Terms of Service

The following terms of service ("Terms") govern all use of SpareCores.com (herein referred to as the "Website"), and all other content, services, and products available under the subdomains of the Website and SpareCores.net (hereinafter: “Service” or "Services"). Spare Cores provides its Services to those acting in the course of or for the purposes of their business or professional activities.

The Website and Services are owned and operated by Spare Cores Kft. (registered seat: 1037 Budapest, Montevideo utca 9., Hungary; Hungarian company registration number: 01-09-449632; court of registration: Company Registry Court of Budapest-Capital Regional Court; tax number: 32922655-2-41; hereinafter: "Spare Cores" or “We” or “Us”).

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing and using the Website and Services, the user ("User" or “you”) agrees to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree with any of these Terms, then you may not access the Website or use any Services.

Additional terms and conditions, beyond those stated here, may apply to certain Services. When ordering or before using these Services, you will be given an opportunity to review the additional terms and conditions that you must accept. If the additional terms and conditions conflict with these Terms in any way, the additional terms and conditions will prevail.

2. Registration

All Users can access the Website without creating an account.

For a better browsing experience, Users can register at the Website to permanently set their website preferences (e.g. the currency used for server prices), create list(s) of servers for comparison, browse their past server queries etc. Registered Users can access relevant data and information more conveniently and quickly, and only registered Users can receive personalized recommendations and offers from Spare Cores.

For Users wishing to utilize the Spare Cores Sentinel platform and stream resource utilization data via the Spare Cores Resource Tracker, registration of either a free or a commercial account is required. After registration, Users may generate API keys to facilitate the secure transmission of data into the Spare Cores ecosystem. This account access enables Users to view data, access computed performance statistics within the Spare Cores Sentinel platform, and receive automated recommendations to right-size their services and optimize compute efficiency.

3. Description of Services

3.1. General: Spare Cores is a cloud-optimization ecosystem providing proprietary database, open-source and commercial data, tools, and services to help data science, ML, AI, data, and other teams maximize compute efficiency. Spare Cores operates the proprietary database and provides access to it as a service (SaaS) over the Internet on a subscription basis or a free license.

We reduce infrastructure costs through data-driven insights and automation, while offering a suite of open-source and commercial data and tools for Users who prefer to self-serve and right-size their workloads across diverse cloud environments.

3.2. The Website serves as the primary platform for sharing information about Spare Cores and our Services. Services, which are provided as software as a service, may include, but are not limited to:

3.2.1. Spare Cores Navigator: A standardized ecosystem for cloud server evaluation and comparison consisting of:

1. Database: A comprehensive, standardized dataset of cloud server information created, collected, curated, and maintained by Spare Cores, including hardware specs, pricing, and performance benchmarks.
2. Public API: A programmatic interface provided for querying the Spare Cores Navigator database.
3. Website interface: A web-based search and comparison engine integrated into our Website for manual exploration.

3.2.2. Spare Cores Advisor: It is the smart search tool for Spare Cores Navigator database, which implements Website integration via API to generate ranked, explainable resource allocation recommendations.

3.2.4. Spare Cores Sentinel: A centralized governance platform featuring dashboards and proactive alerts to help teams operationalize cloud optimization and enforce cost-efficiency policies. Only registered Users have access to this Service and receive recommendations from Spare Cores.

3.2.5. Open-Source Ecosystem: Beyond our core Services, Spare Cores maintains a variety of open-source tools – such as Spare Cores Resource Tracker enabling engineers to measure real-time CPU, GPU, and memory utilization at the workload step level – and repositories (available at github.com/sparecores), such as all collected raw data in the sc-inspector-data (including hardware inspection results and benchmark outputs) and sc-data-dumps (including vendor API ingestion results) GitHub repositories. The terms of use are governed by the license specified for the respective repository. These typically include the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL 2.0) for software, and the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) for creative works. Open source software shall be and shall remain subject to the terms and conditions under which it is provided. For more information on such licenses, please visit Mozilla Public License and Creative Commons License.

3.3. Amendment: We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or terminate any content element of the Service, to change their license specification, appearance, content, operation, price, and to add other content at any time without prior notice. The scope of current Services and prices is available on the Website. Further information on Services and pricing is available at sales@sparecores.com.

4. Licenses for Services

4.1. General: The provisions set forth in this section 4.1. have to be applied to all Services.

4.1.1. Non-production license. Spare Cores provides non-production licenses for its Services, which licenses are non-exclusive and not limited to a specific geographic area (worldwide). The User is entitled to use the Services for personal or evaluating business purposes, including to share, copy, adapt, remix, transform, but is not authorized to use it for sale or other commercial purposes, including internal business purposes in production. Spare Cores keeps the software source code private and retains all intellectual property rights thereto.

4.1.2. Fair-use policy. Users’ high-volume access or deep production integrations of Services require a commercial license, which provides dedicated throughput and support from Spare Cores. Users shall make only a reasonable number of copies of data from the Spare Cores Navigator database solely for backup or archival purposes, and use such data solely to support or evaluate their fair and lawful use of the Service, as set forth in these Terms and policies or technical requirements of Spare Cores.

4.2. Spare Cores Navigator:

We compile a cleaned, annotated, and standardized database from the collected raw data – Spare Cores reserves the „sui generis” database right and intellectual property rights on the Spare Cores Navigator database explicitly.

4.2.1. Spare Cores releases snapshots of the Spare Cores Navigator database (hereinafter “Navigator Data”) from time to time at cdn.sparecores.net in the form of SQLite database file. Spare Cores allows the use of the Navigator Data subject to Business Source License 1.1 (“Business Source License” is a trademark of MariaDB plc. ) set forth in a separate document at https://sparecores.com/legal/license-bsl.

4.2.2. When using, sharing, or adapting Navigator Data, you must provide clear and visible attribution to Spare Cores. If you make backup or archival copies, you must reproduce all copyright, trademark, and other notices that appear on the original copy.

1. Digital Use (Websites, Apps, Dashboards): For any digital display of the Navigator Data, you must include a functional link back to the source. (a) Format: "Data provided by Spare Cores Navigator". (b) Placement: Credits should be placed in proximity to the data (e.g., in a footer, "About" section, or tooltip).
2. Print or Offline Use: For publications, reports, or academic papers, use the following citation: "Spare Cores Navigator Database, [Year], available at sparecores.com."
3. Derived Works: If you modify or build upon the Navigator Data, you must indicate that changes were made. Example: "This analysis is based on data from Spare Cores, modified by [Your Name/Company]"

4.2.3. The Navigator Data is also accessible programmatically through our public API, subject to section 4.1, section 4.2.1. and section 4.2.2. above.

4.3. Spare Cores Advisor:

Spare Cores Advisor, as a Service, is the smart search tool for Spare Cores Navigator database using the public API. Therefore, the same rules shall apply to the Navigator Data displayed by Spare Cores Advisor and to the API usage as set forth in section 4.2. above.

4.4. Spare Cores Sentinel: For this Service, section 4.1. applies.

4.5. You may not transfer or assign your license rights to any other person other than set forth in these Terms, unless you have obtained written consent from Spare Core.

4.6. Any activity in relation to Spare Cores Navigator database as a whole, or any substantial part thereof, shall be made by the User only with the prior written consent of Spare Cores, with special regard to section 11.

4.7. By using the Website and/or Service, you agree to comply with these licenses and ensure that any use of the Services complies with the terms set forth in the respective licenses. You cannot use the Spare Cores names, trademarks, logos, legal documents, and other contents protected by copyright, or any other materials, which Spare Cores has an interest in keeping such materials for its exclusive use, unless otherwise provided. If in doubt, please reach out to the Spare Cores team at legal@sparecores.com for clarification.

5. User Obligations

5.1. Users must use the Website and the Services in a lawful manner, act in good faith, respect our good reputation, and comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including these Terms. Users shall not use or cause the Website and Services to be used in any way that is likely to reduce, diminish, or damage the goodwill, value or reputation associated with Spare Cores.

5.2. The User shall use the Website and the Services only in accordance with specifications as may be established by Spare Cores. Users are solely responsible for the conduct of persons acting on their behalf or designated by the Users.

5.3. Users are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their passwords for registration. It is essential that they take appropriate measures to safeguard their login credentials to prevent unauthorized access to their accounts. Furthermore, Users are responsible for the accuracy and legality of all data, content and information they provide to Spare Cores in any manner.

5.4. Restrictions: It is strictly prohibited to tamper with, or attempt to circumvent or disable, any Service to enable unauthorized copies, or if Users’ access exceeds reasonable evaluation patterns and their high-frequency polling or scraping degrades Service stability, with special respect to section 4.1.

5.5. Furthermore, Users may especially not (and may not allow anyone else to), in any manner that is not expressly allowed by these Terms, (i) share illegal or harmful content (hate speech, obscenity, defamation), (ii) inserts any infringing content on the Website, or into any Spare Cores software, (iii) engage in spamming, (iv) uses the Services contrary to their intended purpose, or in any other way prevent or impair the proper function of the Website, the Services or any Spare Cores software, (v) mislead Spare Cores about relevant circumstances, in order to use the Website and the Services (vi) decompile, reverse engineer, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for any Spare Cores software or Service, (vii) use a Service or its output to develop or enhance any service that competes with the Service – it is expressly prohibited to copy and reassemble any part of the Spare Cores Navigator database, whether substantial or not, for the purpose of creating competing cloud database, benchmarking, or price-comparison service, (viii) infringe intellectual property rights and be engaged in activities contrary to these Terms or the law.

5.6. Consequences: Spare Cores is entitled to, at its sole discretion and with immediate effect, restrict or suspend the Services or deny access to the Website and/or Services or take any legal and technical action against the User if Spare Cores considers that the User is engaged in activities contrary to these Terms or the law.

5.7. You agree that your activities in relation to the use of the Website and/or Services might be monitored on an anonymous basis by Spare Cores in order to optimize the display, accessibility and the content of the Services, and to improve the Services. Spare Cores may use aggregated data, analytics, and metadata for improving the Services. Spare Cores may freely use and disseminate any feedback you provide. You agree not to claim that Spare Cores owes you any compensation for its use or dissemination of such feedback.

6. Content Management

Users are responsible for the content they share. We reserve the right to remove any content that violates these Terms or applicable laws. Users can report illegal content through opening a Moderation request on GitHub, and we will take appropriate action in accordance with our policies.

7. Transparency Reports

Our moderation activities (including the type of content removed, reason for removal, and the action taken) are transparently tracked in our Moderation request tracker on GitHub.

8. Notice and Action Mechanisms

Users can report illegal content through opening a Moderation request on GitHub. We will review these reports within 1 (one) week, and notify the User of the action taken.

9. Internal Complaint Handling System

Users can submit complaints about content moderation decisions by replying to the related Moderation Request on GitHub. We aim to resolve complaints within 1 (one) week.

10. Third Party Services

To provide and optimize our Website and Services, Spare Cores uses various technologies and service providers, especially for hosting, analytics, newsletters, backups, and authentication. More information is available in our Privacy Policy.

11. Intellectual Property

11.1. Intellectual property rights mean all patent rights, copyrights, “sui generis” database rights, trade secret rights, mask works, and trademark rights (including service marks and trade names), and any applications for these rights, in all countries.

11.2. Other than the use and access rights and licenses expressly set forth in these Terms and in the individual agreements with Users, Spare Cores reserves all right, title and interest (including all intellectual property and proprietary rights) in and to: (a) the Website and the Services; and (b) any other technology and software, know-how, information, documentation, design or data, that Spare Cores provides or use to provide the Website and the Services.

11.3. Database rights. The content development, the arrangement and structure of the Spare Cores Navigator database is the original intellectual product of Spare Cores and is protected by copyright. All intellectual property rights in and to the Spare Cores Navigator database, such as copyright and “sui generis” database rights, are and shall at all times remain the sole and exclusive property of Spare Cores and are protected by applicable intellectual property laws and treaties.

Spare Cores made a substantial investment (in time, effort, money) in obtaining, verifying, and presenting the contents of the Spare Cores Navigator database, therefore Spare Cores is entitled to the “sui generis” database rights as well. It means protection against the unauthorized extraction or re-utilization of (i) a substantial part of the database, and (ii) insubstantial parts of the database in a repeated and systematic manner that causes harm to Spare Cores, with special regard to sections 4. and 5.

Extraction, reproduction, reuse, or redistribution of the Spare Cores Navigator database as a whole remains strictly prohibited without explicit license of Spare Cores.

No part of the Spare Cores Navigator database, however insignificant, may be repeatedly or systematically copied or reused by the User if such acts would harm the normal use of the Spare Cores Navigator database or unjustifiably damage the legitimate interests of Spare Cores.

The copyright and “sui generis” database rights of the Spare Cores Navigator database do not affect other rights pertaining to the content elements; those rights remain in existence unchanged.

11.4. The User shall acknowledge that the Spare Cores’ names, trademarks, logos, legal documents, and other contents protected by copyright, or any other materials which Spare Cores has an interest in keeping such materials for its exclusive use are and shall remain the exclusive property of Spare Cores.

11.5. The User acknowledges that the infringement of the trade secrets of Spare Cores in any way, the use of the rights belonging to Spare Cores in a manner and scope different from these Terms and the individual agreements with Users, shall give rise to liability for damages.

11.6. The provisions set forth in this section do not affect the licenses expressly granted by Spare Cores in section 4 above.

12. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Website and the Services are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. Spare Cores expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Open source software is provided "as is," without any warranty of any kind, and Spare Cores disclaims all warranties, express, implied or statutory, with respect to open source software, including but not limited to the implied warranties of noninfringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Copyrights to the open source software are held by the copyright holders indicated in the copyright notices in the corresponding source files. Spare Cores especially disclaims all liability for modifications of open source software, licensed works or creative works made by Users or any third parties.

13. Limitation of Liability

Spare Cores shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages resulting from the use or the inability to use the Service or for the cost of procurement of substitute goods and services or resulting from any goods or services purchased or obtained or messages received or transactions entered into through or from the Service. The User is solely responsible for any risks arising from the use of the Website, the Services, and its own business decisions.

14 .Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Spare Cores, its officers, directors, employees, and agents harmless from any and all claims, damages, expenses, and liabilities, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the Website and/or Service or violation of these Terms, and laws.

15. Accuracy

Spare Cores disclaims all liability for the accuracy of publicly available data on which the Services are based. The data displayed in the Services is indicative and subject to change, and Spare Cores does not guarantee the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of any information provided.

16. Modification

Spare Cores may unilaterally modify these Terms at any time. The actual Terms are available on the Website. The modification shall be deemed accepted by any further use of the Website and the Service by the Users.

Spare Cores shall be entitled to provide the Service in a manner that differs from these Terms, in accordance with other terms and conditions agreed with the User or as set out in an individual agreement. Spare Cores and Users are entitled to sign agreements electronically.

17. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Hungary, without giving effect to its conflict of law provisions. The invalidity of individual sections of these Terms does not entail the invalidity of the entire Terms.

Contact Information

For any questions or concerns about these Terms or the Website, please contact us at legal@sparecores.com.