Terms and Licence

Last updated 14 September 2026. These terms cover this website, the purchase of a LightningXL subscription, and the licence to use the software ("the Software"). By buying, installing or using the Software you agree to them. They are the whole agreement between you and Burnt Hill Data Ltd, doing business as LightningXL ("we"). How we handle your data is in the separate Privacy Policy.

1. What you are buying

A LightningXL subscription is an annual licence to run the Software on one Mac at a time, with every update released during the subscription included. The current price is shown on the pricing section and at checkout; it is $50 a year at the time of writing, in US dollars, plus any tax that applies where you are.

2. Free trial

Every install includes a 7-day free trial with the full feature set, under these same terms. No card is needed and nothing is charged. When the trial ends the Software stops working until a licence key is entered. You may not extend or circumvent the trial by any means.

3. Payment, renewal and cancellation

Purchases are processed by Polar Software Inc., our merchant of record, who charges your card, issues the receipt and licence key, and collects any tax due. The subscription is annual and paid up front for the year. It renews automatically each year at the then-current price, and Polar emails you before a renewal is charged.

You can cancel at any time from the customer portal linked in your receipt or from the Licence window in the app. Cancelling turns off renewal; the Software keeps working until the end of the year you have paid for, and no further charge is made. If we change the price, the new price applies from your next renewal and Polar's renewal notice will show it.

4. Refunds

The trial exists so that you can find out whether LightningXL works for you before paying. Even so, if within 14 days of your first purchase it does not work on your Mac and we cannot fix it, email hello@lightningxl.com and we will refund you in full. Otherwise refunds are at our discretion. Nothing here limits any refund rights the law gives you where you live.

5. Licence

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use the Software on one Mac per licence key for as long as your subscription or trial is active. You may move the licence to another Mac by deactivating the first, from the Licence window or the customer portal, as often as you need. An organisation that buys several keys may assign each to one of its people or Macs. If you buy on behalf of a company or other organisation, you confirm that you have the authority to bind it, and these terms apply to it. Your key is for you or your organisation; do not publish it or share it with people outside your organisation.

6. What you may not do

Copy, sell, rent, sublicense or give the Software or a licence key to anyone outside the licence above.
Reverse-engineer, decompile or disassemble the Software.
Remove or bypass the licence checks, or tamper with the trial.
Use the Software to build a competing product, or extract its key maps or macros to distribute separately.
Use the Software for anything unlawful.

If a key is being used in a way that breaks these terms, we may deactivate it after telling you.

7. Ownership

The Software is licensed, not sold. We and our licensors keep all rights in it, including its key maps, macros, artwork and documentation, and in the content of this website, including the shortcut guides. You may link to the site and quote from it with attribution. Your feedback and suggestions may be used to improve the Software without obligation to you.

8. What LightningXL needs, and Microsoft Office

The Software needs macOS 13 or later, the Microsoft 365 versions of Excel, Word and PowerPoint for Mac, Office set to English, and the macOS Accessibility permission, which it uses to read the Office ribbon and press its buttons for you. Excel asks once to enable the add-in. The Software never reads or transmits the contents of your documents; what it does send is set out in the Privacy Policy.

Microsoft Office is not included and is licensed separately by Microsoft under Microsoft's terms. Because the Software drives the Office ribbon, a change to Office by Microsoft can affect it; we work to keep up, and updates are included, but we cannot promise that every command works on every build of Office on every day. LightningXL is not affiliated with, endorsed by or supported by Microsoft or Apple. Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft 365 and macOS are trademarks of their owners. Macabacus, Capital IQ and Accelerator Keys are trademarks of their owners and are mentioned on this site only for comparison.

9. Updates

The Software checks once a day for a newer version and offers it to you; it does not install anything without your action. Updates released during your subscription are included and covered by this licence. We may change or remove features in an update, and we are not obliged to keep supporting versions of macOS or Office that their makers no longer support.

10. Termination

The licence ends when your subscription or trial ends, or if you break these terms, in which case we may deactivate your key after telling you. When it ends you must stop using the Software and remove it. Sections 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13 survive termination.

11. No warranty

The Software is provided "as is" and "as available". To the extent the law allows, we exclude every warranty, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability and non-infringement. We do not promise that the Software, the licence service or support will be available, uninterrupted or error-free.

12. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential loss, including lost profits or lost or corrupted data, and our total liability to you for anything arising from LightningXL is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Keep backups of your work; a shortcut that formats or pastes cells acts on your file exactly as if you had clicked the same ribbon button.

13. Indemnity

You will defend and compensate us against any claim, loss or cost, including reasonable legal fees, that arises from your use of the Software in breach of these terms or of the law, or from a key you were responsible for being used in that way.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The date at the top changes when we do, and a change that affects an existing subscription applies from its next renewal. If you do not agree with a change, cancel before the renewal and you will not be charged again.

15. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, and the courts of Ontario have jurisdiction over any dispute, without affecting consumer protections that apply where you live.

Contact

Burnt Hill Data Ltd, hello@lightningxl.com.