• Terms Of Service
• Privacy Policy
• Unlimited Hosting
• Policy AUP

Unlimited Hosting Policy

Several Weblink hosting plans are advertised with "unlimited" or "unmetered" storage and bandwidth. This policy explains what that promise actually covers, and it should be read together with our Acceptable Usage Policy and Terms Of Service, which continue to apply in full. Where this policy and those documents overlap, they are intended to be read consistently; nothing here reduces the commitments made in the Terms Of Service.

"Unlimited" means that we do not impose a fixed numeric cap on the storage or bandwidth used by a normal, single website operated for its intended purpose. It does not mean unmetered or unrestricted use of shared server resources for any purpose whatsoever, and it is not a substitute for a dedicated or VPS environment.

Unlimited hosting plans run on shared servers, meaning that many customer accounts operate on the same physical hardware and share the same pool of CPU, memory, storage and network capacity. This is what allows us to offer generous, unmetered-style plans at an affordable price. In return, every account on a shared server is expected to use resources in a way that leaves a fair share available to everyone else hosted on that same server. An account that consumes a disproportionate amount of shared capacity affects the performance and reliability of other customers' websites, even if no single hard limit has technically been breached.

Reasonable use covers the storage, processing and transfer that a normal website, blog, small online store or application reasonably needs to operate, including its files, media, databases, email and routine backups taken through our own tools. We evaluate reasonable use qualitatively rather than against a published numeric threshold, looking in particular at:

• CPU and memory usage — sustained or repeated spikes in processing load that noticeably slow the server down for other customers, rather than the normal, short-lived load generated by serving pages to visitors.
• Inode usage — the total number of individual files and folders stored in the account. Extremely large numbers of small files, even where the total disk space they occupy is modest, can slow down the shared filesystem and backup processes for the whole server.
• Bandwidth and network traffic — the volume and pattern of data transferred to and from the account. Traffic consistent with visitors browsing a website is expected; traffic consistent with mass file distribution or continuous large downloads/uploads is not.
• Storage purpose — whether the space is being used to host an active website, as opposed to being used mainly as a remote backup drive, an archive of unrelated files, or long-term cold storage that has no connection to a live site.

Regardless of the plan you are on, the following are examples of use that we consider excessive or abusive of an unlimited hosting plan, because they degrade service for other customers on the same shared server rather than reflecting the normal operation of a website:

• Using the hosting account primarily as an online storage, backup, syncing or archival service rather than to serve an active website.
• Running the account as a public file-sharing service, media-streaming server, or download mirror.
• Running background processes, scheduled tasks, bots, or applications that are not required to serve your website's actual visitors.
• Generating CPU load, disk I/O or traffic patterns that are disproportionate to your website's genuine visitor activity, or that noticeably affect the performance of other accounts on the same server.
• Storing an excessive number of small files (high inode usage) unrelated to the operation of an active website.
• Any use that would fall foul of our Acceptable Usage Policy.

We monitor server resource usage on an ongoing, account-level basis to keep every shared server healthy for all of our customers. We look at usage patterns over time rather than momentary snapshots, and we take into account the nature of your website before treating usage as excessive. The vast majority of websites, including busy ones, never come close to triggering a review under this policy.

If we determine that an account's usage is excessive under this policy, we will normally proceed as follows:

1. Notice. We will contact you to explain which aspect of your usage is affecting the server, and give you the opportunity to reduce that usage, optimise your website, or move to a hosting plan better suited to your needs, such as a VPS or dedicated server.
2. Grace period. You will be given a reasonable amount of time to address the issue before any further action is taken.
3. Suspension. If the excessive use continues or is not addressed, we may temporarily suspend or restrict the account to protect the stability of the server for other customers, until the matter is resolved or the account is upgraded to a plan appropriate for that level of usage.

We aim to resolve usage issues cooperatively wherever possible, and suspension is a last resort rather than a first response. Severe cases that also breach our Acceptable Usage Policy or Terms Of Service, such as security abuse, may be actioned more quickly in line with those policies.

If you believe your account has been flagged in error, or you would like guidance on staying within reasonable use before it becomes an issue, please contact us at [email protected].

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our infrastructure or in how shared hosting resources are managed. Continued use of your hosting service after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.