Terms of use

Effective 16 October 2026 · Version 1.5 · Governing law: England and Wales

These terms are a contract between you and Tidalux Ltd (“we”, “us”) for use of https://exists.ch (“Exists.ch”, the “service”). Exists.ch is a product by Tidalux Ltd. By accessing or using the service you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use Exists.ch.

1. Who we are

Exists.ch is a product by Tidalux Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 17019367. Registered office: The Grange, Grange Road, Malvern, WR14 3HA, United Kingdom. Product contact: [email protected]. Legal: [email protected].

2. What exists.ch is

exists.ch is a public-handle checker. You submit a handle (or a public profile URL from which we extract a handle). We request only the public profile URL templates and public registers we publish on the home page (today: GitHub, GitLab, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, SoundCloud, Twitch, Bluesky, Telegram, npm, Dribbble, Behance, Substack; the .com/.net and .uk domain registries; and the UK companies register). For each source we return one of:

• exists: the public HTTP response is consistent with a profile being present (typically HTTP 200), or, for the companies register, an exact register-name match.
• open: the public HTTP response is consistent with absence (typically HTTP 404), or no exact match on the companies register. This is not a warranty that you can register that name, mark, domain, or company name.
• can’t see: we could not read the page (timeout, HTTP 401/403/429, block, challenge, or other failure). We will not log in, solve CAPTCHAs, use stolen cookies, or otherwise bypass a wall.

Results are informational, automated, and may be wrong, delayed, or incomplete. Platforms change behaviour without notice. Demo mode may return synthetic statuses for interface testing; production checks use GET on those public URLs only.

3. What exists.ch is not

• Not people-search, OSINT-as-a-service, doxxing, email/phone discovery, or a password / session / cookie tool.
• Not a WHOIS or domain-holder lookup. SWITCH already hides .ch holder data; we do not recreate it.
• Not legal clearance, and not legal, trade-mark, or brand-clearance advice. exists.ch is a check. Any trade mark or company-name result is indicative only: confirm it with the UK trade mark register, Companies House and, where it matters, a solicitor or trade mark attorney.
• Not permission to violate another site’s terms.

4. Eligibility and authority

You must be at least 13. If you use the service for an organisation, you warrant you have authority to bind it. You are responsible for your connection, your handle submissions, and anyone using your network.

5. Licence

We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use exists.ch for lawful, personal or internal business checks, subject to these terms. We do not sell you the software. You must not copy, scrape, reverse engineer, or wrap the service as a competing API without our written consent.

6. Your submissions

You warrant that you have a legitimate reason to check a handle (for example your own names, or names you are considering using) and that submitting it does not unlawfully infringe others’ rights. You grant us a licence to process the handle solely to perform the check and enforce limits, as described in the Privacy policy.

7. Acceptable use

You must not:

• Harass, stalk, threaten, dox, or discriminate against anyone using results.
• Use results to attempt unauthorised access to accounts or systems (Computer Misuse Act 1990).
• Request URLs we do not template, or attempt to fetch private or authenticated content through us.
• Circumvent rate limits (currently about 1 requests per minute per connection) or the daily cap (currently 5 free checks per day, as shown on Pricing).
• Overwhelm, probe, or disrupt exists.ch or third-party sites.
• Misrepresent statuses as certified, official, or complete clearance.
• Use the service where it is unlawful.

We may throttle, refuse, or block traffic (including by hashed IP) without notice if we reasonably believe these terms are breached or the service is at risk.

8. Free tier

The checker is free after you create an account (email and password). Limits may change. We may suspend or discontinue the free tier. Free use is not a consumer purchase; statutory cooling-off for paid digital content does not apply until you pay.

9. Paid plans: Pro and the one-off name report

Pro is a live paid plan. The current price and daily cap are shown at Pricing and at Stripe Checkout (today: £5 per month, daily cap 50 checks per day). The contract for Pro is these terms plus the price and cap shown at checkout.

The one-off name report

The name report is a single purchase (today: £3 one-off, shown at Pricing and at Stripe Checkout). It is not a subscription, it does not renew, and it grants no API key or higher check cap. What you get: a private, printable page holding the full check for one name (public sources, the .com and .co.uk domain rows, and the Companies House exact-name row), stamped with the UTC time it was produced, with the same exists / open / can’t see meanings and the same warning that open is not clearance.

• Delivery. The report is produced when payment completes and is shown through an unguessable link. Keep the link: it works for 30 days from purchase, then the report content is deleted from our systems.
• Cancellation and refunds. Performance begins as soon as the report is produced, which reduces the cooling-off right for digital content as the law provides. If a report is wrong on its face (not merely unavailable somewhere), or payment was taken twice, email us and we will re-issue or refund. Statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 are not excluded.

• Payment. Payment is processed by Stripe using Stripe Checkout. Stripe is the processor for card data; we never see your card number (PAN). Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is applied by Stripe where required.
• Cancellation. You cancel Pro at any time from the Stripe Customer Portal link we provide. Cancellation stops renewal; you keep access until the end of the paid period.
• UK consumer rights. If you are a UK consumer, you keep the statutory rights given by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Digital content has a cooling-off period; however, once you use your Pro API key or run Pro checks, you have started performance and the right to cancel digital content is reduced or lost as the law provides. Nothing in these terms excludes those rights.
• Refunds. Our Refunds page forms part of these terms. In short: a full refund if you ask within 14 days of your first Pro payment, and cancellation at any time after that, with Pro kept until the end of the paid month. Where a statutory right to a refund applies, it is not excluded.
• API key. When you complete checkout we show a Pro API key on the billing success page. The key is stored in your browser’s localStorage on your device. Send it as the X-Exists-Key request header. The API key is a secret: keep it private, do not commit it to a repository, and do not share it. You are responsible for use of your key until you tell us it is compromised.
• Bulk CSV. Pro includes bulk CSV checks. The browser queues public checks client-side and the server still performs one API check at a time. Bulk use is subject to the same acceptable-use rules in section 7.
• No wrapping. You must not wrap the Pro API as a competing public or paid API, resell access to your key, or proxy it for third parties without our written consent.
• Business customers. Tidalux Ltd is not currently VAT-registered. Chargebacks for legitimate service may still be disputed.

10. Third-party sites

Public platforms are not our partners for this lookup. Their availability, anti-bot rules, and accuracy are outside our control. Linking to a public profile is not an endorsement. You must comply with those platforms’ terms if you visit them.

11. Intellectual property

exists.ch, the wordmark, layout, and our code are owned by us or our licensors. Platform names and logos are the property of their owners and are used only to identify public services. Feedback you send may be used by us without obligation to you.

12. Privacy

Personal data is handled under the Privacy policy, which forms part of this agreement. We set one session cookie to keep you signed in. We do not set advertising cookies, so there is no cookie banner.

13. Availability and changes

We aim for a working service but do not guarantee uptime, particular response times, or that every source will be readable. We may change sources, limits, or features. We may perform maintenance. Outbound checks depend on the public internet.

14. Disclaimer of warranties

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or accuracy. We do not warrant that a handle is legally available as a company name, trade mark, domain, or social account.

Nothing in this section limits statutory rights that cannot be excluded. If you are a UK consumer using Pro, those rights remain.

15. Liability

We do not exclude or limit liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that UK law does not allow to be limited.

Subject to that: we are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, data, goodwill, anticipated savings, or any indirect, special, or consequential loss; or for decisions you make based on statuses (including registering or not registering a name). For free use, our total aggregate liability arising out of the service is limited to £0 (you paid nothing). For paid use, our aggregate liability in any 12-month period is limited to the fees you paid us for exists.ch in that period.

You use results at your own risk.

16. Indemnity

You will indemnify and hold us harmless against claims, losses, and reasonable legal costs arising from your misuse of the service, your breach of these terms, or your processing of other people’s data using our output, except to the extent caused by our negligence or wilful default. This does not require a consumer to indemnify us in a way UK law forbids.

17. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the service at any time. We may suspend or end access immediately if we reasonably believe you have breached these terms, if required by law, or if we shut the product down. Surviving clauses include IP, disclaimers, liability, indemnity, and governing law.

18. Force majeure

We are not liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond reasonable control, including platform outages, network failure, flooding of our IP, or legal prohibition.

19. General

• Entire agreement. These terms and the Privacy policy are the entire agreement for use of exists.ch and supersede prior understandings on that subject.
• Severability. If a clause is unenforceable, the rest remains in force; the clause is modified to the minimum extent required.
• Waiver. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver.
• Assignment. You may not assign these terms. We may assign them in a reorganisation or sale of the service, with notice on the site.
• Third-party rights. A person who is not a party has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce these terms.
• Notices. We may notify by posting on exists.ch. You may notify us at [email protected].
• Language. The English version governs.

20. Changes to these terms

We may revise these terms. The effective date and version above will change. For free use, continued use after posting is acceptance. For paid use, we will give reasonable notice of material changes as the law requires; if you do not agree you may cancel paid access as described in section 9.

21. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except that UK consumers may also bring proceedings in the courts of their UK residence, and mandatory consumer protections of your place of residence remain available.

Please contact [email protected] first. We will try to resolve complaints in good faith. Nothing requires you to give up a right to court or, for consumers, an approved alternative dispute body where the law gives you that option.

22. Contact

Product: [email protected]
Legal: [email protected]