Terms of Service

Last updated 18 August 2026

These terms govern your use of Developer Compass (the "Service"), a web application operated by Whirlwind Consultants Inc. ("we", "us"). By creating an account or using the Service you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. The Service

Developer Compass produces early-stage structural quantity take-offs, cost estimates and development financial indicators for building projects, based on parameters you enter and on cost data we maintain.

2. Accounts

You need an account to use the Service. You are responsible for the accuracy of your registration details and for everything done under your account. Keep your login credentials to yourself — accounts are for a single named person unless you hold a Firm licence, which covers five named people.

We may suspend or close an account that is being shared beyond its licensed seats, used to scrape or bulk-extract our cost data, or used to build a competing product.

3. Plans, billing and renewal

Plans and prices are set out on the pricing page. All prices are in US dollars.

Payments are processed by Paddle.com, which acts as our merchant of record and is the seller of record for your purchase. Paddle handles the transaction, issues your invoice or receipt, and is responsible for collecting and remitting any sales tax, VAT or GST that applies where you are. Your card statement will show Paddle rather than Developer Compass. Paddle's own buyer terms apply to the payment transaction alongside these terms.

Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until cancelled. We may change prices with at least 30 days' notice before your next renewal; the price you have already paid for a current period never changes.

4. Refunds and cancellation

Set out in full in the refund and cancellation policy, which forms part of these terms.

5. Free tier

The free tier is limited to five active days per calendar month and to a subset of features. We may change those limits, and we may withdraw the free tier entirely, with notice on this site. Free access carries no service commitment of any kind.

6. Estimates are not engineering advice

This section matters more than any other in this document. Please read it.

Developer Compass produces early-stage, parametric estimates. Its take-offs, member sizes, cost figures and financial indicators are generated from typical values, published cost data and simplified structural models. They are intended to support feasibility and option-comparison work.

Outputs from the Service are not:

• a structural design, or a substitute for design by a qualified engineer;
• a construction cost estimate prepared by a quantity surveyor;
• a code-compliance assessment for any jurisdiction;
• investment, financial or tax advice.

Nothing produced by the Service is sealed, stamped, or issued under an engineer's professional responsibility. Any figure you take from the Service into a real project must be independently verified by a qualified professional who takes responsibility for it. You remain solely responsible for decisions you make using the Service.

7. Our intellectual property

The Service, its cost engine, its calculation methods, its cost data tables and all associated documentation remain our property. Cost data published within the Service is credited to Whirlwind Consultants.

Your licence is to use the Service. It does not permit you to copy, republish, resell or redistribute the cost data or calculation outputs as a dataset or as a product, to reverse-engineer the engine, or to use automated means to extract data in bulk.

8. Your content

Project parameters and scenarios you enter remain yours. We claim no ownership of them. We store them so the Service can function and may process them in aggregate, non-identifying form to improve the product. We do not sell them, and we do not disclose an identifiable project to anyone else.

9. Availability

We aim to keep the Service available but offer no uptime guarantee. We may change, suspend or withdraw features. If we discontinue the Service entirely while you hold a paid subscription, we will refund the unused portion.

10. Warranties and liability

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose and accuracy of results.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Service is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of opportunity, or costs arising from reliance on an estimate produced by the Service.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

11. Termination

You may stop using the Service and cancel at any time. We may suspend or terminate access for breach of these terms, in which case we will refund the unused portion of a paid period unless the breach involved data extraction, licence sharing, or an attempt to reverse-engineer the Service.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. Material changes will be notified by email or in the application at least 30 days before they take effect. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept the revised terms.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia and the federal laws of Canada applicable there. The courts of British Columbia have exclusive jurisdiction, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in any competent court.

14. Contact

Whirlwind Consultants Inc. — support@developercompass.com