Service Level Agreement
Effective Date: May 24, 2026 | Last Modified: May 24, 2026
1. Introduction and Scope
This Service Level Agreement ("SLA") establishes CutVPS's service availability commitments and the remedies available to customers when those commitments are not met. This SLA applies to all customers with active VPS instances on CutVPS infrastructure and is incorporated by reference into the CutVPS Terms of Service.
The SLA covers infrastructure availability and uptime guarantees. It does not cover issues caused by customer misconfiguration, customer-initiated actions, traffic originating from the customer's VPS, or circumstances explicitly excluded in Section 6 (Exclusions) below.
2. Uptime Commitment and Guarantee
2.1 99.9% Monthly Uptime Guarantee
CutVPS commits to maintaining 99.9% monthly uptime for all VPS instances. This means that in any given calendar month, your VPS may be unavailable for a maximum of approximately 43 minutes (43.2 minutes calculated as: (1 - 0.999) x 30 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes).
2.2 Uptime Definition
Uptime is defined as the percentage of time during a calendar month that your VPS is accessible and responding to network connectivity tests from external monitoring locations. A VPS is considered "up" if:
- The VPS is powered on and operational
- The hypervisor and physical host are functioning normally
- Network connectivity to the VPS is available from the data center's core network
- The VPS responds to ICMP ping requests (or equivalent TCP connectivity) on the primary network interface
2.3 Uptime Calculation Formula
Monthly uptime percentage is calculated as follows:
Uptime % = (Total Minutes in Month - Downtime Minutes) / Total Minutes in Month x 100
Where:
- Total Minutes in Month: Number of days in the calendar month x 1,440 minutes/day
- Downtime Minutes: Total minutes of outage time (excluding scheduled maintenance and excluded events)
- Calculation Date: Calendar month (01:00 UTC on the 1st through 00:59 UTC on the 1st of the following month)
3. What Counts as Downtime
Downtime begins when your VPS becomes unresponsive to external connectivity monitoring and ends when the VPS is fully operational and responding normally. Downtime is measured from the first detection of the outage until service is fully restored.
3.1 Measured Downtime Events
The following events count toward downtime calculations:
- Physical host hardware failure
- Hypervisor crash or system failure
- Storage subsystem failure affecting your VPS
- Network connectivity loss due to infrastructure failure
- Power infrastructure failure in the data center
- Fiber optic cable cuts or network equipment failure
- Data center connectivity issues outside the customer's control
- CutVPS-caused misconfigurations or provisioning errors
4. Exclusions from Uptime Guarantees
The following events and circumstances are excluded from SLA coverage and do not count toward downtime or service credit eligibility:
4.1 Scheduled Maintenance
CutVPS schedules maintenance windows with forty-eight (48) hours advance notice. Maintenance windows are not counted as downtime. Scheduled maintenance typically occurs during the maintenance window specified in Section 8 of this SLA (02:00-06:00 UTC). We endeavor to minimize service disruption during maintenance and will migrate your VPS to a secondary host if hardware maintenance is required.
4.2 Customer-Caused Downtime
Downtime caused by your actions is excluded, including:
- OS crashes, reboots, or shutdowns initiated by you or your applications
- Operating system or application misconfiguration
- Exhaustion of disk space, memory, or CPU quotas by your workload
- Software vulnerabilities or bugs in applications running on your VPS
- Security incidents caused by compromised credentials or weak passwords
- Accidental deletion or modification of system files by you
- Running unpatched or vulnerable software
4.3 DDoS Attacks on Specific IP Addresses
If your VPS's IP address is the target of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, downtime resulting from that attack is excluded from SLA coverage. However, if CutVPS infrastructure supporting multiple customers is affected, credit may apply to unaffected customers. DDoS mitigation services are available as an optional add-on service.
4.4 Force Majeure Events
Downtime resulting from events beyond CutVPS's reasonable control is excluded, including:
- Natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, etc.)
- Extreme weather events
- War, terrorism, or civil unrest
- Government action or regulation
- Utility provider failures (power grid failures, water main breaks)
- Third-party ISP or upstream provider failures
- Acts of God or other extraordinary circumstances
4.5 Third-Party Provider Failures
Outages caused by failures of upstream internet service providers, DNS providers, or other third-party services are excluded unless the failure is within CutVPS's data center or direct network.
4.6 DNS and Application Layer Issues
The SLA covers only infrastructure-level availability. It does not cover:
- DNS resolution failures or DNS provider outages
- Application-layer errors or HTTP 5xx errors
- Database unavailability or query timeouts
- Web server crashes or application failures
- Content delivery network (CDN) failures
- Third-party service dependencies
5. Service Credits
5.1 Credit Eligibility
If your VPS experiences downtime within a calendar month that does not fall within the exclusions listed in Section 4, you are eligible to receive service credits based on the applicable tier. Service credits are the exclusive and sole remedy for service failures and uptime shortfalls.
5.2 Service Credit Tiers
Service credits are calculated based on the monthly uptime percentage achieved during the billing month:
| Uptime Range | Monthly Credit | Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| 99.0% - 99.89% | 10% | 10% of monthly fees |
| 95.0% - 98.99% | 25% | 25% of monthly fees |
| Below 95.0% | 50% | 50% of monthly fees |
| 99.9% or higher | None | No credit (SLA met) |
Example 1: If your monthly uptime is 99.5%, you experienced more downtime than allowed but remained above 99.0%. Credit = 10% of your monthly fee.
Example 2: If your monthly uptime is 95.2%, you qualify for 25% credit of your monthly fee.
Example 3: If your monthly uptime is 99.95%, no credit applies as you exceeded the 99.9% guarantee.
5.3 Credit Cap
The maximum service credit in any single calendar month is capped at 50% of your monthly fee. Credits do not accumulate across months and cannot roll over to future billing periods. Cumulative credits across multiple months are not limited beyond the individual monthly 50% cap.
5.4 Credit Application
Approved service credits will be applied as account credit toward future monthly fees. Credits are not refundable in cash and cannot be transferred to another account. Credits must be used within twelve (12) months of issuance or they expire.
5.5 Sole Remedy
Service credits provided under this SLA are your sole and exclusive remedy for service failures. You waive any right to pursue legal action, damages, specific performance, or other remedies for uptime failures, subject to the limitations of liability in the CutVPS Terms of Service.
6. Service Credit Claim Process
6.1 Claim Submission Requirements
To claim a service credit, you must submit a written request to [email protected] with the subject line "SLA Credit Claim - [Month/Year]" within seven (7) calendar days of the end of the month during which the downtime occurred.
6.2 Claim Content
Your claim must include:
- Your CutVPS account email address
- VPS instance name or IP address affected
- Month and year of the outage
- Description of the downtime event and impact
- Timestamps of when the outage began and ended (if known)
- Evidence supporting your claim (screenshots, monitoring data, logs, etc.)
- Confirmation that the downtime was not caused by scheduled maintenance or excluded events
6.3 Claim Review and Approval
CutVPS will review your claim and:
- Verify uptime data using our monitoring systems
- Determine whether the downtime falls within SLA coverage
- Confirm the calculated downtime minutes and applicable credit tier
- Notify you of approval or rejection within ten (10) business days
- Apply approved credits to your account within fifteen (15) business days
6.4 Rejection of Claims
Claims may be rejected if:
- The request is submitted more than seven (7) days after the month ends
- The downtime falls within an excluded category
- The claim cannot be verified using CutVPS monitoring data
- The downtime was caused by customer action or misconfiguration
- The customer is in violation of the Acceptable Use Policy
- The account has unpaid fees or is delinquent
7. Support Response Time Tiers
CutVPS commits to the following support response times based on issue severity:
| Severity Level | Description | Initial Response Time | Target Resolution Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | VPS completely offline; service unavailable; security breach | 1 hour | 4 hours (best effort) |
| High | Severe performance degradation; partial unavailability; security vulnerability | 4 hours | 8 hours (best effort) |
| Normal | General questions, billing issues, non-urgent technical support | 12 hours | 24-48 hours (best effort) |
7.1 Response Time Definition
Response times are measured from when your support ticket is first received by CutVPS (not from when you submit it). Response times are measured in business hours (Monday-Friday, 08:00-18:00 UTC). Tickets received outside business hours will have response time measured from the start of the next business day.
7.2 Support Channels
Support is available via email at [email protected]. For critical infrastructure emergencies, detailed contact information is provided in your account control panel. Phone support is not available under this SLA.
7.3 Best Effort Resolution
Target resolution times are provided on a "best effort" basis. CutVPS will work to resolve issues as quickly as possible, but resolution times are not guaranteed. Complex issues may require investigation and may take longer than target times.
8. Scheduled Maintenance Windows
8.1 Maintenance Schedule
CutVPS performs scheduled maintenance during the following maintenance window each month:
Maintenance Window: Tuesday 02:00 UTC - Wednesday 06:00 UTC
This window is used for:
- Physical host hardware maintenance
- Hypervisor updates and patches
- Network infrastructure upgrades
- Storage system maintenance
- Security patches and updates
- Capacity planning and infrastructure improvements
8.2 Maintenance Notification
CutVPS will provide forty-eight (48) hours advance notice of scheduled maintenance via email to your account email address. Notifications will include:
- Scheduled start and end time (in UTC)
- Expected duration and potential impact
- Type of maintenance being performed
- Instructions for failover or action items (if applicable)
8.3 Maintenance Impact Minimization
We endeavor to minimize customer impact during maintenance. Depending on the type of maintenance:
- VPS instances are migrated to a secondary host (zero-downtime maintenance)
- A brief reboot may be required (typically 2-5 minutes)
- In rare cases, longer maintenance windows may be necessary
8.4 Emergency Maintenance
CutVPS may perform emergency maintenance outside the scheduled window if necessary to:
- Address critical security vulnerabilities
- Resolve infrastructure emergencies
- Respond to zero-day exploits or threats
- Restore service from catastrophic failure
Emergency maintenance is excluded from SLA downtime calculations and will not trigger service credits.
9. Monitoring and Alerting
9.1 CutVPS Monitoring
CutVPS monitors all VPS instances continuously from multiple geographic locations. Monitoring includes:
- ICMP ping requests to detect connectivity loss
- TCP port connectivity checks (SSH/RDP on standard ports)
- HTTP/HTTPS checks for web-facing services (optional, customer-configured)
- Physical host and hypervisor health checks
- Network path latency and packet loss monitoring
- Storage I/O and performance monitoring
9.2 Alerting
Upon detection of a connectivity failure, our automated systems immediately alert the on-call support team. Support begins investigation and remediation immediately.
10. Performance Expectations and Non-Guarantees
10.1 What the SLA Covers
This SLA covers infrastructure availability only. Specifically:
- Physical connectivity to your VPS
- Network path from data center to your VPS
- Physical host and hypervisor functionality
- Storage subsystem availability
10.2 What the SLA Does NOT Cover
Performance metrics and application-level metrics are explicitly excluded from this SLA:
- CPU or memory performance
- Disk I/O performance or latency
- Network latency or bandwidth guarantees
- Packet loss or jitter
- Data transfer rates
- Application or database performance
- Backup/restore speed or reliability (backups are courtesy only)
- DNS resolution performance
11. Service Credits Do Not Apply When
Service credits are not issued when:
- Your account is in violation of the Acceptable Use Policy
- You have outstanding unpaid invoices or are delinquent on fees
- Your account is suspended for security, abuse, or compliance reasons
- The downtime results from your application configuration or misuse
- You have not claimed the credit within seven (7) days of month-end
- The claimed downtime falls within an excluded category (maintenance, DDoS, force majeure, etc.)
12. SLA Modifications and Changes
CutVPS reserves the right to modify this SLA at any time. Material changes will be effective thirty (30) days after notification via email or prominent website notice. Changes that reduce your service level guarantees require thirty (30) days' advance notice. Your continued use of the Services constitutes acceptance of the modified SLA.
13. Entire Agreement
This SLA, combined with the CutVPS Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy, constitutes the entire agreement regarding service availability and remedies. In the event of conflict between this SLA and other documents, the SLA's provisions regarding uptime and service credits take precedence for those specific topics.
14. Contact Information
For questions regarding this SLA or to submit a service credit claim, contact us at:
- Email: [email protected]
- General Inquiries: [email protected]
- Website: https://cutvps.com