Terms of Service

These Terms are the agreement between you and SnapHire. They cover how the marketplace works, what you pay, who owns the photos, and what each of us is responsible for. Please read them — by using SnapHire you agree to them.

1. Accepting these terms

By creating a SnapHire account, booking a session, listing yourself as a photographer, or otherwise using the SnapHire app or website (together, the "Service"), you agree to these Terms of Service and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

In these Terms, "SnapHire", "we", and "us" mean SnapHire LLC, a New York limited liability company. "You" means the person using the Service. A "Client" is someone who books a session. A "Photographer" is an independent professional who offers photography or videography services through the Service.

2. Who can use SnapHire

You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding contract to use SnapHire. The one exception: a Photographer under 18 may join only with the written consent of a parent or legal guardian, who agrees to these Terms with them and holds their payout account. Clients must be 18 or older. If a session involves a minor as a subject, a parent or legal guardian must book it and be present or provide consent.

You may not use SnapHire if we have previously suspended or removed your account, or if doing so would break any law that applies to you.

3. Your account

You can create an account with your email address or by using Sign in with Apple or Google. You agree to give accurate information and to keep it current. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account, so keep your credentials private and let us know promptly at support@snaphire.io if you suspect someone else has access to it.

One person, one account. Do not impersonate anyone, and do not create an account on someone else's behalf without their permission.

4. What SnapHire is — and what it is not

Photographers on SnapHire are independent contractors running their own businesses. They set their own rates, choose which work to accept, decide when they are available, use their own equipment, control how they shoot and edit, and are free to offer their services outside SnapHire. Each Photographer is solely responsible for the services they deliver, for the quality of their work, for their own taxes, insurance, licenses, and permits, and for complying with the laws that apply to their business.

The contract for a photography or videography session is between the Client and the Photographer. SnapHire is not a party to it. We provide the platform that makes it easy to find each other, agree on terms, and pay securely.

We do our best to keep the marketplace trustworthy — profiles show real portfolios, ratings, and reviews — but we do not guarantee any Photographer's skill, punctuality, credentials, insurance, or the outcome of any session. By accepting these Terms, Photographers confirm to us that they hold the licenses and insurance these Terms require, and we do not independently verify it.

5. Booking and confirmation

Some Photographers take bookings instantly; others confirm each request first, and the booking screen says which before you tap. Instant booking: when you tap Pay, you make a binding booking at the price and time shown, your payment method is charged, and your session is confirmed when the payment goes through. Request to book: before you tap Request this date, the booking screen tells you how payment works for that request. If it says we will hold your card, we place a hold on your payment method for the full total shown. A hold is not a charge. If the Photographer accepts, the held amount is charged and your session is confirmed. If they decline, if you withdraw, or if they do not answer within 48 hours, the hold is released and nothing is charged; your bank may take a few days to remove it. If it says you pay after they accept, nothing is held: if the Photographer accepts, you pay in the app, and your session is confirmed when the payment goes through. Until a session is confirmed, either side can withdraw the request.

Your booking confirmation will show the session type, date, start time, duration, location, and total price. Anything not described in the booking — extra hours, travel outside the stated area, prints, albums, rush delivery, or a second shooter — is not included unless you and the Photographer agree to it separately.

Delivery timelines for edited photos are set by each Photographer and shown on their profile or agreed in your messages. If nothing is stated, the industry-standard expectation is delivery within 14 days of the session.

6. Fees and payments

Payments are processed by Stripe. Your card details go directly to Stripe; SnapHire never sees or stores your full card number. Photographer payouts are handled through Stripe Connect, and using SnapHire to get paid means also accepting the Stripe Connected Account Agreement.

What Clients pay

Clients pay the Photographer's listed session price plus a 5% service fee, which is shown clearly at checkout before you confirm. The service fee covers secure payments, support, and running the platform. The total you see before you tap to book is the total you are charged.

What Photographers pay

Photographers pay a platform fee of 8% on the first $2,000 of a booking and 5% on any part above $2,000, and only when the booking is paid. It is deducted automatically: on a $500 session a Photographer keeps $460, and on a $3,500 session the fee is $235. There are no listing fees, no monthly fees, no lead fees, and no charge for creating a profile.

Clients you bring

When a client books you through your own personal SnapHire link, you pay a lower platform fee of 2% on that booking, in place of your standard fee. The 2% covers the whole booking, including any part above $2,000. Your personal link is the one SnapHire gives you for your page; it ends in a short code. You can share it anywhere, and you can ask us for a new one at any time, which turns the old one off.

The 2% rate applies to bookings made through your link on or before June 30, 2027 at 11:59 PM New York time. A booking made by then keeps the 2% even if the shoot or the payment happens later. Bookings made after that date are charged your standard fee, unless we tell you before then that the 2% rate continues. Your standard fee and your locked rate stay exactly as they are, before, during and after this rate.

Clients SnapHire finds for you stay on your standard fee. SnapHire decides, when the booking is made and from its own records, whether it came through your link. If a client had already booked you, sent you a request, or messaged you through SnapHire before they first used your link, SnapHire found them, and their bookings are charged your standard fee even if they later use the link. A client whose first booking with you came through your link counts as your client for later bookings through the link.

If a booking got the 2% rate by mistake, or the link was used to get around the standard fee, we may charge that booking your standard fee. We do that before the payout is sent, or by taking the difference from a later payout, and we tell you when we do.

Your client pays the same either way: your price plus the 5% service fee shown at checkout. SnapHire never charges you Stripe's card processing fees or payout fees, on these bookings or any other. SnapHire pays them out of its own share, and you receive your price minus the platform fee. The 2% rate can only lower what you pay. If you are a founding member still in your three free months, you keep 0%.

Founding members

Any Photographer who joined SnapHire during the founding window is a founding member: a 0% platform fee for their first three months, counted from the day they joined, and their 8% rate locked permanently after that. The founding window closed on September 30, 2026 at 11:59 PM New York time. Photographers who join after that date pay the standard rate from day one, locked at the rate in force the day they join. Founding status applies to the Photographer's platform fee only; the Client's 5% service fee still applies to their bookings.

Your rate is locked

The platform fee you agree to when you join is the fee you keep, for as long as you stay on SnapHire. If we raise the standard platform fee, that new rate applies only to Photographers and studios who join after the change. Your rate does not move. When we lower a fee, as we did on October 1, 2026 for the part of a booking above $2,000, the lower fee applies to everyone automatically. The own-client rate described under "Clients you bring" is a separate, lower rate on one kind of booking, with its own end date. It is not your locked rate, and when it ends your locked rate does not change.

This is not a promotion and it does not expire. For founding members it means the 8% that begins after your three free months is your rate permanently — not a starting rate. We enforce this in the software itself: your agreed rate is recorded on your account when you join and every booking is charged against that recorded rate, not against whatever the current standard happens to be.

Taxes and currency

All prices are in U.S. dollars. Photographers are responsible for determining, collecting, and remitting any sales or other taxes that apply to their services, and for their own income taxes. SnapHire does not withhold taxes on a Photographer's behalf.

7. Cancellations and refunds

Plans change, and we try to be fair to both sides — a Client should not lose their money without cause, and a Photographer who holds a date and turns down other work should not absorb a last-minute cancellation for free.

If a Client cancels

• More than 48 hours before the session start time: full refund of the session price and the service fee.
• Within 48 hours of the session start time: 50% of the session price is refunded; the remainder is paid to the Photographer for the reserved time. The 5% service fee is refunded.
• Within 24 hours of the session start time, after the session has started, or a no-show: no refund; the session price is paid to the Photographer for the reserved time.
• Weather: outdoor sessions may be rescheduled once, free of charge, by either side when conditions make the shoot unreasonable. A weather reschedule is not a cancellation.

A Photographer may offer terms more generous than these on their profile or in writing through in-app messages. Where they do, their terms apply.

If a Photographer cancels

If a Photographer cancels for any reason, the Client receives a full refund of everything paid, including the service fee. We will also help you find a replacement Photographer where we can. Photographers who cancel repeatedly, arrive late, or do not show up may be removed from the marketplace.

How refunds are issued

Refunds go back to the original payment method through Stripe. Once issued, they typically appear within 5–10 business days depending on your bank.

Chargebacks: we handle them, and we cover the first $1,000

A chargeback is different from a refund: it happens when a Client disputes a completed payment with their own bank, sometimes weeks after the session. The bank reverses the payment before anyone has a chance to explain.

If you delivered the session, we handle the dispute, and we cover the first $1,000. We take on the dispute with the bank ourselves, using the booking record, your message thread, and the delivered work as evidence, and we pay the dispute fees. If the bank still sides with the Client, SnapHire covers the first $1,000 of what the bank takes back. We never take that part back from you, and we never deduct it from your future bookings.

If the bank takes back more than $1,000, we may take the rest back from your payout for that booking. You always keep the first $1,000 of that payout, or all of it if it was $1,000 or less. We do this only after the bank has decided against us, by reversing that booking's payout through Stripe. If that money has already been paid out to you, Stripe may collect it from the bank account your payouts go to, or take it out of your next SnapHire payouts until it is repaid. If the bank later changes its decision in our favor, we pay you back. For a booking paid to a studio, all of this applies to the studio's payout.

This limit is per booking. It applies to bookings confirmed on or after October 23, 2026, New York time. A booking is confirmed when the Client's payment goes through. For bookings confirmed before that date, nothing changes: if you delivered the session, you keep your whole payout, whatever the amount, and we will not deduct a disputed amount from your future bookings.

Two things we ask in return. Keep your communication with Clients inside SnapHire, because those messages are the evidence that wins a dispute. And respond within 5 business days if we ask you for details about a disputed session.

This protection covers sessions you actually delivered. It does not cover payments obtained through fraud or misrepresentation by a Photographer, for example a session that never took place, or work delivered by someone other than the booked Photographer without the Client's agreement.

If something goes wrong

If a session does not happen as booked, or the delivered work is materially different from what was agreed, contact us at support@snaphire.io within 14 days of the session date. We will review the booking and messages and work with both sides to reach a fair outcome, which may include a partial or full refund. Because SnapHire is not the provider of the photography services, we are not liable for the quality of a Photographer's work, but we will use the tools we have — refunds, mediation, and removal from the platform — to keep the marketplace honest.

8. Photographer obligations

If you offer services through SnapHire, you agree to:

• Show up on time, prepared, and deliver the session you agreed to.
• Keep your profile, rates, availability, and portfolio accurate and current.
• Post only your own work in your portfolio. Passing off someone else's photographs as your own is grounds for immediate removal.
• Deliver edited images within the timeframe you advertised or agreed.
• Hold any licenses and permits your work requires, and follow the laws that apply to it.
• Carry commercial general liability insurance of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence, at your own expense, and keep it in force while you are accepting bookings on SnapHire. You choose the insurer and the policy yourself, the same way you choose your own equipment.
• Communicate through SnapHire, and treat Clients professionally and respectfully.
• Complete Stripe Connect onboarding, including the identity verification Stripe requires, before receiving payouts.

Because you are an independent contractor and not an employee, you do not receive employee benefits, tax withholding, workers' compensation, or unemployment insurance from SnapHire.

9. Photos, copyright, and licensing

What the Client gets

On full payment, the Client receives a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, reproduce, display, and share the delivered images for personal, non-commercial purposes — prints, albums, social media, personal websites, and gifts. Clients who booked for a business purpose (real estate listings, branding, product, or commercial work) receive the same licence extended to advertising and promoting that business.

Unless the Photographer agrees in writing, a Client may not resell or license the images to third parties, use them in a way that suggests the Photographer endorses a product or cause, or claim authorship of them. Clients should not remove a Photographer's watermark or credit where one is applied.

What the Photographer keeps

The Photographer retains copyright and may display the work in their SnapHire portfolio and their own marketing, unless the Client asks in writing for privacy. Clients can always ask a Photographer not to publish images of them, and Photographers should honour reasonable requests, particularly for private events, children, and medical or otherwise sensitive settings.

What SnapHire may use

By posting portfolio images to SnapHire, Photographers grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display, host, resize, and reproduce those images for the purpose of operating and promoting the marketplace — in the app, on our website, and in our own marketing. You keep your copyright, and you can revoke this licence for future use by removing the images or deleting your account. You confirm you have the rights and any necessary subject permissions for everything you upload.

10. Reviews and user content

Reviews may be left only by Clients who completed a real booking, and should be an honest account of your experience. We do not remove reviews for being critical. We may remove content that is false, defamatory, harassing, discriminatory, contains personal information about someone else, or was posted in exchange for compensation. Photographers may not offer anything of value in return for a positive review, and may not review themselves or their competitors.

You keep ownership of the messages, reviews, and photos you post. You grant us the licence needed to display them within the Service as described above.

11. Acceptable use

Use SnapHire in good faith. You agree not to:

• Take payment or arrange bookings off-platform to avoid fees, when the connection was made on SnapHire.
• Harass, threaten, discriminate against, or endanger anyone.
• Post unlawful, hateful, sexually explicit, or deliberately misleading content.
• Use SnapHire for anything illegal, or to shoot content that is illegal to produce.
• Misrepresent who you are, your qualifications, or your work.
• Scrape, reverse engineer, overload, or interfere with the Service or its security.
• Use the Service to send spam or unsolicited marketing to other users.

Safety comes first for both sides. Meet in sensible locations, tell someone where you will be, and report anyone who makes you feel unsafe to support@snaphire.io.

12. Deleting your account, suspension, and termination

You can stop using SnapHire at any time, and you can have your account and personal data deleted whenever you want.

You can delete your account directly in the app: open Settings, then tap Delete Account. This immediately removes your profile, portfolio images, and messages. If you are unable to sign in, email support@snaphire.io from the email address on your account and we will delete it within 30 days. In either case, deletion is permanent: your profile, portfolio, and messages cannot be restored afterwards. Booking records are retained in anonymised form — stripped of the identifiers that link them to you — because payment and tax records are records we and Stripe are legally required to keep.

Before deleting an account, please complete or cancel any upcoming bookings. Deleting your account does not cancel a confirmed booking on its own, and does not release you from obligations already incurred — a Photographer still owes delivery of a shoot already paid for, and cancellation terms still apply.

We may suspend or terminate an account that breaks these Terms, creates risk for other users, or is used fraudulently. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will tell you why and give you a chance to respond. If we terminate your account, we will still pay out any money you have properly earned and settle any refunds owed.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination — licensing, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and dispute resolution — continue to apply after your account ends.

13. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, SnapHire disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that any Photographer or Client will perform as expected. We do not guarantee the quality, safety, legality, or suitability of any session, any Photographer, or any images delivered. Photographer profiles, ratings, and reviews are provided by users, and while we take steps to keep them genuine, we do not independently verify every claim.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, SnapHire will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, lost opportunities, or loss of goodwill, arising from or relating to your use of the Service — including a missed or unsatisfactory session, images that were not captured, delivered, or preserved, or the conduct of any user.

Our total liability to you for any claim arising from or relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the total fees SnapHire actually retained from the booking that gave rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law.

You agree to indemnify and hold SnapHire harmless from claims, damages, and reasonable legal costs arising from your use of the Service, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of anyone else's rights — including claims about content you uploaded or services you delivered.

15. Disputes and governing law

Most problems are solved quickly by talking to us. Please email support@snaphire.io first and give us 30 days to work it out — we read every message, and the great majority of disputes end there.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in New York, and you and SnapHire each consent to the jurisdiction of those courts. Nothing here prevents either of us from bringing a qualifying claim in small claims court.

Disputes between a Client and a Photographer about a session are, at their core, between those two parties. We will help by providing booking records and mediating in good faith, and we can issue refunds where they are warranted, but we are not obliged to become a party to a dispute between users.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms as SnapHire grows. When we make a meaningful change, we will update the date at the top of this page and, where the change materially affects your rights, give you notice in the app or by email before it takes effect. Continuing to use the Service after a change means you accept the updated Terms. Fee changes never apply retroactively to bookings that are already confirmed.

17. Other details

If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Our not enforcing a provision on one occasion is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms without our consent; we may transfer ours as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and SnapHire regarding the Service.

18. Contact

Questions about these Terms, or anything else:

• General — hello@snaphire.io
• Support and bookings — support@snaphire.io
• Privacy and data requests — support@snaphire.io

SnapHire · snaphire.io · New York, USA