Hosting Policy

1. What We Provide

X3WEB provides hosting and email services on a commercially reasonable, best-effort basis. We aim for reliable uptime and stable performance, but hosting and email services depend on third-party networks, data centres, and platform providers, and are not guaranteed to be uninterrupted.

2. Availability and Uptime (No Absolute Guarantee)

We aim to keep services available, but uninterrupted uptime is not guaranteed.
Service interruptions can occur due to maintenance, upgrades, security events, upstream failures, software bugs, or network issues.
Where an uptime/service credit is offered, it is limited strictly to a credit at X3WEB's discretion and never exceeds the hosting/email fees for the affected billing period.

3. Planned Maintenance

We may perform planned maintenance (including security patching, platform upgrades, migrations, and emergency updates).
Maintenance may cause temporary service interruption or degraded performance.
Where practical, we will give notice, but urgent security or stability maintenance may be performed without notice.

4. Third-Party Dependencies (Out of Our Control)

X3WEB is not responsible for downtime, delays, or failures caused by third parties or conditions outside our reasonable control, including (but not limited to):

Data centre outages, power failures, hardware failures, upstream ISP/backbone issues
DNS registry/registrar issues, domain registry outages, SSL provider incidents
Email routing failures, upstream mail server issues, anti-spam/anti-abuse filtering decisions
Software/vendor incidents (cPanel, mail services, security vendors, plugins, APIs)
Government actions, strikes, civil unrest, war, natural disasters, severe weather, or similar force majeure events

5. Email Delivery Disclaimer (No Guarantee of Inbox Placement)

Email is not a guaranteed-delivery medium. X3WEB cannot guarantee that emails will be delivered, received, or placed in inbox (vs spam/promotions) because delivery depends on:

Recipient mail server policies, spam filters, reputation scoring, blacklists
DMARC/SPF/DKIM alignment, message content, attachments, and sending behaviour

We may assist with best-practice setup (SPF/DKIM/DMARC) where included, but final acceptance is controlled by recipient systems.

6. Backups and Data Loss (Client Responsibility)

If backups are included in your plan, they are provided as a convenience and are not a guarantee of full recovery.
Backups may be incomplete, delayed, corrupted, or unavailable due to factors including storage failures, malware, account compromise, or upstream incidents.
You are responsible for maintaining your own independent backups of website files, databases, and mailbox data if your business depends on it.
X3WEB is not liable for loss of data, loss of email, or restoration failure, except where non-waivable law requires otherwise.

7. Security, Abuse, and Acceptable Use

To protect our infrastructure and other customers, X3WEB may suspend, throttle, restrict, or terminate hosting/email services immediately (with or without notice where necessary) if we detect or suspect:

Spam, phishing, malware, hacking attempts, or compromised accounts
Illegal content or prohibited activities
Excessive resource usage that degrades systems
Any breach of acceptable use rules or actions that create risk to systems or third parties

8. Security Incidents and Compromise Reporting

In the event of a security incident affecting hosted services:

The client must notify X3WEB immediately of any suspected or actual compromise (e.g., hacked website, compromised mailbox, leaked credentials).
The client must promptly reset passwords, revoke access, and cooperate in remediation efforts.
X3WEB may suspend, isolate, restrict, or remove access if needed to protect our infrastructure, data, or third parties.
X3WEB is not liable for losses caused by delayed reporting by the client.

9. Domains, Renewals, DNS, SSL and Third-Party Services

Regarding domains and external dependencies:

The client is ultimately responsible for the timely renewal of domains and third-party services unless X3WEB expressly manages that specific service under an active agreement.
X3WEB is not liable for expiry, suspension, transfer lock issues, registry actions, or failed renewals caused by non-payment, incorrect contact details, registrar rules, or third-party system issues.
DNS propagation, SSL issuance/renewal, and email routing depend partly on third parties and are not guaranteed within a fixed timeframe.

10. Client Responsibilities

You must:

Keep login credentials secure and use strong passwords
Maintain updated CMS/plugins/themes and remove abandoned/unlicensed software
Use email responsibly (no bulk spam sending unless explicitly contracted with compliant tooling)
Pay hosting/email invoices on time to prevent suspension or deletion risk
Ensure your domain/DNS settings are correct and kept current

11. Suspension, Retention and Deletion of Data

If invoices are unpaid, X3WEB may suspend hosting/email services and related access until the account is brought up to date. Following suspension or termination:

X3WEB may, but is not obliged to, retain data for a limited period.
After that period, data, backups, mailboxes, website files, and databases may be permanently deleted without further notice.
Restoration of data after suspension is not guaranteed, and any restoration work undertaken may be billable.
The client must request migration or export of data before the termination deadline where applicable.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent allowed by law:

X3WEB is not liable for indirect or consequential losses, including loss of profit, loss of revenue, business interruption, reputational damage, loss of customers, loss of data, or loss of email delivery.
If X3WEB is found liable for any reason, liability is limited to the amount paid by the client for the affected hosting/email service in the relevant billing period, and may be provided as a service credit rather than a cash refund.

13. Refund Position

Refunds are handled strictly in accordance with X3WEB's Refund Policy.
No ad spend and no website creation costs are refundable.
Hosting/email fees are not refundable once the service period has started, unless non-waivable law requires otherwise.

14. Force Majeure

X3WEB is not responsible for failure or delay in performance caused by events outside our reasonable control (force majeure), including events listed in section 4. During such events, services may be interrupted, delayed, or restricted without liability.

15. Support

X3WEB provides support through the channels listed on our website and invoices. Support response times vary based on workload and severity. Critical incidents may be prioritised over standard requests.

16. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time by publishing an updated version on our website. Continued use of services after updates constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

Support: Accounts@x3web.co.za