This schedule (S7) applies when you buy hosting or website services from us. It forms part of your Contract with our Customer Agreement. If you are buying as an individual for personal use, our Consumer Terms also apply and take priority.
Key points
- We provide hosting on GoDaddy or Namecheap platforms or, where your Order says so, on Microsoft Azure. Their terms also apply.
- Hosting has a 99.9% monthly availability target. No service credits apply.
- Unless your plan includes backups, you must keep your own copies of your website and email.
- You own the final design of a website we build for you once you have paid for it in full. Themes, plugins and stock images stay under their own licences.
- When you leave, we give you a copy of your website files and data on request.
1. The services
1.1 This schedule covers the following services, as set out in your Order or account:
- Hosting: shared web hosting, managed WordPress hosting, virtual private servers and cloud hosting,
- Email hosting: mailboxes on GoDaddy or Namecheap platforms. Microsoft 365 mailboxes are supplied under our Microsoft Licensing Schedule and supported under our Managed Services Schedule,
- SSL certificates: certificates that encrypt traffic to your website,
- Website security: malware scanning, removal and firewall services,
- Website design: websites and online stores we design and build for you and
- Website builder: sites you build yourself using a website builder we provide.
1.2 Each plan has its own features and limits, such as storage, number of websites and mailboxes, which are shown when you order.
1.3 Refund period. If you cancel a hosting, email hosting, website builder, SSL certificate or website security plan within the refund period in our Cancellation and Refund Policy, you receive the refund it describes. Clause 11.7 of the Customer Agreement does not apply to that cancellation.
2. Platforms and their terms
2.1 We provide hosting, email hosting, SSL certificates, website security and website builder services using platforms run by GoDaddy or Namecheap or, where your Order says so, Microsoft Azure. Website security services on GoDaddy platforms are powered by Sucuri.
2.2 Each platform's terms apply as Third-Party Terms under clause 7 of the Customer Agreement, including its acceptable use rules and plan limits. SSL certificates are also subject to the issuing certificate authority's subscriber agreement.
2.3 Platform providers can move servers or change IP addresses as part of running their networks. We do not guarantee that your IP address will stay the same.
3. Hosting
3.1 Your content. You are responsible for your website, applications, databases and other content you host, including keeping them lawful, secure and up to date. Where your plan includes website maintenance, we keep the software we install, such as WordPress and its plugins, up to date as described in your Order.
3.2 Acceptable use. You must use hosting in line with our Acceptable Use Policy and the platform's rules. You must not use hosting to send spam, host malware or phishing pages, run denial of service attacks or use resources in a way that harms other customers on shared servers.
3.3 Fair use and plan limits. Some plans do not set a fixed limit on storage or bandwidth. They are still subject to the platform's technical limits and fair use rules, which we show when you order. If your use breaches them, we will ask you to reduce it or move to a more suitable plan. If you do not, we may restrict the service after giving you reasonable notice.
3.4 Payments and special data. We do not provide shared hosting as a PCI DSS compliant environment. If your website takes card payments, you must use a payment provider that handles card details off your website, such as Stripe, unless we agree otherwise in writing. You must tell us before hosting special category data, criminal offence data or personal data relating to children, as clause 15.4 of the Customer Agreement requires.
3.5 Virtual private servers. With a virtual private server you have administrator access and are responsible for its configuration, security and software, unless your Order includes our management of it.
3.6 Your website and online safety. If your website lets users post or share content with each other, it may be a regulated service under the Online Safety Act 2023. You are responsible for meeting any duties that apply to you. We may act on a lawful notice or order about content on your website under clause 21 of the Customer Agreement.
4. Backups
4.1 If your plan includes backups, we back up your hosted website at the frequency and for the retention period stated in your plan, and restore from backup on request. Restores may be charged where the plan says so.
4.2 If your plan does not include backups, you are responsible for keeping your own backups under clause 6.1 of the Customer Agreement. Our servers are not an archive.
4.3 Backups are taken for disaster recovery. We do not guarantee that every change made between backups can be recovered.
5. Availability
5.1 We aim for each hosting service to be available 99.9% of the time in each calendar month, measured as the platform measures it. This is a target, not a guarantee, and no service credits apply.
5.2 We or the platform may need to carry out scheduled maintenance. We will tell you in advance where we can.
5.3 If you are a Consumer, this clause does not affect your rights under the Consumer Terms and the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
6. Email hosting
6.1 Mailboxes have the storage and sending limits shown in your plan. Messages over those limits may be rejected or delayed.
6.2 Email hosting is for normal business or personal email. It must not be used for bulk or marketing email. If you send marketing email, you must use a dedicated email marketing service and comply with the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and the UK GDPR, including having consent where it is required.
6.3 Spam and virus filtering reduces unwanted email but cannot stop all of it, and may sometimes block wanted messages.
7. SSL certificates
7.1 The certificate authority decides whether to issue a certificate after checking your control of the domain and, for some certificates, your organisation's identity. We cannot guarantee that a certificate will be issued or by when.
7.2 You must give accurate information for validation and tell us promptly if a certificate's private key may have been compromised. The certificate authority may revoke a certificate where its rules require.
7.3 Certificates have a fixed validity period set by industry rules. Where we manage your certificate, we renew it before it expires as part of your plan.
8. Website security
8.1 Website security services reduce the risk of malware and attacks, and remove malware we detect, but they cannot prevent every attack or guarantee that a website is free of vulnerabilities.
8.2 To clean or protect your website, the service may need to change or remove files and settings. We will try to keep your website working, but you should keep a current backup.
9. Website design
9.1 How a design project works. We agree the scope of your website in your Order or Statement of Work. A typical project has these stages: brief, design, build, your review, revisions and launch.
9.2 Your content. You provide text, images, logos and other materials for your website by the dates we agree. You confirm you have the rights to use them, as set out in clause 6.1 of the Customer Agreement. Delays in providing content may delay launch and may lead to extra Charges under clause 6.2 of the Customer Agreement.
9.3 Revisions. Your plan includes the number of revision rounds stated in your Order. Further revisions, and changes that add new pages or features, are charged under clause 8 of the Customer Agreement.
9.4 Acceptance. Your website is accepted under clause 9 of the Customer Agreement, including when it goes live. If you are a Consumer, acceptance does not affect your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
9.5 Ownership. Once you have paid for your website in full, you own the final design and content we created specifically for you under clause 13.3 of the Customer Agreement. The following stay under their own licences and are not transferred to you:
- themes, templates and plugins, licensed to you under clause 13.5 of the Customer Agreement or by their publishers and
- stock images, fonts and other third-party content, which you may only use under their licence terms. Some licences only allow use on the website they were bought for.
9.6 Accessibility. We design to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 level AA where your Order says so. Accessibility also depends on the content you add after launch.
9.7 Your responsibility for what your website says. You are responsible for the accuracy and legality of your website's content, including product descriptions, prices, claims, privacy notices, cookie consent and terms of sale, unless we have agreed in writing to prepare any of them.
9.8 AI tools. We may use AI tools to help produce designs, images or text, as described in clause 16 of the Customer Agreement. We review AI-produced material before using it. Clause 18.1 of the Customer Agreement does not apply to images or text produced by AI tools, unless you are a Consumer.
9.9 Showcasing our work. We may show screenshots of your website in our portfolio only with your agreement, under clause 13.9 of the Customer Agreement.
10. Website builder
10.1 Websites made with a website builder run on the builder's platform. Builder sites may not be exportable in a form that works elsewhere. If you leave, you may only be able to take your content, such as text and images, and not the site's design or functions.
10.2 Online store features, such as payments, shipping and appointment booking, may use third-party services with their own terms and fees.
11. Moving your website away
11.1 When your hosting ends, you must point your domain's DNS away from our servers and stop using any IP addresses and server names we assigned to you.
11.2 If you ask within 30 days after your hosting ends, we will give you a copy of your website files, databases and mailbox content in a commonly used format, where the platform allows. After that period, we may delete them, and will do so where clause 10 of the Data Processing Agreement requires.
11.3 We can also migrate your website or email to another provider as a separate service, charged at our then-current rates.