Acceptable Use Policy

Who it applies to

Anyone using the account — you, a developer you hired, an agency managing the site, and anyone you gave a login to. Whatever leaves the account is the account holder's to answer for, whoever typed it.

The terms of service are the contract. This page sets out clause 4 of them at length, and it cannot permit anything the contract does not.

1. Never allowed

Short list, no warnings attached. Any of this and the account closes the same day:

• images of child sexual abuse, in any amount;
• anything promoting terrorism or urging violence at people;
• fake sign-in pages, cloned bank sites and scam shops built to take card details;
• viruses, ransomware, exploit kits, dumps of stolen passwords or card numbers;
• botnet controllers, and proxies you know are carrying abuse;
• work published without the licence it needed, once the owner has shown us — see the copyright and takedown policy;
• drugs, weapons or betting sold into countries that have not licensed you to sell them.

Legal adult content is allowed. Put an age gate on it and keep it out of outbound mail.

2. What a cheap plan actually buys

Being the cheap option does not mean being the unlimited option, and pretending otherwise would be the kind of small print this company tries not to have. A shared plan buys a real slice of a machine. It does not buy the machine.

One account holding the processor, the memory or the disk flat makes every other site on that server slow, so there is a ceiling. Things that need a VPS or a dedicated server instead: converting video, crawling the web, mining coins, running a public download mirror, backing up computers that live elsewhere, and databases grinding through bulk work all day. None of that is banned — it is the wrong product, and you will get a message about it well before anything stops.

Storage described as unlimited is unlimited for the websites on the plan. It is not a free hard drive.

3. What you have to keep updated

We look after the server, the web software and the control panel. Whatever you installed on top is yours, and an out-of-date plugin is how nearly every hacked account here got hacked. The spam or defacement that follows gets attributed to your account.

• update your site software, themes and plugins;
• do not leave installers, database exports or .env files where the web can reach them;
• give people their own logins and delete them when they go;
• tell us the moment something looks wrong, rather than waiting until you are certain.

Scanning or stress-testing anything you do not own needs our permission in writing. Testing your own site is fine — warn us first, because the automated defences cannot tell your test from a real attack.

4. Sending mail

That has its own page, because getting it wrong hurts every customer sharing an address range rather than only the sender. Read the anti-spam policy before you send to more than a handful of people.

5. What we actually do about a breach

• We message you. Nearly always the first step, because nearly always the cause is a hacked plugin or a job that outgrew its plan.
• We switch something off. When the damage is happening now — mail pouring out, a live phishing page, one process taking a whole server — that thing stops while we talk.
• We close the account. Section 1 material, repeated breaches, or an account nobody answers for while it causes damage.

Illegal material comes down straight away and is reported where the law says it must be.

6. If we got it wrong

Say so. Reply to the notice, or use the complaints procedure. A suspension made in error is reversed and the lost days credited.

7. Reporting a site

Use report abuse. What you send goes to the account holder in substance, without your contact details unless you want them included or a court requires it.

8. The company

Hosting-Cheap is a trading name of Bohzo Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under Company No. 15031604. Registered office: The Workspace Basildon, 7 High Pavement, Basildon, England, SS14 1EA. Questions to info@hosting-cheap.com.