Service Level Agreement (SLA)

This Service Level Agreement ("SLA") outlines the service commitments provided by Expanse Hosting ("Expanse," "we," "our," or "the Company") to clients ("you," "your," "Customer") who purchase or utilize eligible Expanse services. This SLA forms part of the Terms of Service and applies only to paid services. Expanse may update or modify this SLA at any time. Continued use of our services constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

This policy was last reviewed and approved for publication on November 16, 2025, and is scheduled for re-review on March 1, 2026.

1. Scope of Coverage

This SLA applies to the following services:

Not Covered

This SLA does not apply to Remote DDoS Protection services, beta services, test environments, reseller environments not directly contracted with Expanse, or any third-party platforms.

  • Minecraft Hosting
  • VPS Hosting
  • Dedicated Servers / Bare Metal Servers
  • Web Hosting
  • Control Panels (Pterodactyl, VirtFusion, Expanse Panel)

2. Definitions

2.1. Downtime

A period during which the Customer’s service is unavailable due to: network unreachability at Expanse’s datacenter edge; host node unavailability (for VPS, Minecraft, and Web Hosting); total outage of the assigned dedicated server hardware; or panel unavailability (for panel SLA only).

2.2. Availability

Availability (%) is calculated per calendar month as: Availability = (Total Minutes − Downtime Minutes) ÷ Total Minutes × 100.

2.3. Scheduled Maintenance

Pre-planned work performed by Expanse to maintain, upgrade, or improve infrastructure. Scheduled Maintenance does not count as downtime.

2.4. Internal Monitoring

All uptime and downtime measurements are based solely on Expanse’s internal monitoring systems. Third-party monitors are explicitly excluded.

3. Guaranteed Service Levels

3.1. Network Uptime (99.9% or 99.99% depending on service tier)

Enterprise-tier services (Dedicated Servers, Bare Metal, and infrastructure-level services): 99.99% Network Uptime Guarantee. Standard services (VPS, Minecraft Hosting, Web Hosting): 99.9% Network Uptime Guarantee. Network uptime refers to availability of the public network at the datacenter edge. Network saturation or upstream issues outside our control are excluded.

3.2. VPS, Minecraft, and Web Hosting Node Availability (99.9%)

We guarantee 99.9% host node availability for VPS, Minecraft Hosting, and Web Hosting services. Downtime includes node crashes, hypervisor failure, and power failure at the facility.

3.3. Dedicated Servers / Bare Metal (99.99%)

We guarantee 99.99% availability for dedicated servers. Downtime includes complete hardware failure, network unavailability, or power failure affecting your physical machine. We do not provide a hardware replacement SLA at this time; however, hardware issues resulting in service unavailability are counted as downtime.

3.4. Control Panel Availability (99%)

Pterodactyl, VirtFusion, and Expanse-branded control panels carry 99% availability. Panel availability affects only panel access — not server availability. If the panel is down but your server is reachable via its IP, this counts as panel downtime, not network downtime.

3.5. DDoS Mitigation (Best Effort)

Expanse provides DDoS mitigation on a best-effort basis, utilizing upstream scrubbing providers. No SLA credit is offered for DDoS-related downtime. Extremely large or atypical attacks may exceed provider filtering capacity.

4. Exclusions from SLA Coverage

Downtime resulting from any of the following does not qualify for SLA compensation:

  • Scheduled Maintenance (announced via website, panel notice, or email).
  • Customer-Caused Issues, including misconfiguration, third-party software/plugins, excessive resource usage, custom scripts, or intentional/accidental self-DDoS.
  • Force Majeure Events, including natural disasters, government actions, or datacenter-level uncontrollable incidents.
  • External Factors, including upstream network failures, routing anomalies, or connectivity issues outside Expanse’s network boundary.
  • Third-party Monitoring Discrepancies (internal monitoring is authoritative).
  • Beta features, early-access services, or experimental platforms.
  • Temporary null-routing due to ongoing attacks exceeding capacity.

5. SLA Compensation

5.1. Credit Calculation

For eligible downtime, Expanse will provide the following compensation: 5% of the monthly service fee for every 30 minutes of verified downtime. Credits are applied to the affected service only.

5.2. Compensation Cap

Credits are capped at a maximum of 100% of the monthly value of the affected service. No monetary refunds are issued under any circumstances. Credits have no cash value and are non-transferable.

5.3. Claim Submission

To submit an SLA claim: A ticket must be opened within 7 days of the incident and must include the date and time of outage, description of impact, and affected service ID. Expanse will verify the incident using internal monitoring systems. Decision is final and at Expanse’s discretion.

6. SLA Limitations

This SLA is the Customer’s exclusive remedy for downtime. This SLA does not apply to:

  • Add-on or free services
  • Licenses (Windows, cPanel, Plesk, etc.)
  • Domains
  • Third-party hardware
  • Custom cross-connects or private routing
  • Any service lacking a recurring monthly fee

7. General Terms

  • Expanse may improve or modify infrastructure without notice.
  • SLA credits do not stack across multiple incidents unless individually eligible.
  • SLA does not apply if the Customer is in violation of the Terms of Service.
  • This SLA applies only to the directly contracted Customer — not downstream users, clients, or resold services.