Acceptance of Terms
By downloading, installing, or using HydroGardenAdvisor (the "app," "we," "us," "our"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the app.
These Terms govern your use of HydroGardenAdvisor on iOS, Android, and our website at hydrogardenadvisor.app. They form a binding agreement between you and Christopher Hilmoe (the app's owner). Please read them carefully.
Description of Service
HydroGardenAdvisor is a growing coach for hydroponic leafy greens, herbs, and fruiting crops. It generates setup plans (photoperiod, nutrient mix scaled to your reservoir, cultivar guidance), photo-based plant diagnoses, and harvest carry-forward guidance based on the crop, details, and photos you submit.
The service is provided "as is." See the Growing Guidance, Generated Advice, and Disclaimers sections below for important limits on what the app's output represents.
Growing Guidance
You acknowledge and agree that:
- Nutrient dosing guidance is informational, not supervisory. You are responsible for verifying your own reservoir volume, following your nutrient manufacturer's own safety instructions, and using an EC/pH meter to confirm actual conditions rather than relying on the app's estimate alone.
- HydroGardenAdvisor covers hydroponic growing of leafy greens, herbs, and the fruiting crops listed in the app. It is not a food-safety authority, a plant-identification service for foraging or wild plants, or a substitute for consulting your local extension office on region-specific growing conditions.
- Timelines are estimates. Grow speed varies with your specific lights, nutrients, water quality, and ambient conditions. Photo diagnoses reflect what the photo shows, not a guarantee about what's actually happening inside the plant.
Accounts
Creating an account
You can use HydroGardenAdvisor's free tier without creating an account — grow history is saved on your device. To carry your grow history and Pro entitlement to a new phone, you'll need to sign in.
Sign-in uses passwordless email codes — you enter your email address, we send a one-time 8-character code valid for 15 minutes, and entering it signs you in.
You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. By creating an account, you confirm you meet this age requirement.
Account security
You're responsible for keeping access to your sign-in email account secure. Anyone with access to your email inbox can sign in to your HydroGardenAdvisor account by requesting a sign-in code.
If your email is compromised, secure your email account first, then secure your HydroGardenAdvisor account by signing out or deleting the account (Settings).
Pro Subscriptions and Billing
Billing and renewal
HydroGardenAdvisor offers a Pro subscription at $39.99 USD per year or $4.99 USD per month. Prices in other currencies are set by Apple or Google at platform-mapped rates and may differ from a direct USD conversion.
Subscriptions are billed by Apple (App Store) or Google (Play Store), not by us directly. By subscribing, you authorize the platform to charge your stored payment method for the subscription period and any auto-renewals.
Subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing period (annual or monthly) at the then-current price unless you cancel before the renewal date. Apple and Google will notify you in advance of any price change in accordance with platform policy; you may cancel before the change takes effect to avoid being charged the new price.
Cancellation
You can cancel a Pro subscription at any time through your Apple App Store or Google Play Store account settings:
- iOS: Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions → HydroGardenAdvisor → Cancel Subscription
- Android: Play Store → Profile → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions → HydroGardenAdvisor → Cancel subscription
Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. You retain Pro access until that period ends. We do not have the ability to cancel platform subscriptions on your behalf — only Apple and Google can.
Refunds
Refunds for App Store subscriptions are handled by Apple under their Media Services Terms (reportaproblem.apple.com). Refunds for Play Store subscriptions are handled by Google under their refund policy (play.google.com/store/account).
We do not issue refunds directly. If you believe a refund is warranted (accidental purchase, technical issue preventing use, etc.), contact Apple or Google support — they have full authority over platform-billed subscription refunds.
Acceptable Use
You agree to use HydroGardenAdvisor only for its intended purpose: planning, checking, and improving your own hydroponic grows. Specifically, you agree NOT to:
- Submit photos containing nudity, violence, cannabis, or other content outside the app's scope (leafy greens, herbs, and the listed fruiting crops) — these will be rejected by the processing layer and may result in account suspension
- Submit photos or content belonging to others without permission
- Reverse engineer, scrape, automate, or attempt to extract bulk data from the app or website
- Use the app to harass, abuse, or harm any person
- Resell or sublicense access to HydroGardenAdvisor or your Pro subscription
- Attempt to bypass tier limits or otherwise interfere with the app's normal operation
- Use the app for any purpose that violates applicable laws
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules.
Your Content
Ownership
You retain ownership of the photos you upload, the grow notes you write, and the grow history you save. Your content is yours.
License to us
To provide the HydroGardenAdvisor service, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, store, process, transmit, display, and modify your submitted content (grow details, photos, notes) solely for the purpose of operating the HydroGardenAdvisor service for you.
This license covers sending your content to our processing partner (Anthropic) for analysis, storing your content in our backend infrastructure (Cloudflare), and displaying your content back to you within the app.
This license does NOT cover: using your content for AI model training, selling your content to third parties, or displaying your content publicly without your explicit permission. If you delete specific content or your account, this license terminates with respect to that content.
Generated Advice
HydroGardenAdvisor's setup plans and nutrient calculators are computed deterministically from a curated reference dataset. The Check feature uses artificial intelligence (Anthropic's Claude API) to read your photos and generate diagnoses.
You acknowledge that:
- Generated output is advice, not authority. While we use validation layers (numeric sanity checks, escalation to higher-capability models for uncertain cases), the analysis can still be incorrect, incomplete, or surprising.
- HydroGardenAdvisor is not a substitute for your own judgment — especially on nutrient safety and equipment operation. Your nutrient manufacturer's instructions and a good EC/pH meter outrank any app.
- Following HydroGardenAdvisor's advice is your choice. Outcomes — a bolted crop, a slow grow, a diagnosis that misses something — are not warranted by us.
- Photo diagnosis requires sending your photos to Anthropic's servers. See our Privacy Policy for what data is shared, how it's protected, and your rights to access or delete it.
Intellectual Property
HydroGardenAdvisor (the app, the website, the leaf logo, the Plan / Check / Harvest mode names, and all original UI/UX) is the intellectual property of Christopher Hilmoe. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or create derivative works of these elements without written permission.
Third-party trademarks (Apple, Google, Anthropic, Cloudflare, RevenueCat, Resend, and others) belong to their respective owners and are used here under standard nominative-use principles.
Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability
Warranty disclaimer
HYDROGARDENADVISOR IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE APP WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT GENERATED ADVICE IS ACCURATE, RELIABLE, OR SUITABLE FOR YOUR SPECIFIC GROWING SETUP.
Limitation of liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL HYDROGARDENADVISOR OR ITS OWNER BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, USE, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, RESULTING FROM (A) YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE APP; (B) GENERATED ADVICE, PLANS, OR PREDICTIONS; (C) LOST OR FAILED CROPS, EQUIPMENT DAMAGE, OR NUTRIENT WASTE ARISING FROM YOUR OWN GROWING DECISIONS; OR (D) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE APP.
OUR TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF HYDROGARDENADVISOR SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO US FOR PRO SUBSCRIPTIONS IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) $100 USD.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or limitations of liability; in those jurisdictions, the above limitations apply to the extent permitted by law.
Termination
You can terminate your relationship with HydroGardenAdvisor at any time by deleting the app from your device and deleting your account in the app (Settings → Delete account), or by requesting deletion per the Account Deletion section of our Privacy Policy.
We may suspend or terminate your access to HydroGardenAdvisor at any time if you violate these Terms, if your account is used for fraud or abuse, or if continued operation poses risk to other users or our infrastructure. We will notify you of termination via your account email when reasonably possible, but reserve the right to terminate immediately in cases of serious violation.
Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wisconsin, United States, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. Any dispute arising from these Terms or your use of HydroGardenAdvisor shall be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.
If you reside in a jurisdiction whose mandatory consumer protection laws provide rights that override this choice (for example, certain EU consumer-law provisions), those rights apply notwithstanding this section.
Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms as the app evolves. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and notify active account holders by email (using the address associated with the account). Continued use of HydroGardenAdvisor after an update means you accept the revised Terms.
If you do not agree with the revised Terms, your remedy is to stop using the app and (optionally) delete your account.
Contact
Questions about these Terms? Get in touch: