Terms of Service
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of Sophyix and any related websites, applications, and services.
Acceptance of Terms
By accessing or using Sophyix, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions (the "Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not access or use the service.
Eligibility
You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, whichever is higher) and capable of forming a binding contract to use Sophyix. If you are under 18, you may use Sophyix only with the involvement, supervision, and consent of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to be bound by these Terms on your behalf and is responsible for your use of Sophyix. If you are under 13, you may use Sophyix only with a parent or legal guardian’s consent. If you are using Sophyix on behalf of an organization, you represent and warrant that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.
Accounts and Responsibilities
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account. You agree to provide accurate and complete information and to keep your account information up to date. You must notify us promptly of any unauthorized use of your account or any other security breach. We may require you to change your credentials if we believe your account is no longer secure.
How Sophyix Works
Sophyix helps experts find work, teaching and collaboration. People who post work use our sister service, Victorix. When you and a client agree an offer, the work (an "engagement") is agreed between the two of you. Sophyix provides the platform, holds and moves payments made through it as these Terms describe, and helps settle disputes, but is not a party to the engagement. You work for yourself, not for us: you are not our employee or agent.
AI-Powered Features
Sophyix may provide AI-assisted job creation, profile editing, messaging, and matching features. AI-generated outputs are provided for informational purposes only and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or inappropriate. You are solely responsible for reviewing, verifying, and deciding whether to use any AI-generated output before relying on it. You agree not to use AI outputs as a substitute for professional, medical, legal, or financial advice where such advice is required.
User Content
You are responsible for ensuring that your User Content is accurate, lawful, and appropriate for the intended audience. You retain ownership of the content you submit, upload, or otherwise make available through Sophyix ("User Content"). You grant Sophyix a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, display, and distribute User Content solely as necessary to operate, maintain, secure, provide, and improve the service, and to comply with applicable law. You represent and warrant that you have all rights necessary to grant this license and that your User Content does not violate any law or infringe any third-party rights.
Prohibited Activities
You agree not to (a) misuse the platform; (b) attempt unauthorized access to any systems or data; (c) interfere with or disrupt the service; (d) use Sophyix for unlawful, fraudulent, harmful, or abusive purposes; (e) upload or transmit malware or malicious code; (f) scrape, harvest, or collect data from the service without our prior written permission; (g) impersonate any person or entity; (h) violate the rights of others, including privacy and intellectual property rights; or (i) use the service in a way that violates any applicable laws, regulations, or third-party terms. We may investigate suspected violations of these Terms and take any action we deem appropriate, including removing content, suspending or terminating accounts, and reporting suspected unlawful activity to law enforcement or other authorities where appropriate.
Payments, Fees and Payouts
How Clients Pay: Clients pay for work through Stripe, in US dollars. Fixed-price work, and each milestone, is paid before its work starts and held until the work is approved: when the client approves your delivery, or automatically 7 days after you deliver if they don't reply. Hourly work starts with a deposit from the client; after each period you have 1 day to add your hours, and the client has 3 days to check them. Hours they don't reject are approved. Each week or month of weekly or monthly work is paid 3 days before it starts, and released to you 3 days after it ends.
Platform Fee: We take a platform fee of 10% of each bill's amount from your earnings. You see the fee and what you receive on each bill. The fee in force when an offer is accepted applies to every bill of that engagement. Clients pay their own service fee to us.
Your Payout Account: To receive money, you set up a payout account with Stripe, our payments partner, in one of the countries we offer. Money released to you is sent to your payout account automatically; until you set it up, your released earnings wait for you. Stripe's own timing applies to when the money reaches your bank, and Stripe may convert it to your local currency.
Stripe's Terms: Payment processing services for experts on Sophyix are provided by Stripe and are subject to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which includes the Stripe Terms of Service (together, the "Stripe Services Agreement"). If your payout account is outside the United States, the Stripe Recipient Service Agreement applies instead. Both are at stripe.com/connect-account/legal. By setting up a payout account, you agree to be bound by the Stripe Services Agreement, as Stripe may change it from time to time. As a condition of Sophyix enabling payment processing services through Stripe, you agree to provide Sophyix accurate and complete information about you and your business, and you authorize Sophyix to share it, and transaction information related to your use of the payment processing services provided by Stripe, with Stripe.
Unpaid Bills: If a client doesn't make the first payment within 7 days after an offer is accepted, the engagement is cancelled. If a later bill isn't paid by its due date, the work pauses. An unpaid hourly bill is paid from the client's deposit after 7 days, and an engagement that stays paused for an unpaid bill for 30 days is cancelled.
Payments Outside Sophyix: If you and a client agree unpaid work, or agree to be paid outside Sophyix, we don't hold or move that money, and the payment, refund and dispute rules in these Terms don't apply to it.
Refunds, Cancellations and Disputes
Refunds: Money for work not done goes back to the client: the rest of a deposit, unused or paused days, and periods that didn't start. A client can also ask you to refund a paid bill; it is refunded only if you agree. Money already released to you stays with you, unless you agree to refund it.
Cancelling and Ending: Before the first payment, either of you can cancel. Fixed-price work can't be cancelled while money is held for work that isn't approved; open a dispute instead. Otherwise, cancelling cancels the bills not paid yet, and money already released stays with you. Either of you can end hourly, weekly or monthly work at any time: approved hours are billed and paid from the deposit, or the current period is paid by the days worked.
Disputes: If something goes wrong with work paid on the platform, either of you can open a dispute about the held money and propose an outcome: release it to you, refund it to the client, or continue the work. If the other person declines, or doesn't answer within 48 hours, our team reviews the dispute and chooses one of these outcomes.
Card Disputes: If a client disputes a charge with their card issuer, we may pause the related engagement.
Subscription Plans
Renewal: Paid plans are billed monthly or yearly, and renew automatically until you cancel.
Plans Bought in the iOS App: Plans bought in our iOS app are sold and billed by Apple, under Apple's terms. Manage or cancel them in your Apple account settings. Apple handles refunds for these purchases.
Plans Bought on the Website: Plans bought on our website are billed through PayPal. You can cancel on the Sophyix website or in your PayPal account.
Cancelling and Changes: When you cancel, your plan stays active until the end of the period you paid for, and is then not renewed. We don't refund unused time, except where the law requires it. Some plan changes take effect at your next billing date.
Deleting Your Account: Deleting your account does not cancel a plan billed by Apple or PayPal. Cancel it there first.
Taxes
You are responsible for reporting and paying any taxes on your earnings and on what you pay on Sophyix. We do not withhold taxes from your payouts unless the law requires us to. Stripe may ask you for tax information when you set up your payout account.
Intellectual Property
Sophyix, including its software, services, content, trademarks, and all related intellectual property rights, is owned by Sophyix or its licensors and is protected by applicable laws. Except for the limited rights expressly granted to you under these Terms, no rights are granted to you, and all rights are reserved.
Disclaimer of Warranties
Sophyix is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Sophyix disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including without limitation warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or free of harmful components, or that results obtained from use of the service will be accurate or reliable.
Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Sophyix and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents, partners, and licensors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or related to your access to or use of (or inability to access or use) the service, whether based on warranty, contract, tort (including negligence), statute, or any other legal theory, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Sophyix’s total aggregate liability for any and all claims arising out of or relating to the service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amounts paid by you to Sophyix for the service in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100). Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages or liabilities, so some of the above exclusions and limitations may not apply to you; in such jurisdictions, our liability will be limited to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
Termination
We may suspend or terminate your access to Sophyix at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, pose a risk to the service or other users, or if we discontinue the service. While an account is suspended, its engagements are paused, and payouts to it stop. You may stop using the service at any time, and you can delete your account in Settings, except while one of your engagements is still open. Upon termination, your right to use Sophyix will immediately cease; however, provisions that by their nature should survive will survive termination, including provisions regarding intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and dispute-related terms.
Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of California, USA, without regard to conflict of law principles.