Terms of Service

Effective date: · Last updated:

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of App Cost Watchdog (the “Service”) provided by Legitimate LLC (“we,” “us,” “our”). By installing the app, using the public scan, or otherwise accessing the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

App Cost Watchdog is a read-only advisory tool that analyzes publicly visible signals on your Shopify storefront to identify installed apps, estimate list-price monthly spend, detect duplicate apps, and surface lower-cost alternatives (“swap opportunities”).

The Service operates in two modes:

  • Free scan — available without a Shopify account. Analyzes publicly accessible storefront HTML to detect installed apps. Requires no OAuth authorization.
  • Monitor plan — requires installing the app in your Shopify admin. Provides invoice-confirmed per-app spend (parsed from an invoice you upload), flags for apps billing you that don't appear on your storefront, and your real total shown beside the list-price estimate.

The Service does not modify, install, remove, or reconfigure any aspect of your Shopify store, themes, apps, products, orders, or customer data.

All outputs of the Service are advisory estimates only — not guarantees.

Specifically:

  • App detection — The Service identifies apps from publicly visible storefront signals (script sources, link hrefs, meta tags, widget patterns). This method detects storefront-visible apps only. Admin-only apps, server-side integrations, and apps that do not inject code into the storefront will not appear in scan results. Detection may produce false positives (app markers from a removed app that is not yet purged) or false negatives (apps that obfuscate their signals).
  • Spend estimates — Estimated monthly costs are derived from publicly listed app prices on the Shopify App Store. These are list-price estimates: they do not account for promotional pricing, volume discounts, negotiated rates, grandfathered plans, or plan-specific features. Your actual bill may differ materially from any estimate shown by the Service. The Service labels all cost estimates as “list-price estimate” to make this clear.
  • Invoice parsing (Monitor plan) — Invoice line-item extraction uses an AI model to parse PDF content. While we ask you to review and confirm the parsed result before it is saved, parsing errors may occur. The Service's confirmed-spend figures reflect the extracted invoice content, not your actual billing relationship with Shopify or any app vendor.
  • Swap recommendations — Suggested alternative apps are based on our internal registry and public pricing data. We do not guarantee that an alternative app will meet your requirements, integrate with your store, or maintain the listed price.

You should independently verify any estimate, recommendation, or finding before making purchasing or cancellation decisions.

To use the Service, you must:

  • Be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction).
  • Be a Shopify merchant or an authorized representative of one.
  • Agree to these Terms on behalf of yourself or the entity you represent.

If you are entering these Terms on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind that entity.

You agree not to use the Service to:

  • Submit store URLs you do not own or have authorization to scan. The free scan targets public storefront content, but repeated automated scanning of stores you are not authorized to analyze is prohibited.
  • Attempt to circumvent rate limits, SSRF protections, or other security controls.
  • Use the Service for competitive intelligence collection at scale, automated bulk scanning, or any purpose that would place unreasonable load on our infrastructure or the target stores.
  • Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract proprietary app-detection fingerprints or registry data from the Service.
  • Misrepresent the Service's outputs as authoritative financial data, billing records, or guarantees of app presence to third parties.
  • Use the Service in any way that violates applicable law, including privacy laws, computer fraud statutes, or Shopify's Platform Terms of Service.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate access for any user or store we reasonably believe is violating these terms.

Free scan

The public scan at /demo is free and requires no account. No payment information is collected for the free scan.

Monitor plan

The Monitor plan is a recurring monthly subscription at $9.99/mo, billed through Shopify's managed billing system. All billing is handled by Shopify; we never directly charge your payment method.

  • 14-day free trial — New subscribers receive a 14-day free trial. No charge is made until the trial period ends. You may cancel during the trial at no cost.
  • Billing cycle — After the trial, your subscription renews monthly at $9.99 per month, billed by Shopify to your store's payment method on file.
  • Cancellation — You may cancel your subscription at any time from the Shopify admin. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. We do not offer prorated refunds for partial months.
  • Refunds — Refund requests should be directed to Shopify support, as billing is managed by Shopify. We will cooperate with any legitimate refund request in accordance with Shopify's Partner policies.

We reserve the right to change subscription pricing with at least 30 days' advance notice communicated through the Shopify admin interface or by email.

The Service, including its app-detection registry, matching algorithms, user interface, and all associated content, is owned by Legitimate LLC and protected by applicable intellectual property laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service for its intended purpose during the term of your subscription.

You retain ownership of all data you provide to the Service (store domain, invoice PDFs). By using the Service, you grant us a limited license to process that data solely to provide the Service to you.

The Service relies on a registry of third-party Shopify apps and their publicly listed prices. We do not endorse any specific app vendor, and we make no representation as to the accuracy, completeness, or currentness of pricing data obtained from the Shopify App Store.

App pricing on the Shopify App Store is set and controlled by the respective app vendors, who may change it at any time without notice to us. Our registry is updated periodically, but we cannot guarantee it reflects current prices for every app at any given moment.

We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or in a business relationship with any third-party Shopify app vendor whose apps appear in our detection results.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, LEGITIMATE LLC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

We do not warrant that:

  • The Service will be uninterrupted or error-free.
  • App detection results will be accurate, complete, or current.
  • Spend estimates will match your actual Shopify billing.
  • Recommended alternative apps will be suitable for your use case.
  • The Service will identify all apps installed on a store.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, LEGITIMATE LLC SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE.

This includes, without limitation, damages arising from:

  • Decisions you made based on app detection results or spend estimates.
  • Cancellations of apps based on the Service's recommendations.
  • Inaccurate invoice parsing or misidentified line items.
  • Loss of business, revenue, or profits.

Our total liability to you for any claims arising from or relating to the Service shall not exceed the amount you paid to us in the twelve months preceding the claim, or USD 100, whichever is greater.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so the above limitations may not apply to you in full.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Legitimate LLC and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claims, liabilities, damages, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to:

  • Your use of the Service in violation of these Terms.
  • Your violation of any applicable law or third-party right.
  • Any content you submit to the Service (including invoice PDFs).

By you: You may terminate your use of the Service at any time by uninstalling the app from your Shopify admin. This also cancels any active subscription. Upon uninstallation, we will process the app uninstalled webhook and delete your associated data as described in our Privacy Policy.

By us: We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without cause, with reasonable notice where practicable. Reasons for termination include violation of these Terms, non-payment, or operational necessity. Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately.

Sections 2 (Advisory Nature), 6 (Intellectual Property), 8 (Disclaimer of Warranties), 9 (Limitation of Liability), 10 (Indemnification), 13 (Governing Law), and 14 (Dispute Resolution) survive termination.

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using the Service, you agree to the data practices described in the Privacy Policy.

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Georgia, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Legitimate LLC is a Georgia limited liability company.

Before initiating any formal legal proceeding, you agree to first contact us at support@legitimateapps.com and attempt to resolve the dispute informally. We will respond within 10 business days and work in good faith to resolve any issue.

If informal resolution fails, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall be resolved by binding arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) in Atlanta, Georgia. The arbitration shall be conducted in English. Judgment on the arbitration award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

You waive any right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration. Any claims must be brought on an individual basis only.

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you via the Shopify admin interface or by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page indicates when this version became effective.

Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of revised Terms constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you must stop using the Service and uninstall the app.

  • Entire agreement: These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Legitimate LLC regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements.
  • Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
  • Waiver: Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of our right to enforce that provision in the future.
  • Assignment: You may not assign your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign our rights without restriction.
  • Force majeure: We are not liable for any failure to perform our obligations due to causes beyond our reasonable control, including network outages, acts of God, or Shopify platform disruptions.

Questions about these Terms? Contact us:

Legitimate LLC
App Cost Watchdog
Email: support@legitimateapps.com