Agreement Overview
This Web Hosting Agreement is between Hostease LLC ("Hostease") and the person or entity using our hosting, domain, and related services. Please read carefully before purchasing. The following standalone policies are incorporated into this Agreement by reference:
- Acceptable Use Policy — rules for what content and activities are permitted
- Refund & Cancellation Policy — conditions under which fees are refundable
- Service Level Agreement — 99.9% server availability commitment and credit process
- Privacy Policy — how we collect, use, and protect personal data
- Cookie Policy — cookies and tracking technologies we use
- DMCA / Copyright Policy — copyright infringement notice and counter-notice procedure
Services
Hostease agrees to provide the services stated for the price agreed at the time of purchase. Prices shown at checkout are the full recurring price; any one-time setup fees will be disclosed before purchase.
Terms
All customers are responsible for monitoring their storage space and bandwidth transfer each month. Customers who go over the limit of their account will be sent an email with the option to either upgrade their account or reduce storage. Accounts that persistently exceed plan limits may be throttled, suspended, or required to upgrade. Hostease will notify the customer by email before taking action where practicable.
If customers sign up for an account and cancel it within the first month, they will still be charged for the full first month.
Payments
Renewal notices are emailed at least fifteen (15) days before the actual renewal date. If you are using a credit card on file, charges are processed automatically. All accounts are set up on a pre-pay basis. If payment is not received within 7 days of the due date, a $5 late fee will be added.
Hostease reserves the right to change prices at any time; where prices increase, Hostease will provide at least 30 days' advance notice to affected customers. Any account not brought current within a week of email notice is subject to suspension. You are responsible for all fees owed on the account from the time it was established until the time that you notify Hostease to request termination of services.
Hostease LLC is a Delaware limited liability company operating from the United States. All services are priced and billed in USD. Your billing cycle corresponds to the contract length initially chosen at setup, and your account will automatically renew at that length unless cancelled beforehand.
There is no fee for cancelled accounts that have been paid yearly. If you cancel an account on the monthly billing cycle, Hostease cannot refund any payments made before cancellation. All annual payments are non-refundable once the 30-day money-back guarantee has passed. Both monthly and annual payments are non-refundable if your account does not follow our Terms of Service or Acceptable Usage Policy.
Cancellation and Early Termination
To cancel a service, log into the Hostease client area and submit a cancellation request, or contact support at support@hostease.com. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period unless you request immediate cancellation. Refund eligibility is governed by the Refund & Cancellation Policy.
Server Abuse
Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to a server or customer of Hostease is strictly prohibited.
Hostease will strongly react to any use or attempted use of an Internet account or computer without the owner’s authorization. Such attempts include Internet scamming, password theft, security hole scanning, and similar activities.
Any unauthorized use of accounts or computers by you, whether or not the attacked account or computer belongs to Hostease, will result in action against you. Possible actions include warnings, account suspension or cancellation, and civil or criminal legal action depending on the seriousness of the attack.
Hostease has the right to discontinue service or deny access to anyone who violates our policies or these terms without warning or prior notice. No refunds of fees paid will be made if account termination is due to a violation of these terms.
You may not run IRC, bots, or clients on shared servers. Unacceptable uses include, but are not limited to, bulk emailing, unsolicited emailing, newsgroup spamming, upload scripts, pornographic content, illegal content, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, warez sites, cracks, software serial numbers, proxy-relaying, link farming, link grinding, link-only sites, spamdexing, FFA, and any other use determined by Hostease to be unacceptable or abusive of server resources.
All out-of-date web applications or web-accessible scripts that are being actively exploited will be shut down immediately without prior notice. You are responsible for reviewing your web applications and scripts on a regular basis to ensure their security and proper operation.
Shared hosting accounts may also be terminated if they include or link to content that is grossly offensive to the web community, promotes illegal activity, promotes physical harm, contains obscene nudity or pornographic material, exploits minors, infringes copyright, or contains tools or information intended to bypass copy protection.
Disk Space Abuse
Disk space is allocated per plan. Violations are assessed in accordance with the resource limits set out in your plan and the Acceptable Use Policy. You are responsible for monitoring your disk space usage. If you need extra disk space, contact our staff or upgrade your hosting plan from inside your client account.
Bandwidth Abuse
The intention of Hostease is to provide large bandwidth for serving web documents, not offsite storage for electronic files. If you violate this condition, you will be notified and given 48 hours to remedy the problem. Failure to do so may result in you being billed for overages.
Traffic will go unmonitored until you reach the amount of quota allocated to your specific plan. Bandwidth violations are assessed in accordance with the limits set out in your plan and the Acceptable Use Policy.
Acceptable Use Policy
Customers agree to use our services under the Acceptable Usage Policy, which is hereby incorporated into this agreement. Customers agree that Hostease holds the right to change its AUP at any time to meet web hosting standards and laws.
AUP amendments take effect in accordance with the notice provisions in Section 9 of the AUP. Customer agrees to cooperate with Hostease’s reasonable investigation of any suspected AUP violation. In any dispute regarding the interpretation of the AUP, Hostease’s commercially reasonable interpretation shall govern.
Customer Information
Customer represents and warrants to Hostease that the information provided for establishing and maintaining service is accurate. If customer is an individual, customer represents and warrants that they are at least 18 years of age.
Hostease may rely on the instructions of the person listed as the Primary Customer Contact on the order with regard to the customer’s account until Hostease receives written notice changing that contact.
Unsolicited Email and Spamming
Unsolicited commercial advertisements, or spam, are not allowed in email and will likely result in account cancellation. Hostease takes a zero-tolerance approach to spam originating from its servers or for spam advertising of domains hosted within our network.
The following activities are not allowed:
- Bulk mailing of commercial advertising or unsolicited announcements.
- Forging, altering, or removing electronic mail headers.
- Mail bombing or sending numerous substantially similar messages.
- Spamming newsgroups or posting off-topic commercial advertisements.
- Using email to harass or intimidate others.
- Continuing to email a recipient who has asked you to stop.
If you use another provider to promote a website hosted by or through Hostease by means of spam advertising, the above policy still applies as if the spam were sent through our servers.
Uptime and Service Credits
Hostease commits to 99.9% server availability measured on a calendar-month basis. Uptime commitments, credit calculations, the claims process, and exclusions are governed exclusively by the Service Level Agreement, which is incorporated into this Agreement by reference.
Technical Support Boundaries
Hostease provides technical support within our area of expertise. This includes assistance, troubleshooting, and debugging of our control panel, servers under our direct responsibility, and hosting-related issues.
Hostease may, at its discretion, provide limited assistance with third-party scripts, templates, and web applications. This assistance is not a guaranteed service and may be subject to additional charges. Hostease is not obligated to install new application modules or programming languages, or to provide assistance for errors caused by applications previously modified by you.
CGI Scripts
Each shared hosting account comes with its own CGI-BIN. You are free to use CGI scripts, but we reserve the right to disable any CGI script that affects normal shared server operation without prior notice.
Indemnification
Customer agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Hostease, its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, agents, and employees from and against any claims, losses, damages, penalties, costs, and expenses brought by a third party arising out of or related to the actual or alleged use of customer services in violation of applicable law or the AUP by customer or any person using customer logon information.
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Hostease against liabilities arising from:
- Any injury to person or property caused by products sold or distributed through your services.
- Any material supplied by the customer that infringes or allegedly infringes a third party’s rights.
- Copyright infringement.
- Any products or services sold or offered by you through your hosted website.
Disclaimer of Warranties
Hostease does not warrant or represent that the services will be uninterrupted, error-free, or completely secure. To the extent permitted by applicable law, Hostease disclaims all warranties, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. All services are provided on an as-is basis.
Limitation of Damages
Neither party shall be liable to the other for lost profits or indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or punitive loss or damage, or for damages that could have been avoided by reasonable diligence.
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, the maximum aggregate liability of Hostease and its employees, agents, or affiliates shall not exceed the amount payable by customer for three months of service. For claims arising from service unavailability, the Service Level Agreement governs and service credits are the sole and exclusive remedy, consistent with SLA Section 7.
Suspension of Services and Termination
Customer agrees that Hostease may suspend services without notice and without liability if Hostease reasonably believes that the services are being used in violation of the AUP, customer fails to cooperate with a reasonable investigation, suspension is necessary to protect the network or other customers, or a law enforcement or regulatory agency requests it.
The agreement may also be terminated under the conditions described in the original service contract, including overdue payments, uncured material violations, repeated AUP violations, or insolvency events.
If you break our Terms of Service or Acceptable Usage Policy, we reserve the right to cancel services. We do not refund accounts that are canceled for violating these terms.
Requests for Customer Information
Customer agrees that Hostease may report conduct it believes violates applicable law to the proper authorities and may provide account information in response to formal or informal law enforcement or regulatory requests, or in response to lawful civil requests.
Backups and Restores
Customer agrees to maintain a current copy of all content hosted by Hostease, notwithstanding any backup service Hostease may provide.
During any service term, customer may request up to one free restore. If a customer requests additional restores, a $5 one-time fee may apply.
Network Changes
Upgrades and other changes in Hostease’s network, including changes to software, hardware, and service providers, may affect the display or operation of customer-hosted content or applications. Hostease reserves the right to change its network in its commercially reasonable discretion and shall not be liable for resulting harm.
Notices
Notices to Hostease under the agreement shall be given via email to the support address posted by Hostease. Notices to customer shall be given via email to the individual listed as the Primary Customer Contact. Notices are deemed received on the day transmitted or on the next business day if sent on a non-business day.
Force Majeure
Hostease shall not be in default of any obligation under the agreement if failure to perform is due to events beyond its control, including significant power failures, major Internet failures, natural disasters, war, riots, insurrection, epidemics, labor action, terrorist activity, or other extraordinary events for which precautions are not generally taken in the hosting industry.
Governing Law and Disputes
This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of California, excluding its conflict-of-law rules. Each party consents to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts sitting in Los Angeles County, California for any dispute arising under this Agreement. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.
Nothing in this section limits mandatory consumer protection rights that cannot be waived under the law of your jurisdiction.
Miscellaneous
Each party retains ownership of its trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, inventions, copyrights, and other intellectual property. Neither party may use the other’s name or mark without prior written consent.
The parties are independent contractors, not partners, agents, or employees of one another. This agreement, together with the order and AUP, constitutes the complete and exclusive agreement between the parties on this subject matter.
Copyright Files
All files stored on Hostease servers must be legally owned and accompanied by valid licensing or copyright where required. This includes, but is not limited to, file types such as MP3, AVI, MID, MIDI, MPG, MPEG, MOV, EXE, and ISO. Unlicensed or illegal files may be deleted.
Cancellation of Service
Hostease reserves the right to cancel a service at any time. If Hostease terminates a service without cause, any prepaid fees covering the unused portion of the current billing period will be refunded on a pro-rated basis, as set out in the Refund & Cancellation Policy. No refund is issued where termination results from a violation of this Agreement or the Acceptable Use Policy.
Promotional Rates and Special Offers
Hostease may offer promotional rates or special offers whose terms may be more favorable than standard service terms. Such promotions do not alter your obligations under this agreement unless expressly stated.
Some promotions include a domain name. The cost of that domain is usually covered by the first month’s payment. As a result, such promotions are not refundable and are not covered by the 30-day money-back guarantee.
Intellectual Property Rights
Material accessible through Hostease services may be protected by United States or other copyright, trademark, trade secret, or proprietary rights laws. You must not use Hostease services in a manner that infringes, violates, dilutes, or misappropriates such rights.
If you use a domain name in connection with Hostease or a similar service, you must not use that domain name in violation of any trademark, service mark, or similar rights of any third party.
Network Security
Customers may not use the Hostease network to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into accounts you are not authorized to access, password cracking, probing network security for weaknesses, or violating another organization’s security policy.
You may not interfere with or deny service to any user, host, or network, including flooding, mail bombing, or other deliberate attempts to overload or crash a host or network. Hostease will cooperate fully with investigations into network or system security violations.
Electronic Commerce
You are solely responsible for the development, operation, and maintenance of your online store and products, including the accuracy of content, compliance with law, and protection of third-party rights.
You are also solely responsible for shipping, sales tax, order handling, customer inquiries, complaints, and the security of customer credit card numbers and related customer information processed through your website.
Static and Dynamic Content Caching
You expressly grant Hostease a license to cache the entirety of your website, including content supplied by third parties, and agree that such caching is not an infringement of your intellectual property rights or those of third parties.
IP Address Ownership
Hostease maintains and controls ownership of all IP numbers and addresses assigned to you and reserves the right to change or remove them at its sole discretion.
Domain Name Registration and Transfer
You agree to pay Hostease before the effective date of any domain registration or transfer request. All fees are non-refundable, even if a domain registration is suspended, canceled, or transferred before the end of the current term.
Hostease reserves the right to change domain-related fees, surcharges, renewal fees, and reinstatement fees at any time. Requested domain names will not be registered or transferred unless actual payment is received and Hostease confirms the transaction by email.
Domain registrations are non-refundable. Please do not purchase a domain name until you are certain it is exactly what you want.
Transfer requests (to or away from Hostease) require the account to be in good standing with no outstanding balance. Domain names are subject to a 60-day transfer lock following initial registration or an incoming transfer, as required by ICANN policy. If you initiate a chargeback on a domain registration fee, Hostease reserves the right to suspend the domain and recover associated costs.
Lawful Purpose
Hostease reserves the right to refuse service to anyone. Services may only be used for lawful purposes and may not be used for illegal purposes or in support of illegal activities. If anything is not legal in the United States, it is not permitted to reside on our servers.
If illegal content or usage is found, the account may be suspended or terminated. You agree that Hostease may disclose account information, assigned IP numbers, account history, and account use to law enforcement in response to proper written requests.
Privacy and Data Protection
Hostease's collection, use, and protection of personal data is governed by the Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into this Agreement by reference. By using our services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the Privacy Policy.