Question 1

What is Alchemy Preview?

Accepted Answer

The public doorway of AlchemyOS — a compact studio where you can commission founding builds (websites, installable apps, Windows software, prototypes) today, while the full platform matures in private. It is deliberately small, deliberately honest, and everything it sells is real.

Question 2

Is this the full AlchemyOS?

Accepted Answer

No — and it never pretends to be. AlchemyOS is the account layer in private build; this site is where founding builds happen first. Everything about the future platform is labelled with its true status: In private build, or Planned.

Question 3

Who actually builds my project?

Accepted Answer

It is built by one person — Kieran — using tools, the way any modern studio works. A human decides everything, reviews everything and is accountable for everything. Nothing ships unsupervised, and you always have a person to talk to.

Question 4

How long does a build take?

Accepted Answer

A launch page is usually days, a full business website usually weeks. 2 builds run at a time, deliberately, so timeline and quality are protected. You get a realistic date in writing with your quote, not an optimistic one — and the timeline is confirmed after scope.

Question 5

What’s the difference between a wrapper and a real desktop app?

Accepted Answer

A wrapper is your website in a native Windows shell — installable, your icon, its own window. A real desktop app has actual application logic living on the machine: local files, local data, real windows and menus. They are different products at different prices, and you will always be told which one you are buying.

Question 6

What are Æther credits?

Accepted Answer

Platform credits for future AlchemyOS features — AI usage, building, storage, automation — activated when the account layer opens. The first 50 names on the founding register receive 20,000 launch Æther. Æther has no cash value, is not money, currency, crypto or an investment, and is for platform use only.

Question 7

How will accounts open?

Accepted Answer

In waves, founding clients first. You reserve a founding profile now (no password, no login), and when your wave opens you receive a private claim link, set your own credentials, and your build records attach to your account.

Question 8

Do I own my website?

Accepted Answer

On full payment you own the bespoke code, content and design, subject to third-party licences and our retained build standards. Third-party components keep their own licences — the open-source libraries, and any stock photography or licensed fonts used in your design. The three standards we build into every site — Shapeshifter, Sentinel and Charter — stay ours, and you get a perpetual licence at no further cost to keep using them in your site for as long as it exists, including if you move to another developer or sell the business. The stack is modern and mainstream, so any developer could take it over tomorrow. No lock-in is the point.

Question 9

How does payment work?

Accepted Answer

50% deposit before work starts, 50% before launch — invoice and bank transfer, like professional work. Builds over £2,500 are paid in three parts: 50% deposit before work starts, 25% at design approval, 25% before launch. Every package includes one revision round; further rounds are quoted in writing. A 10:37 Community Build is £0: no deposit, no invoice.

Question 10

What does managed hosting include?

Accepted Answer

Care (£49/month): Hosting, SSL, DNS, uptime monitoring and one small content edit a month (up to 30 minutes). Care+ (£99/month): Everything in Care, with three small content edits a month (up to 30 minutes each), scheduled backups with a managed restore path and priority response. Hosting is optional. You can host anywhere.

Question 11

What happens if I cancel — do I get a refund?

Accepted Answer

Either side may end an engagement in writing. If you cancel before work begins, your deposit is returned in full. If you cancel mid-build, completed work to date is billed at the quoted rate and anything already paid beyond that is returned — you only pay for work that exists. If we cancel for reasons that are not your breach, everything you have paid for undelivered work is returned. There is no cancellation fee and no penalty clause. If you are dealing with us as a consumer at a distance, the Distance Selling (Jersey) Law 2007 may also give you a cancellation window; asking us to begin inside that window means the work starts at once, and any cancellation is then settled exactly as above. The binding wording is the Cancellation and refunds clause in the Terms. A 10:37 Community Build has no fee to refund.

Question 12

Is VAT or GST added on top of these prices?

Accepted Answer

No. While Alchemy is not GST-registered, no VAT or GST is added on top of the published build prices or the Care and Care+ monthly figures. Your written quote carries the figure agreed before work starts.

Question 13

Can I cancel Care or Care+ hosting?

Accepted Answer

Yes, at any month’s end, in writing. Care and Care+ are monthly plans collected by invoice or standing order — set up once at handover and ended the same simple way. There is no minimum term and no contract to escape: it is a care service, not a lock-in. On cancellation you receive your site and everything needed to run it elsewhere. On Care your site runs on our servers, and the exit pack hands everything over whenever you ask, not only when you leave; your domain and any account in your name are yours from day one. Hosting is optional to begin with — you can host anywhere.

Question 14

What is the difference between backups and the archive?

Accepted Answer

Backups protect the present; the archive protects the beginning. Care+ backups are scheduled snapshots of the LIVE site, stored away from the hosting server, with a written restore path that gets tested — they are how a recent version comes back when a change goes wrong. They are promised only where we host, and if you leave, the backups belonging to your project leave with you. The original-release archive is separate: one complete restorable copy of the site exactly as it launched, kept with your Build Receipt, free, for as long as I am trading. It protects you even if you never buy hosting from us at all.

Question 15

Who controls the archive, and can I have it deleted?

Accepted Answer

You do, at every stage. You choose at the start whether the original release is kept at all: keep it indefinitely, keep it for a set period, or delete it at handover. You can change your mind later — email and ask for the archived copy to be permanently deleted and it is. It is not a hidden copy held to claim ownership, it gives no control over your business, and it is never leverage if you leave. The opposite, in fact: even if you stop working with us, you are still welcome to come back for the original release you asked us to preserve. Leaving does not erase a promise to protect your starting point.

Asked often, answered honestly.