Our Uptime Commitment
Overview
SmartHost is committed to delivering exceptional service and reliability to our clients. Our 99.9% Availability Guarantee is a testament to our dedication to keeping your website up and running, ensuring minimal disruption to your online presence. This quick start guide provides you with the essential steps to understand and manage our uptime commitment effectively.
Managing Your Uptime Commitment
- Stay Informed About Scheduled Maintenance: Regular updates about scheduled maintenance will be communicated in advance. Ensure your contact information is up to date in our system to receive these notifications.
- Monitor Your Website’s Performance: Utilise tools and resources provided by SmartHost to monitor your website’s uptime. This proactive approach helps in identifying and addressing issues promptly.
- Report Downtime: In the unlikely event of experiencing downtime, immediately report the issue to our support team. This is crucial for the downtime to be acknowledged and addressed, and also for the assessment of potential service credits.
- Understand Service Credits: Familiarise yourself with our policy regarding service credits. In case of unscheduled downtime that breaches our 99.9% uptime commitment, you may be eligible for service credits as outlined in our policy.
- Regularly Review the Server Maintenance Policy: Our Server Maintenance Policy provides insights into how we manage and minimise the impact of necessary maintenance. Reviewing this policy will help set realistic expectations regarding uptime and scheduled downtimes.
Detailed Guide to the SmartHost 99.9% Availability Guarantee
Understanding the 99.9% Availability Guarantee
SmartHost’s 99.9% Availability Guarantee underscores our promise to ensure your website remains operational, effectively guaranteeing that your site will be available 99.9% of the time each month. This commitment excludes scheduled maintenance periods, which are essential for upgrading and securing our servers.
Exclusions to the Uptime Commitment
It’s important to note that certain conditions outside our control are not covered by our uptime commitment. These include:
- External Network Conditions: Issues between your ISP and our data centre, which are beyond our influence.
- Cybersecurity Threats: DDoS attacks or other malicious activities targeting our servers.
- ISP-Related Issues: Problems within your ISP’s network impacting access to your site.
- Caching Issues: Browser or DNS caching problems that might affect website visibility.
- Domain Expiry: The uptime commitment does not cover the unavailability of your website due to the expiry of your domain name. It is crucial for domain owners to ensure their domain registrations are renewed timely. Failure to do so can lead to website inaccessibility, which is not covered under our uptime guarantee.
Scheduled Maintenance and Its Necessity
Routine maintenance and upgrades are vital for maintaining the security and optimal performance of our network. While we strive to limit the impact of these activities on your website’s availability, scheduled downtimes are excluded from our uptime calculation. We will endeavour to provide advance notice for such maintenance activities.
Service Credits as a Commitment to Reliability
Our guarantee includes a compensation mechanism for any unscheduled downtime exceeding the 0.1% threshold monthly. For every hour of unscheduled downtime verified by our support team, we offer a service credit worth 5% of your monthly fee. This demonstrates our commitment to accountability and customer satisfaction. The maximum credit offered will not exceed 50% of the total monthly fee paid, and will be paid in the form of credits on the customer account.
Reporting and Verification Process
In the event of downtime, reporting the incident promptly to our support team is essential. Our team will verify the downtime to assess eligibility for service credits. This process ensures transparency and fairness in the application of our uptime commitment.
Conclusion
SmartHost’s 99.9% Availability Guarantee is designed to provide you with peace of mind, knowing your online presence is supported by a reliable and committed hosting partner. We understand the importance of keeping your website accessible to your users and customers, and our policies and practices are shaped to protect this continuity. Should you have any questions or require further assistance, our support team is ready to help, ensuring your hosting experience is seamless and productive.
FAQs about SmartHost’s 99.9% Availability Guarantee
The 99.9% Availability Guarantee means that SmartHost ensures your website will be up and running online for 99.9% of the time each month, excluding scheduled maintenance periods. This guarantee represents our commitment to reliability and exceptional service.
Exclusions include factors outside our control such as internet network conditions, DDoS attacks, your ISP’s network issues, and browser or DNS caching problems. Scheduled maintenance, necessary for enhancing server performance and security, is also excluded.
SmartHost communicates scheduled maintenance periods in advance through email or system notifications. Please check our Status website prior to submitting a claim for any downtime. Make sure your contact information is up to date in our system to receive these alerts.
If you notice your website is down, immediately contact our support team to report the issue. Our team will investigate the downtime and take necessary actions to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
Downtime can be reported through our support ticket system available on our website. Provide as much detail as possible to help our team understand and verify the issue promptly.
Service credits are calculated based on the duration of the unscheduled downtime your website experiences beyond the 0.1% threshold. For every hour of confirmed downtime, a service credit worth 5% of your monthly fee is provided, with the maximum credit not exceeding 50% of the total monthly fee paid for the hosting service.
To claim service credits, submit a support ticket detailing the downtime incident. Our team will verify the downtime and apply the appropriate service credits to your account according to our policy.
Scheduled maintenance is necessary for server and network health and is planned to minimise impact on website availability. While these periods are excluded from our uptime calculations, we strive to conduct maintenance during low-traffic hours and provide advance notice to reduce any potential inconvenience.
We employ a robust infrastructure, including redundant hardware and networks, regular maintenance, and real-time monitoring, to ensure high availability. Our experienced technical team is dedicated to maintaining optimal server performance and swiftly addressing any issues that may arise.
