Terms and License
Version 2026-09-16, last updated 16 September 2026. These terms cover this website, the purchase of a LightningXL subscription, and the license 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 license to run the edition of the Software named on your receipt on one Mac at a time, with every update to that edition released during the subscription included. The current price is shown in 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. There is one edition today. If we later sell a second edition, a companion product or an optional module at its own price, that is a separate purchase, and section 9 says how it sits alongside what you have already paid for.
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 license 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 license 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 License window in the app. Canceling 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. License
We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to install and use the Software on one Mac per license key for as long as your subscription or trial is active. You may move the license to another Mac by deactivating the first, from the License window or the customer portal, as often as you need. An organization that buys several keys may assign each to one of its people or Macs. If you buy on behalf of a company or other organization, you confirm that you have the authority to bind it, and these terms apply to it. Your key is for you or your organization; do not publish it or share it with people outside your organization.
6. What you may not do
- Copy, sell, rent, sublicense or give the Software or a license key to anyone outside the license above.
- Reverse-engineer, decompile or disassemble the Software.
- Remove or bypass the license 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 currently 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, and separately sold editions
The Software checks once a day for a newer version and offers it to you; it does not install anything without your action. Updates to your edition released during your subscription are included and covered by this license, including features we add to that edition. We may change or remove features in an update. We decide which versions of macOS and Office the Software supports, and we may stop supporting a version once keeping it working is no longer commercially reasonable for us. Dropping support for a version is not a defect in the Software and does not by itself entitle you to a refund. The current requirements are in section 8 and on the website, and they may change in a later version.
We may also release a separate edition, companion product or optional module at an additional price. Such a release is its own purchase with its own license, not an update to yours, and nothing in these terms entitles you to it. Your subscription continues to work exactly as before whether or not you buy it.
What we will not do is take away what you are already paying for. A feature that is part of your edition when you pay for a year stays in your edition for that year; we will not move it behind an extra charge in the middle of a term you have paid for. If your edition is later replaced or repriced, section 3 applies: the change takes effect at your next renewal, Polar's renewal notice shows the new price, and you are free to cancel before it is charged.
10. Termination
The license 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 license 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 indemnify 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.
Each version keeps its own address, so the text you agreed to stays where it was: this one is at lightningxl.com/terms/2026-09-16. When you start the trial or activate a key, the app asks you to accept these terms and records the date and the version you accepted on your Mac, and the checkbox links to that version.
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.