Last updated: 19 July 2026
1.1 TideButBetter (the “Service”) is a tide and tidal-current visualisation web application operated by Obtanium Software Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17327621) with its registered office at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom, WC2H 9JQ (“we”, “us”, “our”).
1.2 You can contact us at legal@tidebutbetter.com. If we need to contact you, we will use the email address you provide to us or another means appropriate to your use of the Service.
1.3 Complaints. If you have a complaint about the Service, contact us at legal@tidebutbetter.com: we will acknowledge it promptly and do our best to resolve it as quickly as we can. We do not currently participate in an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme, so if our final response does not resolve your complaint, no ADR arrangement is available through us and you remain free to bring a claim in court (§16.8). Complaints about personal data are handled as described in our Privacy Policy.
2.1 These Terms of Use, together with our Privacy Policy, govern your access to and use of the Service. Please read them carefully.
2.2 By accessing or using the Service — whether or not you create an account — you confirm that you accept these terms and agree to comply with them. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.
2.3 Some features depend on third-party data and platforms; your use of those features may also be subject to the relevant third party’s terms (see §11).
3.1 What the Service does. The Service displays: (a) a worldwide tide-height layer reconstructed from a published harmonic tidal model; (b) higher-resolution animated tidal-current “streams” produced by numerical simulation for selected areas; (c) a tide-height graph over time; and (d) a place-search bar to navigate the map. All output is presented for general information, planning and educational purposes only.
3.2 It is a model, not a measurement. The tide heights and currents shown are predictions generated by mathematical models from third-party source data. They are not live observations and do not account for actual weather, surge, atmospheric pressure, wind, local bathymetric effects, or other conditions that materially affect real water levels and currents.
3.3 Coverage and currency. Coverage, resolution and the time period of available data vary by location and may change. Data may not be current at the moment you view it.
3.4 Changes and availability. The Service is provided on an evolving basis. We may add, change, suspend, restrict or discontinue all or part of the Service, or any feature or data set, at any time, with or without notice. We do not guarantee that the Service will be available, uninterrupted or error-free.
4.1 Eligibility. You must be at least 16 years old to use the Service, and legally capable of entering into a binding contract.
4.2 Accounts. Some features may require an account. If account functionality is enabled, you agree to provide accurate and complete information, to keep it up to date, and to keep your login credentials confidential. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account. Tell us promptly at legal@tidebutbetter.com if you believe your account has been used without your authorisation.
4.3 We may refuse, suspend or remove an account, or restrict access to the Service, where we reasonably believe these terms or applicable law have been breached, or to protect the Service, other users or third parties.
This is the most important provision in these terms.
5.1 Intended use. The Service is a planning, training and tactical-analysis aid for sailing, including racing: it helps you study predicted tidal streams and heights when preparing for, and reviewing, time on the water.
5.2 Not for navigation or safety of life. The Service is not a navigational aid and must not be used or relied on for navigation, collision avoidance, position fixing, passage planning, the safety of life at sea, or any decision on which the safety of persons, vessels or property depends. It is not a substitute for, and must not be relied upon in place of, official hydrographic and meteorological products — including official charts, Admiralty Tide Tables and tidal-stream atlases, official tidal predictions for your port, and official forecasts, warnings and Notices to Mariners issued by the relevant national authorities.
5.3 Always cross-check official sources. Before going afloat — including to race or train — you must consult official, up-to-date sources and use proper seamanship. You remain solely responsible for assessing conditions and risks and for your own decisions and those of anyone in your care.
5.4 Insure your vessel. Loss of or damage to any vessel, and liability to other water users, are risks you must insure against: hull and third-party cover is customary for cruising and required for most organised racing (RYA and World Sailing racing rules). The Service is not a substitute for insurance, and §12 allocates these insurable risks to you accordingly.
5.5 Predicted data only. As set out in §3.2, all tide and current information is modelled and may be inaccurate, incomplete, delayed or unavailable. We do not interpret the underlying data and we make no representation that it is correct, accurate or fit for any particular purpose.
5.6 Third-party source data. The Service processes and visualises data supplied by third parties (see §11). We accept no responsibility for the correctness or accuracy of that source data, whether towards you or any third party. This clause does not limit your statutory rights or our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence (see §12).
6.1 When you use the search bar, your query is sent to a third-party geocoding provider (Stadia Maps’ geocoding service) to find matching places. Results are provided by that third party and we do not guarantee their accuracy. You must not use the search feature to make automated, bulk or excessive requests.
7.1 Free and paid features. Parts of the Service are free. We also offer paid annual subscription plans (“Sailor” and “Pro”) — which, depending on the plan, include access to solved data, an allowance of on-demand high-resolution simulations, and data (GRIB) export (see §10.5 for what you may do with exported data) — and commissioned public simulations charged per day of coverage. The features and price of each plan are as described in the Service at the time of purchase, and any charge will be made clear before you commit to pay.
7.2 Who you buy from, and who takes your payment. When you buy a paid plan or a commissioned simulation, your contract for what you buy is with us, Obtanium Software Limited. Your purchase is sold through Onelink, Stripe’s merchant-of-record service, acting on our behalf: Onelink takes your payment, collects and remits any applicable taxes (the prices we show include them), issues your receipt and any invoice or credit note in its own name, and handles payment support, refunds and disputes under Onelink’s own terms, which are presented to you at checkout. Paying Onelink fully discharges what you owe us for that purchase. We never see or store your card or payment details.
Onelink may show prices in your local currency at checkout, and your payment will
appear on your statement as an Onelink reference such as
LINK.COM* TIDEBUTBETTER. For anything about
a payment, receipt, refund or renewal, use your billing page or Onelink’s support;
for anything about the Service itself, contact us at
legal@tidebutbetter.com.
7.3 Price changes. We set the prices, and may change them for future purchases at any time. For an existing subscription, a price change takes effect no earlier than your next renewal. We will give you at least 30 days’ notice of a price increase before it first applies to you — by a notice in the Service (your account or billing area) — and the renewal reminder Onelink sends before the charge will also show the new amount and how to cancel before it takes effect. We will not treat your silence or continued use alone as acceptance of a price increase within a period you have already paid for.
7.4 Subscriptions, renewals and how to cancel. A subscription renews automatically for successive yearly periods unless cancelled before the end of the current period. Onelink sends you a reminder before each renewal, telling you the renewal date and the amount you will be charged (see §7.3 for how we give notice of any price increase). You can cancel auto-renewal online at any time from the account menu (“Manage billing”, which opens the Onelink customer portal); cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for, and no phone call or letter is needed.
7.5 Allowances and credits. Plan allowances and any credits have no cash value and are non-transferable, and we may set, and change, the allowance or credit cost of any feature. Credits already spent on simulations we have performed are not refundable except where the law requires. Unspent allowance does not reduce any refund you are entitled to: those refunds are calculated on the price you paid and the time or services supplied, not on credits.
7.6 Cancelling a purchase and refunds. Because Onelink takes your payment as merchant of record, cancellation of a purchase, and any refund, are handled by Onelink on our behalf, and Onelink can refund a charge for up to 60 days. If you are a consumer, you keep your legal right to cancel a distance purchase within 14 days without giving a reason (Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013); where a plan or simulation is supplied to you straight away at your request, that right may end once the supply is complete, as consumer law allows. To cancel a purchase or ask for a refund, use your billing page or Onelink’s support; you can also contact us at legal@tidebutbetter.com and we will help. This section is about cancelling a purchase and getting your money back; your rights if the Service itself is faulty or not as described are dealt with in §12 and are unaffected. Cancelling a purchase or turning off auto-renewal does not by itself close your account or end these terms.
7.7 Maintenance. We may, but are not obliged to, maintain, support, update or upgrade paid features beyond what the law requires, and we may interrupt them for maintenance.
8.1 You agree not to, and not to attempt to:
For the purposes of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, your authorisation to access the Service and its data is limited to access through the official web application, for your own on-screen use in accordance with these terms. Automated bulk retrieval, extraction or misuse of any decryption key, token or credential, access on behalf of a non-permitted third party, and any access after your account is suspended or terminated, are all outside that authorisation and are unauthorised access.
8.2 Protected Data and technical protection measures. Parts of the Service’s data — including high-resolution stream tiles, GRIB and other binary export files, and other simulation outputs (“Protected Data”) — are supplied in encrypted or encoded form and/or gated by access controls tied to your account or plan (“Technical Protection Measures”). Except to the extent your plan expressly licenses the relevant data for the relevant use, you must not, and must not attempt, encourage, enable or assist anyone else to:
8.3 Relationship with the law. The restrictions in this section are contractual and are in addition to — not in place of — our rights and remedies under applicable law, including: the civil anti-circumvention and anti-device provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (sections 296ZA and 296ZD, which apply to technological measures protecting both copyright works and our UK database right, and bind people who never agreed to these terms); the criminal offences in section 296ZB of that Act in respect of devices and services for circumventing measures protecting copyright works (which include the Service’s software, shaders, tile formats and schemas, and rendered cartography — see §10.1); our UK database right in the Service’s compiled and computed datasets (§10.4); and the Computer Misuse Act 1990 (unauthorised access to computer material — see §8.1). Nothing in this section excludes or limits any right you have under mandatory law that cannot be excluded by contract, including your rights in respect of computer programs under sections 50B, 50BA and 296A of the 1988 Act and, to the extent it applies, the lawful-user right to extract or re-utilise insubstantial parts of a database under regulation 19 of the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997; for the avoidance of doubt, the computer-program rights concern software and do not license the decryption, extraction or use of Protected Data.
8.4 Breach. A breach of this section 8 is a material breach and may result in immediate suspension or termination of your access and cancellation of any plan or remaining allowance, without refund except where the law requires one. You acknowledge that a breach of section 8.2 may cause us harm that damages alone cannot adequately remedy, and that we may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in addition to any other remedy. The restrictions in section 8.2 (including on the use of data already obtained) survive termination.
9.1 The Service does not provide a facility to post expressive content (text, photos, comments) publicly. The information you submit is operational — for example search queries and the geographic areas and dates you request simulations for. Some simulation results are public: results that we commission or designate as public are visible to all users of the Service. We handle your information as described in our Privacy Policy.
9.2 If you send us feedback, suggestions or other ideas, you agree we may use them without restriction and without any obligation to you.
9.3 If we later introduce features that let you post or share content, additional terms (including a licence from you to us to host and display that content) will apply and will be presented to you at that time.
10.1 Our rights. The Service, including its software, shaders, tile formats and data schemas, design, text, graphics, rendered cartography and look and feel — but excluding third-party source data and the underlying map data (see §11) — is owned by us or our licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws, including copyright. The name “TideButBetter” and our logo are our marks.
10.2 Your licence. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Service, in accordance with these terms, for your own use in connection with recreational and competitive sailing — including race preparation, tactical analysis, training and post-event review. Using the Service to provide services to others (for example paid coaching or team-analysis services), or within any other product or service, requires our prior written consent or a plan that expressly permits it. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.
10.3 No redistribution licence. Except as expressly stated (including the export licence in §10.5), we do not grant you any right to copy, redistribute, publish or commercially exploit the Service or its data or imagery. If we later publish terms for embedding visualisations, those terms will govern that use.
10.4 UK database right. The compiled tidal datasets and simulation outputs made available through the Service are databases in which we (or our licensors) own UK database right under the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997. Except as expressly licensed under these terms or your plan, you must not extract or re-utilise the whole or a substantial part of any such database, or repeatedly and systematically extract or re-utilise insubstantial parts of it. This clause does not exclude the lawful-user right in regulation 19 of those Regulations to the extent it applies and cannot be excluded.
10.5 Export licence (GRIB and similar files). Where your plan includes data export, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to download and use the exported files for your own use in connection with recreational and competitive sailing — including loading them into your own routing or weather software for pre-departure planning, training and post-event analysis. §5 always applies to exported data too: it is a modelled prediction, it must not be relied on for navigation or any safety decision afloat, and you must check official sources. You must not publish, redistribute, resell or otherwise make exported files or their contents available to any third party, or use them (or permit them to be used) to create, train, calibrate, verify or improve any other product, service, dataset or model. This licence ends when your plan ends; the restrictions in this clause survive.
11.1 The Service relies on third-party data and platforms, each of which has its own licence and terms, including:
11.2 We attribute these sources within the Service as their licences require, and you must not remove that attribution. We do not control, and are not responsible for, third-party data or services, and your use of features that depend on them may also be governed by the relevant third party’s terms.
12.1 “As is”. Subject always to §12.2 — which preserves your statutory rights and the liabilities we do not exclude — and to the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service and all data and content in it are provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranty of any kind, whether express or implied, including any implied warranties or terms as to accuracy, completeness, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, uninterrupted availability or non-infringement. No information you obtain from us creates any warranty not expressly stated here.
12.2 What we do not exclude. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes, in particular, our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, your statutory remedies as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (including the digital-content quality remedies, the requirement of reasonable care and skill, and any remedy under section 46 for damage to your device or other digital content), and any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law. The caps in §12.4 do not apply to anything in this §12.2. Your statutory rights as a consumer are not affected by these terms.
12.3 What we exclude (subject to §12.2). Because the Service is provided for general information only and is expressly not for navigation or safety of life (§5), and because loss of or damage to a vessel is an insurable risk allocated to you (§5.4), we will not be liable to you for: (a) any loss arising from your reliance on the Service or its data for navigation, passage planning, safety, or any decision affecting persons or property, including loss of or damage to any vessel; (b) any loss that was not foreseeable to both you and us when the contract was made; (c) any loss that was not caused by our breach; or (d) if you are a consumer, any business loss (and if you use the Service in the course of a business: loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill or anticipated savings, and indirect or consequential loss).
12.4 Cap. Subject always to §12.2, and separately for each 12-month period, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or in connection with the Service and these terms in that period, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, is limited to: (a) if you are a consumer — the greater of (i) the total amounts paid for the Service in that period (including for any commissioned simulation, and whether paid to us or to Onelink as merchant of record) and (ii) £250; and (b) if you use the Service in the course of a business — the total amounts paid for the Service in that period, and if nothing has been paid in that period our total liability to you as a business user (subject always to §12.2) is nil; the £250 floor in (a) means a consumer’s cap is never nil. This allocation reflects that the Service is free or low-cost at the point of use, that the risks that matter afloat are ones you can and should insure (§5.4), and that a business paid tier with a genuine cap is available. If a court finds this cap unenforceable in a particular case, it will apply to the maximum extent that it lawfully can.
12.5 Sole remedy. If you are dissatisfied with the Service, your sole and exclusive remedy (subject to §12.2 and your statutory rights) is to stop using it.
13.1 This section does not apply to consumers. If you use the Service in the course of a business, you agree, to the extent permitted by law (and excluding matters covered by §12.2), to indemnify us and hold us harmless against reasonable claims, losses, liabilities and costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of the Service, or your violation of any law or the rights of any third party. If you are a consumer, nothing in these terms requires you to compensate us beyond what the general law already provides.
14.1 You may stop using the Service at any time and, if you have an account, may close it.
14.2 We may suspend or end your access to the Service, with or without notice, if you breach these terms or applicable law, if your use may create liability for us or others, or if we withdraw the Service.
14.3 Survival. Sections 5 (Safety), 8 (Acceptable use, including the Protected Data and anti-circumvention provisions), 9.2 (Feedback), 10 (IP, including UK database right and the §10.5 export restrictions), 11 (Third-party data), 12 (Disclaimers/Liability), 13 (Indemnity), 14 (this section) and 16 (General) survive termination.
15.1 You agree that we may give you notices and other communications relating to the Service electronically, including by email to the address associated with your use of the Service, or by posting them within the Service. Notices to us must be sent to legal@tidebutbetter.com and take effect when received.
16.1 Changes to these terms. We may update these terms only for the following reasons: to reflect changes in the law or regulatory guidance; to reflect changes required by our data or service providers’ licences; to cover new features or products; to improve clarity; or to make changes to pricing structure that take effect from your next renewal (§7.3). We will post the updated terms with a new “last updated” date. Minor changes (clarity, new-feature coverage that does not reduce your rights) take effect when published. Material changes work like this: we will give you at least 30 days’ notice in the Service (and, where we can, by other means), and if you are signed in you will be asked to accept the updated terms before continuing to use your account. If you do not accept, you may close your account, and if you have a subscription we will arrange a pro-rata refund of the unused part of the period you have paid for. Because refunds for your purchase are handled by Onelink as merchant of record, that refund is made through Onelink where its refund window allows and otherwise by other means we arrange. We will not treat your silence or continued use alone as acceptance of a material change.
16.2 Entire agreement. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service and supersede any prior arrangement, except for any separate written agreement we make with you for a specific purpose.
16.3 Severability. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the rest remains in effect, and the invalid provision will be applied as far as it lawfully can to reflect its original intent.
16.4 No waiver. A failure or delay by us in enforcing any provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
16.5 Assignment. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation (for example, on a reorganisation or sale of the business); your rights will not be affected. You may not transfer your rights or obligations without our consent.
16.6 Third-party rights. No one other than you and us has any right to enforce these terms.
16.7 Interpretation. “Including” and “for example” are not words of limitation.
16.8 Governing law and jurisdiction. These terms and any dispute arising out of them are governed by the law of England and Wales, and you and we agree to the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. If you are a consumer, you keep the benefit of any mandatory protections, and the right to bring proceedings in the courts, of the country where you live; and if we bring proceedings against you as a consumer, we will do so in the courts of the country where you live.
17.1 We process personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable data protection law, including the UK GDPR and, where it applies, the EU GDPR. Please read it to understand how we handle your information and your rights.