Legal
Every section below opens with a plain-English summary of what it actually means, and the legal wording follows it. Each summary is written to be accurate rather than reassuring.
Gemmein is a backend-as-a-service for authentication, storage, and subscription payments. You build the frontend; we keep identity, data, and subscription state safe.
Gemmein ("we", "us", "our") is operated by Gemmein Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17339623). Gemmein provides a hosted backend platform that gives your web applications passwordless authentication, structured data storage, and managed subscription state (via your own Stripe account) through an API. Gemmein never holds, moves, or processes funds; all payments are processed end-to-end by Stripe. When we say "the service", we mean the Gemmein API, dashboard, documentation, and client libraries.
"You" means the person or entity that creates a Gemmein account and builds applications on the service. "End-users" means the people who use your applications.
Every application on Gemmein — including apps still being built for free — includes the following security and infrastructure features at no additional cost:
These are not add-ons. They are how the service works.
You need to be 18 or older, use a real email address, and keep your credentials safe. One person, one account per business.
To create an account you must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding agreement under the laws of your jurisdiction. By creating an account you confirm that you meet this requirement.
Each account is for a single person or legal entity and carries one application: we treat an account as a business surface, so its billing, customers, and records stay its own. To run more than one application, create a separate account for each — you may hold as many accounts as you operate businesses, and the same Stripe account may back more than one of them. Sharing account credentials is not permitted.
We will verify your email address during signup. You must keep your email address current so we can reach you about billing, security, and service changes.
You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account, including the security of your secret keys. If you believe your account or keys have been compromised, rotate your keys immediately and contact us at legal@gemmein.com.
No card at signup. Building is free; when your app is live you pay the band your people place you in, plus any storage capacity you switch on. You will never wake up to a bill you didn't pre-agree.
Building and testing are free, with no payment method required. When you take an app live, it enters the Live plan: one monthly subscription whose price moves within a pre-agreed band — currently $50, $75, $100, $125 or $150 per month — determined by the previous calendar month's active people. The steps are pre-agreed: up to 1,000 people is $50; up to 2,500 is $75; up to 5,000 is $100; up to 7,500 is $125; and up to 10,000 is $150 per month. A "person" means a unique end-user identity that made at least one signed-in request to your live application during that month; a person counts once per month, on their first signed-in request, and anonymous use never counts. The band is the consent: your subscription can never exceed the $150 cap without a separate individual agreement. You may hold your plan at your current band from the dashboard, in which case neither your bill nor your app's capacity rises above that band until you release the hold; both follow your people down; otherwise capacity and billing follow your people automatically. When your people fall, the price follows them down from the next month; there is no pro-rata refund within a period. Above 10,000 people, pricing is agreed individually — contact hello@gemmein.com.
Additional file storage is available as pre-consented capacity (currently $5/month per additional 100 GB), turned on by you before it is used. Your charge for a month is knowable when the month begins: the band your previous month's people place you in, plus the capacity you have chosen. Reaching a usage ceiling never generates a charge and never stops your app: sign-ins, writes and API requests keep working past it, you are told once for the month, and next month's charge follows the band your people land in. Storage is the one ceiling that can fill: files are accepted up to twice the storage ceiling, and uploads are then refused until files are deleted or capacity is turned on.
A card is required at go-live, collected and processed by Stripe. Prices may change with notice; apps already live keep the price they signed up at.
Billing is monthly from the date your app goes live. At the start of each cycle you are billed the band your previous month's people place you in — or the band you are holding — plus the storage capacity you have switched on.
You may hold or release your band at any time from the dashboard. A falling band follows your people down from the next month, without a pro-rata refund of the current period. You may take your app off live status or cancel through the billing portal at any time, which stops future charges; building remains free.
We do not provide pro-rata refunds for partial months. A falling band takes effect from the next month, and the amount already charged for the current cycle is not refunded.
Your first charge is refundable within 14 days, no questions asked
If your first bill isn't what you expected, email legal@gemmein.com and we will refund it in full. This is a one-time, unconditional refund on your very first paid cycle.
As your app approaches the room included in its band, we show it in the dashboard. If an app outgrows its band, sign-ins, writes and API requests keep working: you are told once for the month, and next month's charge follows the band your people land in. Storage is the exception: once it is full past its overflow room, uploads are refused with a clear error until files are deleted or capacity is switched on. Nothing fails silently, and nothing charges you beyond the band you pre-agreed and the capacity you switched on.
You will never wake up to a bill you didn't pre-agree. The amount you owe each month is knowable when the month begins: the band your previous month's people place you in, plus the storage capacity you switched on.
If a payment fails, our payment processor retries on its schedule. We may suspend your account while a payment failure remains unresolved. Suspension means your applications' API requests will return errors, but your data is preserved. Your account will be reactivated when payment is resolved.
Build what you want, but don't use Gemmein for anything illegal, harmful, or that puts children at risk. If you see abuse, report it.
You agree not to use the service, or allow your end-users to use applications built on the service, to:
By using the service, you warrant that your applications are not directed at children. End-users of your applications must meet the applicable minimum age: 13 years in the United States and United Kingdom, 16 years in the European Union, or the minimum age required by the laws of their jurisdiction, whichever is higher.
You are responsible for ensuring that your applications comply with all laws applicable to you and your end-users.
If you become aware of content or usage that violates these terms, report it to abuse@gemmein.com. We review every report.
Your data belongs to you. We process it on your behalf, we don't sell it, and you can export or delete it at any time.
You retain all rights to the data you and your end-users store on the service. Gemmein claims no ownership of your data.
When you store your end-users' personal data on the service, you are the data controller and Gemmein is the data processor. Our processing of that data is governed by our Data Processing Agreement (DPA), which is incorporated into these terms by reference. You may request a copy of the DPA by emailing legal@gemmein.com.
You may request an export of your stored data at any time by contacting us: your records, your files, and the details of your end-users as they relate to that data. We will provide the export in a standard machine-readable format within a reasonable timeframe. Exports cover the data you and your end-users stored on the service; they do not include operational information Gemmein generates in running it.
When you delete a record through the API or dashboard, it is soft-deleted and recoverable for 30 days. After 30 days, it is permanently purged.
When you delete your account, we begin permanent deletion of all associated data. The process completes within 30 days, with encrypted backups aging out over an additional 7 days (37 days total from the deletion request).
All data is stored in the United States, with a leading cloud infrastructure provider. Transfers of personal data from the UK and EU are covered by the UK-US Data Bridge and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework respectively. For further detail, see our Privacy Policy.
Gemmein is in early access. Features may change and support may be slower than we'd like. What we promise about data protection is not hedged, and those commitments are live now.
The service is currently in early access. During this period:
Service levels will be published from operating evidence, not ahead of it. The status page is where that record accumulates.
Early access affects what we promise about uptime and features. It does not change what we promise about how we protect data.
The security commitments listed in section 1 — including encryption, tenant isolation, audit logging, rate limiting, and all other items in the vault list — are fully in effect during early access. They are production commitments, not aspirational targets. We do not disclaim or weaken them during this period.
Our liability is capped at what you've paid us in the last 12 months. If you're building for free, that's zero. UK law requires us to say certain things can never be excluded, and we say them clearly here.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, the total aggregate liability of Gemmein to you for all claims arising out of or relating to these terms or the service shall not exceed the total fees paid by you to Gemmein in the 12 months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim. For users who are building for free and have paid no fees, this cap is zero.
Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for:
Subject to the carve-outs above, we are not liable for:
You can leave anytime. We can suspend your account if you don't pay or break the rules, but we'll always tell you first (except in cases of illegal content). You get 30 days to export your data.
You may delete your account at any time from the dashboard or by contacting us. Deletion is effective immediately; any remaining time in your current billing cycle is not refunded.
We may suspend or terminate your account if:
For breaches of these terms we will, where legally permitted, contact you before taking action. Payment-failure suspension is automatic, and lifts automatically when payment resolves. In cases involving illegal content or imminent harm, we may act immediately.
Following termination by either party, you have 30 days to request an export of your data, scoped as described in section 5. After 30 days, your data enters the deletion process described in section 5. Encrypted backups age out within a further 7 days.
These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and any disputes go to the courts of England and Wales.
These terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them (including non-contractual disputes or claims), shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.
The courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with these terms.
If a change affects what you pay, your data, or your rights, we'll email you at least 30 days before it takes effect. Changes that don't take anything away from you take effect when posted. If we're unsure which kind a change is, we treat it as the first kind.
We may update these terms from time to time. If a change affects what you pay, what we do with your data, or any right these terms give you, we will email you at the address associated with your account at least 30 days before the change takes effect.
Changes that do not take anything away from you — clarifications, plain-language rewording, corrections, or terms covering new features you are not yet using — take effect when posted. In every case we update the "last updated" date at the top of this page. Where a change could reasonably be read either way, we give the 30 days' notice.
Your continued use of the service after the effective date of the updated terms constitutes your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree to the updated terms, you may delete your account before the effective date.
Questions about these terms? Email us.