Terms of Service

Last updated 2 November 2026 · Applies worldwide · Governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia

These are the terms for using R8rly. They're written to be read, not skimmed past. If anything here is unclear, email support@r8rly.com and a person will answer.

1. Who we are

R8rly is operated by Modern Media Mastery, an Australian business, trading as R8rly ("R8rly", "we", "us"). Our privacy practices are set out in the Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.

2. What R8rly is

R8rly is a multi-axis ratings platform. Instead of one star, people rate the things that actually differ — service, value, cleanliness, craft and so on — and every axis is shown on its own. We publish those ratings for venues, accommodation, books, tools and other categories, and we sell subscriptions to people and businesses who want more from the platform.

Three things never change: ratings are never sold, never edited to order, and never collapsed into a single number to please anyone.

3. Your account

• R8rly runs on your email address. There are no passwords; secure links and codes are sent to the email you use. Keep that inbox safe — anyone with access to it can act as you.
• You can rate from 16. If you're 13 to 15, you can rate with a parent or guardian's approval — they confirm it when you sign up. You must be 18 or older to buy a plan or receive affiliate payouts in your own name. Under 13? Not yet — come back when you're older.
• Under 18 and earning affiliate commission? A parent or guardian can receive your payouts for you. They agree to it online, confirm they're 18 or over with Stripe Identity, and set up a Stripe payout account in their name. The arrangement ends when you turn 18 and verify, or earlier if either of you ends it; after that your own payout account takes over.
• When you turn 18 you can verify your age once through Stripe Identity from My plan; we keep only the fact that you're verified, never your document or date of birth.
• One person, one account. Multiple accounts used to rate the same thing more than once will be removed.
• Give us accurate details and keep them current.

4. Plans, trials and billing

Free

Free users can rate up to 10 items per calendar month (Sydney time) and browse everything. No card, no catch.

Early access trial

If you join the early-access list, you get 30 days of unlimited rating from the day you join, without a card. When it ends you drop back to the free plan unless you subscribe.

Rater Pro — USD $15 per month, first month free

Unlimited ratings and member features. The first 30 days are free; your card is charged on day 31 and then monthly. Cancel any time before a renewal and you won't be charged again.

Business — USD $45 per month

For businesses that have claimed their listing: business features as described on the pricing page at the time you subscribe. Billed monthly from the day you subscribe.

Business Plus — USD $95 per month

For one claimed venue: everything in Business, plus the Business Plus features described on the business page at the time you subscribe, including the competitor set, weekly digest, print kit and read-only API. Extra venue seats are quoted on request. Billed monthly from the day you subscribe. You can switch between Business and Business Plus at My plan; the difference is prorated.

Commercial — from USD $295 per month for five venues

For venue groups. Includes five venues, then USD $20 a month for each additional venue. Billed monthly by card, or by annual invoice, as agreed when we set up the account. Commercial is arranged on request through the Commercial page. Manager logins see only the venues the account owner gives them.

Rated-on-R8rly certificate — USD $29 per year

An add-on for claimed venues with an overall score of 6.0 or higher from 20 or more ratings. We re-issue it each quarter with the current, dated score. If a venue drops below 6.0 or under 20 ratings, its certificate is withdrawn and must not be displayed until the venue qualifies again; a lapse doesn't refund the yearly fee. The certificate reports ratings. It never changes one.

3 months for the price of 2 (Business and Business Plus)

Sometimes we offer Business or Business Plus as 3 months for the price of 2. You give your card when you sign up, and nothing is charged for 7 days. Cancel at My plan within those 7 days and you pay nothing. On day 8 we charge the price of 2 months (USD $90 for Business, USD $190 for Business Plus), which covers the next 3 months. After those 3 months the plan continues monthly at the standard price until you cancel. One per business. It can’t be combined with any other offer or code, including Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday annual offer (November 2026)

From 1 to 30 November 2026 (Black Friday) and on 30 November and 1 December 2026 (Cyber Monday), Sydney time, you can buy a year of Business or Business Plus at 25 % off, using the code shown on the business page: USD $405 for Business and USD $855 for Business Plus, instead of USD $540 and USD $1,140. The full year is charged today. Your next annual renewal is charged at the same discounted price; after that, renewals are at the standard annual price at the time. Commercial accounts can ask for the same discount on an annual quote. Cancelling stops the next renewal but doesn’t refund unused time. One per business. Codes work only on annual plans, only one code applies to a subscription, and the offer can’t be combined with the 3-for-2 or any other offer.

5. Rating rules

Ratings only mean something if they're real. By rating on R8rly you agree that:

• Every rating reflects your own first-hand experience.
• You haven't been paid, discounted, gifted or otherwise rewarded for the rating, and you have no stake in the thing being rated (you don't own it, work there, or compete with it).
• You rate a given item at most once every 24 hours, and you don't use other people's accounts or emails to rate it again.
• You skip an axis you can't judge rather than guessing.

We may remove or quarantine ratings that break these rules, show patterns of manipulation, or were submitted by automated means, and we may suspend accounts involved. We don't tell businesses who rated them.

6. Your content

You own what you submit — scores, comments, display names. You give R8rly a worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, display, aggregate and distribute it as part of the platform (including on partner sites that show R8rly data, and in anonymised form after you delete your account). You confirm it's yours to give and doesn't infringe anyone's rights or break any law. We can remove content that breaches these terms.

7. Business accounts

• Claiming a listing tells us you're authorised to represent that business. We may ask for proof and may reject or revoke a claim.
• A claimed or paid listing never changes its ratings, its position, or which ratings are shown. There is no way to pay for a better score on R8rly.
• Business features are for understanding and improving; they're not for identifying or contacting individual raters.
• Listing details you supply must be accurate. We may correct public facts (name, location, category) from reliable sources.

8. Affiliate programme

The affiliate programme is invitation only. We invite members who have held a paid plan for at least three months and whose ratings have been confirmed as consistent and genuine. You can ask for an invitation on the affiliate page and we review every request by hand; invitations come from us by email. Once invited, you get a referral code, and when someone you referred pays for a plan, R8rly pays you a share of each monthly payment they make, at the rates shown on the affiliate page at the time of the payment. Rater Pro and Business referrals are tracked as separate streams, and business referrals pay more: currently $1.50 + $0.30 a month per paid Business referral (Rater Pro: 50c + 10c). The main points:

• Invitations are at our discretion and can be withdrawn if the conditions above stop being true.
• Members aged 13 to 17 can have their payouts made to a parent or guardian payee. The guardian holds a Stripe Connect payout account, commission earned under the member's affiliate number is paid to it, and the guardian holds that money for the member. Each member's earnings are tracked separately, even when one guardian looks after several members. Either the member or the guardian can end the arrangement at any time, the usual conduct rules apply, and at 18 (after identity verification) the member's own payout account takes over.
• Platinum invitations: at our discretion we may invite individuals directly; a Platinum invitation grants affiliate standing immediately, with the same payout, age and conduct rules.
• Platinum members may pass on a limited number of Platinum invitations at our discretion; the same rules apply.
• Payouts go through Stripe Connect to a payout account you set up. You're responsible for your own tax, and for telling us if you're registered for GST.
• Commission accrues only on money actually received. Refunded, disputed or failed payments don't count. If a payment is refunded or disputed after its commission was counted, that commission is taken back from your next payouts (and restored if a dispute is decided in our favour).
• Payouts are made monthly, on the 3rd of each month (Sydney time) for commission from earlier months once your balance reaches USD $20. A smaller balance isn't lost: it carries forward to the next month. If a payout can't be made (for example, your payout account isn't set up), it's held and tried again the next month. Each payout comes with an emailed statement.
• Commission is counted in US dollars; payouts are made in Australian dollars at the exchange rate on the day of the payout.
• When you share your link or code, say plainly that you earn a commission — it's the law in Australia and most places, and it's how R8rly does things.
• If you're earning as a business, give us your ABN and tell us if you're registered for GST; we issue recipient-created tax invoices for commission.
• No self-referrals, no referring accounts you control, no paid ads bidding on "R8rly" terms, no spam. Breaches forfeit unpaid commission and end the invitation.
• We can change the rates or pause the programme with 30 days' notice; commission already accrued is still paid.

9. Third-party data

Some pages show a "starting point" taken from Google or other named sources, clearly attributed. That data belongs to its source, is shown under their terms, and is refreshed periodically — it may lag. R8rly's own scores are always labelled as R8rly's.

10. Acceptable use

Don't scrape or bulk-copy the platform, probe its security, interfere with other users, impersonate anyone, post anything unlawful, defamatory or hateful, or use R8rly to harass a business or a person. Don't reverse-engineer or resell the service. Automated access needs written permission.

11. Our platform and marks

R8rly, the 8-ball mark, the SHOW Standard, SCRIPTS and the platform's design, code and compiled data are ours or licensed to us. You can link to any R8rly page and quote a rating with attribution; you can't republish the dataset or pass our marks off as your own.

12. Ratings are opinions

Ratings on R8rly are the honest opinions of the people who gave them. They're not advice, not a guarantee of quality, and not a statement of fact by R8rly. We don't verify every rating and we can't promise the platform is error-free or always available. The service is provided as is, to the extent the law allows.

13. Liability

To the extent permitted by law, R8rly's total liability to you for anything arising from the service in any 12-month period is limited to the amount you paid us in that period (or AUD $50 if you paid nothing), and we're not liable for indirect or consequential loss, lost profits or lost data. Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law, and any rights that can't be excluded where you live, are unaffected. You agree to cover us for claims arising from content you submit or your breach of these terms.

14. Ending things

You can stop using R8rly whenever you like and ask us to delete your account via privacy@r8rly.com. We can suspend or close accounts that breach these terms, with notice where practical. Sections 6, 11, 12, 13 and 16 survive closure. Anonymised ratings may remain as platform data.

15. Changes to these terms

We'll update this page when the terms change and note the date at the top. For changes that affect paid plans or the affiliate programme we'll email subscribers and affiliates at least 30 days ahead. Using R8rly after a change means you accept it.

16. Law and contact

These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia, and disputes go to the courts there — without taking away any protection you have under the consumer laws of your own country. If part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies.

Questions: support@r8rly.com · Privacy: privacy@r8rly.com