License terms

Effective date: September 29, 2026. Revision: 2026-09-29.

These terms cover Backdrop, the Mac app, and the license you get when you try or buy it. If anything here is unclear, email backdrop.support@proton.me.

Who you’re dealing with

Backdrop is made by Lukas Flyden, an independent developer in Sweden. In these terms, “I”, “me” and “my” mean Lukas Flyden, and “you” means the person using Backdrop or buying a license.

Two parties are involved when you buy:

• Link handles the payment. Sold through Link, LLC (“Link”), a Stripe company, is the merchant of record for your purchase: it runs checkout, charges your payment method, calculates and collects sales tax or VAT, sends your receipt, and answers payment, billing and subscription questions. Link’s terms and privacy policy apply to the payment.
• I provide Backdrop. I grant your license, deliver your activation code, run the license service and provide product support. These terms are between you and me.

Contact: backdrop.support@proton.me · Ottilia Adelborgs Gata 6C, 371 57 Karlskrona, Sweden · +46 70 817 29 39

What you need

Backdrop needs macOS 15 or later and Accessibility permission, which you grant during setup, to move, resize, hide and restore windows. Screen Recording permission is optional and only used for smoother animations. The Notchboard drag gesture needs a display with a notch.

Backdrop uses an activation code and online license checks. Activating, deactivating and moving a license needs an internet connection. Use the free trial to make sure Backdrop works with your apps and setup before you buy.

Your license

When you start a trial or buy a license, I give you a personal, non-exclusive right to install and use Backdrop on one Mac at a time while your trial or license is valid. You can use it for personal or work purposes. An organization that buys a license can assign it to one person at a time.

Backdrop remains my property. The license gives you the rights in these terms and no others. Open-source components included in Backdrop are licensed under their own terms, listed under Acknowledgements in Backdrop Settings → General.

You can pass a one-time license on to someone else: email me from the purchase address and I’ll move it to them. The Mac it’s active on is deactivated and you can no longer use it. A subscription can’t be transferred.

What you can’t do

• Share your activation code, or use one license on more than one Mac at a time.
• Get around the license checks, the trial limit or the one-Mac limit, or help others do so.
• Copy, modify, redistribute, sell or rent out Backdrop, or reverse engineer it, except where the law allows this regardless of these terms.
• Use Backdrop to break the law or infringe anyone’s rights.

Free trial

You can try every feature free for 10 days after you finish setup. No account or card is needed. When the trial ends, window management stops until you activate a license. Backdrop restores any windows it hid and keeps your projects and settings.

Whether new trials are offered can change between releases. A trial you’ve already started keeps its end date.

Buying a license

There are two options. Both include every feature, future updates and one active Mac.

• One-time license. Paid once. No recurring charges and no end date.
• Subscription. Charged when you subscribe, then automatically every month until you cancel.

The current prices are on the pricing page and at checkout. Backdrop is sold at launch prices for now. If you subscribe at a launch price, you keep that price for as long as your subscription stays active, including when a renewal payment is retried and then paid; the price-change clause below never applies to it. If your subscription ends and you subscribe again, the price at that time applies.

Prices are set in US dollars and include any sales tax or VAT that applies. If Link shows the price in your local currency, checkout confirms the exact amount; Link converts it, and the converted price can include a currency conversion fee. For a subscription, the amount in your currency can change from month to month with exchange rates. I add no fees of my own, but your bank may charge its own, such as foreign transaction fees.

After payment, your activation code appears on the purchase page and is emailed to the address you used at checkout. Link emails your receipt separately. If you lose your code, recover it with your purchase email.

Activation and one Mac

Each license works on one Mac at a time. To activate, paste your code into Backdrop Settings → License.

To move to another Mac, choose Deactivate this Mac on the old one, then activate your code on the new one. If your old Mac is lost, broken or erased, email me from your purchase email address and I’ll free the license.

Working offline

• One-time license: after activation, it keeps working offline with no deadline. When your Mac is online, Backdrop checks in with the license service about once a day, so a refund or a deactivated license takes effect at the next check.
• Subscription: Backdrop needs a successful check with the license service at least once every 30 days. If it can’t reach the service within that time, window management pauses until it can. The 30 days never extend access past your paid period and the 3-day renewal grace described below.

Updates

Both options include every future version of Backdrop that I release while I maintain it, including new major versions. You won’t pay again to upgrade. Backdrop offers updates in Settings → General; installing them is up to you.

Subscription renewal and cancellation

Your subscription renews every month until you cancel. Cancel anytime in Link, or from Backdrop Settings → License → Manage or cancel subscription. If you checked out as a guest, Link asks you to create a free Link account with your purchase email to manage the order.

When you cancel, you won’t be charged again, and Backdrop keeps working until the end of the period you’ve already paid for. Cancelling doesn’t refund the current month by itself; see Refunds.

Link charges each renewal just after your paid period ends. While that payment goes through, or while Link retries a declined payment, Backdrop keeps working for up to 3 days. If the renewal still isn’t paid, access ends. If Link collects the payment later, access comes back at the next license check.

If I ever change the monthly price for existing subscribers, I’ll email you at least 30 days before the new price applies, so you can cancel first. This never applies to a launch-price subscription while it stays active.

Refunds

You can get a refund within 14 days, no questions asked: a one-time license within 14 days of purchase, or your latest subscription charge within 14 days of that charge. A full refund deactivates the license, and refunding a subscription charge in full also cancels the subscription so you aren’t charged again. A partial refund or price reduction leaves the license and subscription active. The Refunds page explains how to ask. This is in addition to your legal rights and to Link’s own refund policy.

If you’re a consumer in the EU, EEA or UK, you also have a legal right to withdraw from a purchase within 14 days of buying it, without giving a reason. Activating or using Backdrop doesn’t take that right away. Use Withdraw from contract here, the model withdrawal form on that page, or any clear statement to support.

If Backdrop is discontinued

If I stop selling Backdrop and shut down the license service for good, I’ll first release a final version that works without it, so one-time license holders can keep using Backdrop, including on a new Mac. I’ll email license holders about it and publish it on the download page. I’ll cancel all subscriptions so nobody is charged again, and I’ll keep the license service running until the last paid subscription period ends.

When a license ends

A one-time license doesn’t expire. A subscription ends when you cancel and your paid period runs out, or when a renewal isn’t paid. Any license ends if its payment is fully refunded or reversed through a chargeback. While a payment dispute is open, the license is suspended; if the dispute is resolved in Link’s favor, it works again. If you seriously break these terms, for example by publishing your activation code, I may deactivate your license after telling you why. You can stop using Backdrop at any time.

Private beta

If you use a free private-beta license from an invitation, the terms of your invitation still apply to it and are unchanged.

Your data

Your projects, layouts and settings stay on your Mac. The Privacy notice explains what the purchase and license services handle.

Warranty

Backdrop controls other apps’ windows, and macOS and those apps change over time. It moves, hides and restores windows. It doesn’t close apps or change your documents. Keep your usual backups.

If you’re a consumer, you have legal rights if Backdrop is faulty or doesn’t match its description, including under Swedish and EU rules for digital content, and nothing in these terms limits them. Tell me about the problem and I’ll try to fix it. If I can’t fix it within a reasonable time, you’re entitled to a price reduction or your money back as the law provides.

Beyond those rights, and as far as the law allows, Backdrop is provided as it is, without further promises, for example that it suits every setup or is free of bugs.

Liability

If you’re a consumer, I’m responsible for loss as the law provides, and these terms don’t reduce that.

If you buy Backdrop as a business rather than as a consumer, I’m not liable for indirect loss, such as lost profit, lost data or business interruption, and my total liability is limited to the total amount you’ve paid for your license.

These limits don’t apply to loss caused intentionally or through gross negligence, or where the law doesn’t allow them.

Law and disputes

Swedish law applies to these terms. If you’re a consumer living in another country, you also keep the protection of the mandatory consumer law where you live, and you can go to court there where that law allows.

If something goes wrong, email me first. If we can’t agree and you’re a consumer, you can take the dispute to Allmänna reklamationsnämnden (ARN), Sweden’s National Board for Consumer Disputes: arn.se, Box 174, 101 23 Stockholm, Sweden. I’ll take part in ARN’s process for disputes it accepts. ARN has minimum amounts for the disputes it hears. If you live elsewhere in the EU, or in Iceland or Norway, the European Consumer Centre in your country can also help.

Changes to these terms

I may update these terms, for example when Backdrop or the law changes. The effective date at the top shows the current version. A change applies to purchases made after its effective date, and never takes away anything you’ve already paid for, such as included updates, offline use of a one-time license or a launch price. For an active subscription, a change applies from the first renewal at least 30 days after I email you about it, and you can cancel before then.

Transfer of these terms

I may transfer these terms, and the licenses under them, to a person or company that takes over Backdrop. Your rights under them stay the same.

If part of these terms is invalid

If a court finds part of these terms invalid, the rest still applies.

Contact

Lukas Flyden · backdrop.support@proton.me · Ottilia Adelborgs Gata 6C, 371 57 Karlskrona, Sweden · +46 70 817 29 39