Terms of Service

01Acceptance of these terms

Frugal is provided by Abhijit Ghosh ("we", "us", "the author"). By installing, running, or otherwise using Frugal (the "Software"), you agree to these Terms of Service (the "Terms"). If you are using Frugal on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you are authorised to bind that organisation, and "you" means that organisation. If you do not agree, do not install or use the Software.

02What Frugal is (and isn't)

Frugal is software that you deploy into your own Microsoft Azure subscription. It runs as a container app under a user-assigned managed identity that you own and control. The author does not host the Software for you, does not operate your deployment, and has no standing access to your Azure environment, your data, or your virtual desktops.

• Frugal reads and acts on Azure resources only through the permissions you grant its managed identity in your tenant.
• All data Frugal collects or generates (cost figures, inventory, host-pool state) is stored in resources inside your own subscription — not with the author.
• Frugal is not a product of, affiliated with, or endorsed by Microsoft. "Azure", "Azure Virtual Desktop", "Entra", and related names are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

03Licence to use

Subject to these Terms, the author grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to install and use the Software to manage your own Azure environment. The author (and its licensors) retain all intellectual-property rights in the Software. You must not sell, sublicense, or offer the Software to third parties as a hosted service, remove or obscure any notices, or misrepresent authorship. Any third-party or open-source components are used under their own licences.

04Your responsibilities

Because Frugal runs in your tenant with permissions you grant, you are solely responsible for:

• Your Azure environment — the subscriptions, resource groups, role assignments, networking, and the scope of access you grant Frugal's managed identity. You should grant the least privilege you are comfortable with.
• Resources Frugal creates or changes at your direction — host pools, session-host virtual machines, storage, networking, images, scaling schedules, and role assignments.
• Your data — including user profiles, backups, and retention. Frugal is not a backup product.
• Authorisation and compliance — ensuring you have the right to install Frugal and operate the resources it manages, and that your use complies with all applicable laws, your organisation's policies, and the Microsoft/Azure terms that govern your subscription.
• Security operations — credentials, sign-in, admin roles within Frugal, and reviewing changes before you apply them.

05Azure & third-party costs

The author has no control over, receives no share of, and accepts no liability for any charges Microsoft or any other provider bills to your account, however they arise — including charges from resources Frugal creates, keeps running, fails to deprovision, or scales, and including charges caused by defects, misconfiguration, or your own actions. Monitor your Azure spend yourself. Cost figures shown in Frugal are estimates drawn from Azure Cost Management and may be delayed, incomplete, or wrong; do not rely on them as your billing system of record.

06Contributions

Frugal is offered on an honour system: AUD $10 per month, voluntary. There are no feature gates, licence keys, or usage limits — every capability is available to everyone whether or not you contribute. Contributions are processed by a third-party payment provider (Stripe); their terms and privacy policy apply to the payment. Contributions are voluntary and, except where the law requires otherwise, are non-refundable and confer no additional rights, warranties, service levels, or support obligations. The author may change or end the contribution arrangement at any time.

If you set up a recurring contribution, you can cancel it any time through the Stripe customer portal at billing.stripe.com (enter the email you paid with) — cancellation stops future charges and takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Frugal keeps working regardless; contributions are voluntary.

07Data & privacy

The author does not collect, store, or have access to the operational data Frugal processes in your tenant — it stays in your subscription under your control. The author may process limited information you provide directly (for example, an email address used to make a contribution, handled by Stripe) to administer that contribution and to contact you about the Software. The author does not sell personal information. You are the controller of any personal data within your Frugal deployment and are responsible for handling it lawfully.

08Acceptable use

You must not use Frugal to break the law, to access or interfere with systems you are not authorised to manage, to infringe others' rights, or to attempt to compromise the Software, its distribution channel, or other users. Frugal includes security-hardening and posture features (including guidance mapped to the ACSC Essential Eight); these are aids for use in environments you are authorised to secure. They are not a certification, audit, or guarantee of compliance, and do not replace your own security review.

09No warranty

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Software is provided "as is" and "as available", with no warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory — including any implied warranties or guarantees of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, uninterrupted or error-free operation, or that defects will be corrected. You install and use the Software at your own risk. The author does not warrant that the Software will meet your requirements, prevent cost overruns, or be compatible with future changes to Azure or Microsoft services.

10Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, and subject to section 11:

• The author will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or business, or for any Azure, cloud, or third-party charges, arising out of or relating to the Software or these Terms, however caused and on any theory of liability, even if advised of the possibility.
• The author's total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Software or these Terms will not exceed the total contributions you actually paid to the author in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or AUD $100, whichever is greater.

These limits reflect the fact that Frugal is low-cost, self-hosted software you run in your own environment with permissions you control.

11Australian Consumer Law

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts, or modifies any guarantee, right, or remedy you have under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), including the Australian Consumer Law, or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where the Software comes with a guarantee that cannot be excluded, but the author is able to limit its liability for a failure to comply with that guarantee, the author's liability is limited — at the author's option — to resupplying the Software or paying the cost of having it resupplied. To the extent any part of these Terms would otherwise be void or unenforceable, it applies only as far as the law allows.

12Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the author from any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your use of the Software, your Azure environment and the resources it manages, your data, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

13Third-party services

Frugal depends on and interoperates with third-party services you contract with directly — including Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Entra, and the container registry that hosts Frugal's image, and (for contributions) Stripe. Your use of those services is governed by their own terms. The author is not responsible for third-party services, their availability, or changes they make that affect the Software.

14Changes to the Software and these Terms

The author may update, change, or discontinue the Software (or any feature) at any time, and may release updates you choose whether to install. The author may also update these Terms; the current version will be posted here with its "Last updated" date. Changes take effect when posted, and your continued use after that means you accept them. If you do not agree to a change, stop using the Software.

15Term & termination

These Terms apply while you use the Software. You may stop at any time by uninstalling it — you control this in your own tenant. Your licence ends automatically if you materially breach these Terms. Sections that by their nature should survive (including licence restrictions, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity, and governing law) survive termination. Uninstalling the Software does not by itself remove the Azure resources it created — you are responsible for deprovisioning them to stop further charges.

16Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Australian Capital Territory, Australia, and you submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Australian Capital Territory and the Commonwealth of Australia. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.

17General

• Entire agreement — these Terms are the whole agreement between you and the author about the Software and supersede any prior understanding.
• No waiver — a failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment — you may not assign these Terms without the author's consent; the author may assign them in connection with a transfer of the Software.
• Severability — if a provision is invalid, it is severed and the remainder continues.

18Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact avd@frugal.run.