawful or unsafe activity, a credible security threat, provider restriction, or a legal or regulatory requirement.

Where practical, we will give notice and a reasonable opportunity to correct the problem. We may act immediately where delay could cause harm, compromise security, violate law or expose a person or the platform to material risk. Suspension does not erase charges already incurred. We will restore access reasonably promptly after the cause is resolved.

20. Term and termination

These Terms start when accepted and continue until terminated. An accepted order may include a minimum or fixed term. If no different term is agreed, either party may terminate the platform relationship on 30 days' written notice.

Either party may terminate for a material breach that is not corrected within 14 days after written notice, or immediately where the breach cannot reasonably be corrected, involves serious unlawful or unsafe conduct, or the other party becomes insolvent or ceases business.

Before termination takes effect, the Academy should use available tools to export information it must retain. After termination, ordinary access ends and AcademyBase may delete or de-identify information according to documented retention and backup practices, subject to legal, billing, security and dispute-preservation obligations. AcademyBase will provide reasonable export assistance where technically available; substantial custom extraction work may be charged if agreed in advance.

Termination does not affect accrued payment rights or provisions intended to survive, including ownership, confidentiality, data retention, disclaimers, liability, indemnities, disputes and interpretation.

21. Notices and support

AcademyBase may send contractual, price, security, billing and service notices to the Customer account, the Academy's configured contact or invoice recipients, or the email address used for acceptance. Electronic notices are received when sent unless the sender receives a delivery failure.

The Academy must keep those addresses current. Contractual and billing notices to AcademyBase may be sent to accounts@academybase.co.za. Platform support may be requested through the available support channel or support@academybase.co.za. Privacy, security, abuse and unlawful-content notices may be sent to security@academybase.co.za.

22. Changes to these Terms

AcademyBase may update these Terms to reflect service, legal, security or operational changes. We will provide reasonable advance notice of a material change and will require fresh electronic acceptance when appropriate. A change will not retrospectively alter charges already incurred or claims that arose before it took effect.

If the Academy does not agree to a material change, it may terminate before the stated effective date. Continued use after the effective date or fresh acceptance, as applicable, means the updated Terms apply.

23. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before starting formal proceedings, each party will give written details of the dispute and allow at least 30 days for good-faith resolution, unless urgent relief or a legal deadline makes that impractical.

Subject to any mandatory right to use another tribunal, regulator or court, disputes will be brought in a South African court with lawful jurisdiction. International use does not exclude mandatory rights that apply to a Customer and cannot lawfully be displaced by this section.

24. General

The accepted order or quote, any applicable paid-service terms, any completed data-processing addendum and these Terms form the agreement for the relevant services. If they conflict, a specifically negotiated and signed order controls for its subject, a data-processing addendum controls for personal-information processing, paid-service terms control for that service, and these Terms control otherwise.

Neither party may assign this agreement without the other's consent, which may not be unreasonably withheld, except that AcademyBase may assign it as part of a genuine sale, restructuring or transfer of the AcademyBase business if the successor accepts these obligations. The Academy may transfer it to a genuine successor of its Academy business after giving notice and completing reasonable verification.

Neither party is liable for delay caused by events beyond its reasonable control, except that this does not excuse payment already due or duties concerning confidentiality, security and lawful conduct. A failure to enforce a term is not a waiver. If a term is unenforceable, it will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the remainder stays effective. Headings are for convenience. The English version controls unless applicable law requires otherwise.

These Terms do not create rights for a third party. They may be accepted electronically and stored as an electronic record. They are the entire agreement about their subject and replace earlier discussions or representations about that subject, but not fraud or a written commitment expressly preserved in an accepted order.