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Beta Terms

Beta terms are the rules for a vendor's unreleased features, such as beta, preview or early access. They often remove warranties, cut liability to a small amount and let the vendor change or end the feature at any time.

What are beta terms?

Beta terms are the rules for features a vendor has not fully released yet. Vendors call them beta, preview, pilot, early access or alpha. The terms often say these features come with fewer promises than the main product.

Beta terms can be a separate document or a section of the main agreement. Atlassian puts them in a "Free or Beta Products" section, which covers alpha, beta and early access offerings (Atlassian Customer Agreement, section 17). GitHub covers "Previews" in its additional product terms. HubSpot has a Beta Services section in its Product Specific Terms.

A real change we caught

Venpo flagged a change in which Supabase can now delete your data in beta features. In another case, Twilio's subprocessor list no longer covers its beta services; those providers are now named only in each feature's documentation. Both show that beta features can sit outside the protections and documents you rely on for the main product.

Why it matters to you

  • No warranty and little liability. Atlassian gives no warranty, indemnity, SLA or support for Free or Beta Products, and caps its total liability for them at US$100 (section 17.4). GitHub provides Previews "AS-IS" and caps its liability at US$500 in direct damages (GitHub). Compare that with the limitation of liability for the main product.
  • It can disappear. GitHub says it "may change or discontinue Previews at any time without notice" (GitHub). HubSpot says it may suspend or end Beta Services at any time without notice (HubSpot). If you build a workflow on a beta feature, it can break.
  • Compliance gaps. Notion states that "Any Beta Services are not covered by the BAA," so they cannot be used for health data (Notion). Beta features may also fall outside a SOC 2 scope or a DPA.

What to check

  • Find where the vendor's beta terms live and read the liability cap and warranty sections.
  • Check whether beta features are on by default, and whether an admin can block them.
  • Confirm whether beta features are covered by the DPA, BAA, SOC 2 report and subprocessor list.
  • Keep customer data, health data and production workflows out of beta features until they are generally available.
  • Note what happens to data in a beta feature when it ends.

How Venpo helps

Beta terms often sit in product terms or separate pages that change as features launch. Venpo monitors those public pages and emails you a plain-English alert when a vendor changes how beta features are covered, as with Supabase and Twilio.

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Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to use beta features with customer data?

Be careful. Beta features may not be covered by the vendor's DPA, security reports or subprocessor list, so check before any customer data goes in.

Can a vendor shut down a beta feature without notice?

Often yes. Many beta terms let the vendor change or end the feature at any time, sometimes without notice.

Related terms

Liability and Risk Warranty Disclaimer ("As Is") A warranty disclaimer is the clause where a vendor says it makes no promises about its service beyond the few it writes down, often with the words "as is," so bugs and outages are not by themselves a breach. Liability and Risk Limitation of Liability A limitation of liability clause caps how much a vendor must pay you if something goes wrong, often at the fees you paid over a set period, and excludes certain losses such as lost profits or data. Vendor Documents Service-Specific Terms Service-specific terms are extra contract rules for particular products or features of a vendor, kept on a separate page from the main agreement. They often cover usage limits, AI, beta features and service levels, and they can override the main terms. AI and Your Data AI Features Enabled by Default AI features enabled by default are new AI tools a vendor switches on in your account without asking first, so your data can start flowing to them before anyone has reviewed the terms. Security and Compliance SOC 2 Scope SOC 2 scope is the boundary of what a SOC 2 report covers: which products, systems, locations, legal entities, trust services categories and time period. Anything outside it was not examined, even if it carries the same brand.

Sources

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