Service Level Agreement

Effective Date: September 15, 2026 | Last Modified: September 15, 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% Uptime Target, 99.5% Guarantee

CutVPS aims to keep every VPS online at least 99.9% of each calendar month, and guarantees 99.5%. At 99.5%, your VPS may be unavailable for up to about 3 hours 36 minutes in a 30-day month (216 minutes, calculated as: (1 - 0.995) x 30 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes). If uptime falls below 99.5%, you are entitled to the service credits in Section 5. Why 99.5% rather than 99.9%: every VPS runs on a single physical server in London, with no automatic failover to a second server. If hardware fails, our data center provider replaces the faulty part, which can take a few hours. We guarantee what we can honestly back.

2.2 Uptime Definition

Uptime is the percentage of minutes in a calendar month during which your VPS is reachable over the network on its primary IP address. We measure it with our automated monitoring of the host server and its network connection, which checks at least every five minutes, together with our data center provider's incident records. 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 our monitoring first detects that your VPS, or the host server it runs on, is unreachable (or when you report it to us, if that is earlier) and ends when your VPS is reachable and working normally again.

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

Routine maintenance happens in a standing weekly window: every Sunday from 03:00 UTC (3:00 pm NZST / 4:00 pm NZDT). When updates require it, the host server (and so your VPS) is restarted during this window; a restart usually takes a few minutes. We don't send a separate notice for each weekly window. Any other planned maintenance is announced by email at least forty-eight (48) hours ahead. Time inside the weekly window, or inside announced maintenance, does not count as downtime.

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. Network-level DDoS mitigation from our data center provider is included with every plan at no extra cost. It filters most attacks, but no mitigation can absorb every attack.

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:

Example 1: If your monthly uptime is 99.2%, you experienced more downtime than the guarantee allows 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 99.7%, no credit applies as you exceeded the 99.5% 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:

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 New Zealand business hours (Monday-Friday, 9:00 am-5:00 pm NZ time, excluding NZ public holidays); outside those hours we respond as soon as we reasonably can. 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 routine maintenance during the following standing weekly window:

Maintenance Window: every Sunday, from 03:00 UTC (3:00 pm NZST / 4:00 pm NZDT)

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

For planned maintenance outside the weekly window, CutVPS will email your account email address at least forty-eight (48) hours in advance. We don't send a separate notice for each routine weekly window. Notifications will include:

• Scheduled start and end time (in UTC)
• Expected duration and potential impact
• Type of maintenance being performed
• Any action you need to take (if applicable)

8.3 Maintenance Impact Minimization

We endeavor to minimize customer impact during maintenance. Every VPS runs on a single host server, so we cannot move your VPS to another server during maintenance. Depending on the type of 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 the host server that runs your VPS, and its network connection, automatically at least every five minutes. We also monitor our website and client portal. We don't monitor applications or services inside your VPS: you can set up your own monitoring for those.

9.2 Alerting

When our monitoring detects a problem, it alerts us straight away by push notification and email. CutVPS is a one-person operation: we start work on an outage as soon as we see the alert, but outside New Zealand business hours we can't promise an immediate response.

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