Terms and Conditions

General

The terms "VSHosting" or "us" or "we" refers to VSHosting (Pty) Ltd. The term "you" refers to you as the customer, user or viewer of our services.

These Terms and Conditions govern your use of our services. By using our services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree with any of these Terms and Conditions, you are prohibited from using our services. Please read them carefully. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at info@vshosting.co.za.

1. Electronic Communications

1.1 Communication from VSHosting shall be via e-mail and/or posting of notices on this site. By acceptance of these Terms and Conditions it is agreed that any electronic delivery of communications, including but not limited to agreements, notices and disclosures are agreed to as being in writing and are accordingly deemed delivered.

1.2 VSHosting does not warrant that this site, its servers, or email sent from VSHosting are free of viruses or other harmful components.

1.3 VSHosting will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of this site, including, but not limited to direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, and consequential damages.

2. License And Site Access

2.1 Except with express written consent from VSHosting a limited license is herewith only granted in terms of access and personal use of this site, excluding downloading (other than page caching) and modification.

2.2 This license excludes any resale and commercial use of this site or its contents; duplication; reproduction; copying; sale; resale; any use and collection of any service listings, pricing and/or descriptions; any derivative use of this site and/or its contents; any copying or downloading of account information for the benefit of a 3rd party; or any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools, be it in part or as a whole.

2.3 Except with express written consent from VSHosting, this site may not be exploited for commercial purposes.

2.4 No framing or framing techniques may be utilized to enclose any trademark, logo or other proprietary information of VSHosting (including but not limited to form, text, images, or page layout); no use of meta tags or any other "hidden text" utilizing VSHosting's name or trademarks.

2.5 Unauthorised use terminates any consent or license granted by VSHosting. A limited, revocable, and non-exclusive right is granted to create a hyperlink to the home page of VSHosting subject to the link not portraying VSHosting, or their products or services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive matter.

2.6 Without prior written consent, you may not use any VSHosting logo or other proprietary graphic or trademark as part of the link.

3. Your Account

3.1 By acceptance of the terms and conditions you accept responsibility for the maintenance of confidentiality of your password and account details as well as restriction of access to your computer or electronic devices on which VSHosting is accessed. You furthermore are liable for all activities which may occur under your account and password. VSHosting reserves the right to refuse service, remove or edit content, terminate accounts, or cancel orders at their sole discretion.

4. Copyright Complaints

4.1 VSHosting and its affiliates respects the intellectual property of 3rd parties. Should you believe we are breaching copyright infringement, kindly email us with your complaint in order that it may be addressed accordingly.

5. Third-Party Providers & Dependencies

5.1 Our services rely on infrastructure and licensing supplied by third parties, including data centre operators, network carriers, and software vendors such as Microsoft. We select these providers carefully, but we do not control their operations and are not responsible for outages, price changes, or discontinuations on their part that are beyond our reasonable control.

5.2 Where our site links to the websites of affiliated companies or other businesses, we are not responsible for examining or evaluating, and do not warrant, the offerings or content of those third-party sites.

5.3 VSHosting reserves the right to change, add, remove, or migrate any underlying infrastructure, hosting, network, or software provider used to deliver our services, at our sole discretion and without prior notice, provided this does not materially reduce the service levels described in your service agreement. We do not commit to any specific named provider remaining in use for the duration of your service.

6. Applicable Law

6.1 By visiting VSHosting, you agree that the laws of South Africa, without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern these Conditions of Use and any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and VSHosting.

7. Site Policies, Modification, And Severability

7.1 VSHosting reserves the right to update or modify our terms of service at any time, and you are required to review and comply with the updated terms. It is your responsibility to review them periodically.

7.2 We reserve the right to make changes to our site, policies, and these Conditions of Use at any time. If any of these conditions shall be deemed invalid, void, or for any reason unenforceable, that condition shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining condition.

8. Provision of Services

8.1 VSHosting offers services that include server hosting, email hosting, website hosting, and other related services. These services are provided on a subscription basis, and payment is required in order to access and use our services.

8.2 By using our services, you agree to provide accurate and complete information about yourself or your organization. You also agree to comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and policies relating to your use of our services.

8.3 We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your services if we believe that you are in violation of these Terms and Conditions. This including but not limited to illegal activities, spamming, or copyright infringement. In the event of termination, you will not be entitled to a refund of any fees paid.

8.4 Except where covered by VSHosting's managed hosting services (see Section 8.10), you are responsible for the security of your services and are encouraged to keep your software up to date to prevent security breaches. In all cases, it remains your responsibility to keep your login details secure and not share them with anyone else.

8.5 We strive to provide reliable and stable services. However, we cannot guarantee 100% uptime, as there may be factors beyond our control that could impact service availability. We will make every effort to resolve any service interruptions promptly. VSHosting is not responsible for any loss of data or damages incurred due to service availability or security breaches.

8.6 Using our services for hacking, unauthorized access, sending unsolicited emails, spamming, phishing, hosting illegal or adult content, cryptocurrency mining, or any form of malicious activity is strictly prohibited.

8.7 VSHosting reserves the right to monitor and investigate any activity on our services that may violate our terms of service.

8.8 Where your service package includes backup functionality (see Section 10.9), VSHosting performs these processes as described for that package. Backups are a safeguard, not a guarantee: no backup system eliminates all risk of data loss, and you remain responsible for maintaining independent copies of any data that is critical to your business, particularly data or configuration that falls outside your specific service tier's backup coverage.

8.9 You agree to maintain all necessary security measures, including but not limited to regular updates of your software and applications, and keeping account credentials confidential.

8.10 Managed VPS Security Scope: Where your service package includes managed VPS hosting, VSHosting is responsible for security at the infrastructure level: this includes operating system patching, firewall and network-level hardening, and monitoring and alerting for suspicious server activity, as described in your service package. You remain responsible for anything within your own control, including your account credentials, any application, code, or content you install, upload, or run on the server, and any access you grant to others. This clause does not extend to unmanaged services or to any service package that does not include managed VPS hosting.

8.11 Migration Assistance: Where offered — whether onboarding your website from another provider, or moving your site from Website Hosting to VPS hosting as its needs grow — migration assistance is provided as a courtesy and covers standard, typical migrations. We use reasonable efforts to minimise downtime and preserve functionality, but we do not guarantee zero downtime, a specific completion timeframe, or that all features will transfer without modification. Migrations involving unusual complexity or significant additional work may be quoted separately at our discretion. Migrating your site between our own service tiers to accommodate growth does not, by itself, obligate a fee increase; however, we reserve the right to adjust pricing where your usage or requirements come to materially exceed your current plan on an ongoing basis.

9. Fair Usage Policy

9.1 VSHosting's services are designed for reasonable and fair usage. We reserve the right to monitor resource usage to ensure optimal performance for all customers.

9.2 Excessive use of system resources including but not limited to CPU, memory, disk space, and network bandwidth may result in temporary service limitations or suspension.

9.3 The following usage limitations apply across our hosting services:

• • Excessive CPU or memory consumption impacting overall infrastructure performance
• • Database queries should be optimized and not cause excessive server load
• • Storage usage should align with the package limits specified in your service agreement
• • Excessive email sending that could be classified as spam

9.4 If we determine that your usage exceeds reasonable limits, we reserve the right to:

• • Throttle or limit specific resource usage
• • Request that you upgrade to a more suitable plan
• • Suspend services until usage is reduced to acceptable levels

9.5 VSHosting will notify you if your usage patterns violate this policy and provide a reasonable timeframe for corrective action.

9.6 Where a service package is marketed as having "unlimited" traffic or bandwidth, this figure is provided in good faith based on typical usage and remains subject to this Fair Usage Policy. Where a website hosting site's usage grows beyond what its plan can reasonably support, our usual practice is to migrate it to alternative infrastructure suited to the increased usage, rather than to suspend the service outright; see Section 8.11 for how such migrations are handled.

10. Management Tools and Software

10.1 As part of our managed hosting services, VSHosting provides proprietary management, monitoring, and automation tools installed on your server or infrastructure. These tools are designed to enhance service quality, security, and operational efficiency.

10.2 Included Tools: Depending on your service package, VSHosting may deploy specialized software tools including but not limited to:

• • System monitoring and alerting services
• • Security monitoring and threat detection tools
• • Automated backup and synchronization utilities
• • Network monitoring and IP management services
• • Website and application health monitoring
• • Other operational and management utilities as required

10.3 Software License: All management tools provided by VSHosting remain the exclusive property of VSHosting (Pty) Ltd. You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use these tools solely on the servers and infrastructure managed by VSHosting.

10.4 Usage Restrictions: You agree not to copy, extract, reverse engineer, modify, or attempt to use these tools on any infrastructure not managed by VSHosting. The license to use these tools terminates automatically upon cessation of VSHosting's management services.

10.5 Best Effort Service: While we design and thoroughly test our management tools to provide reliable operation, these tools are provided as value-added service enhancements on an "as is" basis. VSHosting makes commercially reasonable efforts to ensure proper operation but does not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free performance of these tools.

10.6 Data Responsibility: You acknowledge that VSHosting is not liable for any direct or indirect damages, including data loss, business interruption, or system unavailability arising from the use or malfunction of management tools. You remain responsible for maintaining your own backup procedures and data protection strategies.

10.7 Cloud Backup Services: Where cloud backup services are provided as a paid add-on to your hosting package, additional fees will apply as specified in your service agreement. Backup services utilize encrypted cloud storage and are subject to fair usage policies and storage limitations.

10.8 Updates and Modifications: VSHosting reserves the right to update, modify, or replace management tools at any time to improve functionality, security, or compatibility. Where possible, we will provide advance notice of significant changes.

10.9 Backup Methodology: Backup processes may include: (a) automated, encrypted offsite backups of virtualised servers, restorable to alternative infrastructure — this functionality is identical across our Linux and Windows VPS plans and, where offered as a paid add-on, this will be specified in your service agreement; and/or (b) retention of complete source code and deployment artefacts for websites on our Website Hosting plans, enabling redeployment across alternative infrastructure providers. Specific backup frequency, retention periods, and recovery point objectives vary by service tier and are available on request.

11. Microsoft 365 Licensing Terms

11.1 Microsoft 365 subscriptions provided through VSHosting are subject to Microsoft's licensing terms and conditions, which may change from time to time.

11.2 You acknowledge that certain Microsoft 365 subscription tiers may have limitations regarding which desktop applications they can activate and use. It is your responsibility to ensure your subscription tier meets your business requirements.

11.3 VSHosting offers three Microsoft 365 subscription tiers:

• • Business Email (R190) - Email and calendar, web and mobile access only
• • Business Email & Office Online (R240) - Adds Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, and web-based Office apps; does not include rights to install desktop Office applications
• • Business Email & Office Desktop (R394) - Includes rights to install and use full desktop versions of Office applications

11.4 You acknowledge that Microsoft's new versions of Office and Outlook desktop applications may require specific subscription tiers to function properly. The Business Email (R190) and Business Email & Office Online (R240) tiers do not include desktop application licensing and may not be sufficient for activating or fully using these new desktop applications.

11.5 If you use or plan to use the new desktop versions of Office/Outlook applications, you agree to upgrade your subscription to the Business Email & Office Desktop (R394) tier, or another tier that includes desktop application licensing, if your current subscription does not include such rights.

11.6 You understand that automatic operating system updates (such as Windows 11 24H2) may include new versions of Office/Outlook that require higher-tier subscriptions. VSHosting is not responsible for any compatibility issues or additional costs arising from such updates.

11.7 Even if you own a separate perpetual Office license, you acknowledge that your Microsoft 365 subscription must include the appropriate desktop application license to fully use account services within desktop applications.

11.8 VSHosting reserves the right to adjust subscription offerings and pricing in response to Microsoft's licensing changes. We will provide reasonable notice of any such changes.

12. Microsoft 365 Data Protection & Retention

12.1 Microsoft 365 operates under a shared responsibility model. Microsoft ensures infrastructure availability, uptime, and data center redundancy, while you retain ownership and responsibility for your data protection strategy.

12.2 Microsoft's Built-in Data Retention: Microsoft provides the following standard retention capabilities to help protect your data:

12.3 Important Considerations: While Microsoft's retention features provide valuable short-term protection, they are designed for business continuity rather than comprehensive backup. The following scenarios fall outside Microsoft's standard retention capabilities:

• • Point-in-time restoration to a specific date beyond retention windows
• • Recovery of individual items after retention periods expire
• • Long-term archival requirements beyond standard retention
• • Protection from ransomware that may encrypt synced files

12.4 Recommended Best Practices: To ensure comprehensive data protection, we encourage customers to:

• • Regularly export and store critical data locally or in a separate backup solution
• • Consider third-party backup solutions for long-term retention needs
• • Enable multi-factor authentication on all accounts
• • Familiarise yourself with Microsoft's recovery options and timeframes

12.5 VSHosting can assist with implementing additional backup solutions and data protection strategies. Please contact us if you would like to discuss enhanced data protection options for your Microsoft 365 environment.

13. Payment

13.1 You agree to pay the fees for our services as set forth in the invoice we provide you at the end of each month.

13.2 Payment is due on the date specified on your invoice. If payment is not received by the due date, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your services.

13.3 You are responsible for maintaining your account in good standing, including payment of all fees and charges in a timely manner. Failure to do so may result in a late fee and suspension or termination of your services.

13.4 All fees and charges are non-refundable unless required by law.

14. Security

14.1 You are responsible for maintaining the security of your services and data, including your account credentials and any content, application, or code you install, upload, or run. This is subject to Section 8.10, which sets out the security responsibilities VSHosting undertakes for managed VPS hosting packages. Outside of that managed scope, we are not responsible for any unauthorized access to your services or data, including but not limited to your servers, email accounts, or websites.

14.2 You agree not to engage in any activities that could compromise the security of our services or the services of other customers.

14.3 We reserve the right to take any necessary action to protect the security and integrity of our services.

15. Content

15.1 You are solely responsible for the content that you upload or store on our services.

15.2 You agree not to upload or store any content that is illegal, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, obscene, or otherwise objectionable.

15.3 We reserve the right to remove any content that we believe violates these Terms and Conditions.

16. Limitation of Liability

16.1 We are not liable for any damages, including but not limited to, loss of data, loss of profits, or other intangible losses, resulting from the use of our services.

16.2 Our liability is limited to the fees paid by you for our services.

17. Termination

17.1 Either party may terminate these Terms and Conditions at any time with written notice to the other party.

17.2 All services require a full calendar month of notice for termination.

17.3 All Microsoft 365 services carry a R250 cancellation fee per user account.

17.4 Upon termination, you agree to pay any cancellation or outstanding fees for our services.

17.5 Upon termination of managed hosting services, all licenses to use VSHosting's proprietary management tools terminate immediately. You agree to cease all use of such software and not retain copies thereof.

18. Website Development & Redesigns

18.1 Eligibility: This benefit applies only to websites whose original build was completed by VSHosting under our Website Development service, or to a website that has since received a complimentary redesign from VSHosting under this clause. It does not apply to websites developed by you or by any third party, even where such websites are, or later become, hosted with VSHosting.

18.2 Complimentary redesign: Where an eligible website remains hosted with VSHosting on an active, continuous, and uninterrupted basis, we will provide one complimentary website refresh or redesign every 24 months, measured from the completion date of the original build or the most recent complimentary redesign, whichever is later. This benefit must be requested by you; it is not applied automatically, does not accrue or carry over if unused, and cannot be exchanged for cash, credit, or any other service.

18.3 Scope: The complimentary redesign covers a refresh or rebuild broadly comparable in scope, complexity, and functionality to the original build (for example, similar number of pages, core features, and integrations). Work that materially expands on this scope — such as new e-commerce functionality, significant new integrations, or a substantial increase in the number of pages — will be assessed separately and, at VSHosting's discretion, quoted as additional paid work.

18.4 Minor updates outside the cycle: Minor updates or content changes requested outside of this 24-month cycle (for example, text edits, image swaps, or small layout tweaks) are reviewed by our team on a case-by-case basis and approved at VSHosting's discretion. Depending on scope, such requests may be actioned as a courtesy, scheduled for a later date, or quoted as separate paid work.

18.5 Continuity: This benefit applies only while both the website hosting and the underlying development relationship remain active with VSHosting without interruption, and your account is in good standing. Any suspension, non-payment, cancellation, or termination of hosting services ends this benefit permanently for that website; it does not reinstate if hosting is later resumed, and does not carry over to a website subsequently hosted elsewhere.

18.6 VSHosting reserves the right to decline or postpone a redesign request, or to require settlement of any outstanding fees, before commencing work under this benefit.

19. Changes to Terms and Conditions

19.1 We reserve the right to change these Terms and Conditions at any time. Any changes will be effective immediately upon posting on our website.

For details on how we collect, use, and protect your personal information, see our Privacy Policy.