Terms & Conditions

2. Formation of Agreement

These Terms apply to all UKNode products and services. By placing an order you make an offer to purchase subject to these Terms; the Agreement commences when we activate the relevant service. UKNode reserves the right to refuse any order. You must be at least 18 years old and, where ordering on behalf of an organisation, have authority to bind that organisation.

3. Services & Products

Our offerings include shared web hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, domain registration, SSL certificates, and additional services such as email and CDN. Specifications are published at the point of purchase. UKNode reserves the right to modify service specifications with reasonable notice. All services operate on a subscription basis with the billing cycle shown on your Order Form.

4. Payment Terms

We accept credit card, debit card, PayPal, and other payment methods displayed at checkout. All services require payment in advance. By selecting recurring billing you authorise UKNode to charge your payment method automatically; an invoice is issued before each charge.

Prices may change with 30 days' written notice for renewals. Late payments incur a fee of 5% of the outstanding amount or £25, whichever is greater, and may result in suspension after 14 days' non-payment. All fees are exclusive of applicable taxes and VAT, quoted in GBP. Setup fees are non-refundable.

5. Refund & Cancellation Policy

30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

The 30-day money-back guarantee applies only to selected shared hosting packages, only to first-time customers, and only where these Terms have not been violated. The following are non-refundable: domain registrations, SSL certificates, setup fees, VPS and dedicated servers, services purchased at a discount, and third-party services.

Cancellations take effect at the end of the current billing period. No pro-rata refunds are issued after the guarantee window. Approved refunds are processed within 10 Business Days to the original payment method.

6. Customer Obligations

You agree to comply with all applicable laws, refrain from unlawful use of our services, and not upload prohibited content. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account, notifying us promptly of any breach, keeping your contact details current, and taking responsibility for all activity on your account.

You are solely responsible for password and key security. Account compromise resulting from credentials leaked or shared by you remains your liability. Your use of our services must comply with the UK GDPR, copyright law, and anti-spam legislation. Maintaining independent backups of your data and keeping any third-party software you install up to date are your responsibility.

7. Acceptable Use Policy

The following uses are prohibited: illegal content, malware, phishing or fraud, spam, copyright infringement, adult content (except on packages explicitly designated for it), hate speech, terrorist content, child exploitation material, hacking tools, unauthorised cryptocurrency mining, proxy or VPN services (unless explicitly permitted), file-sharing or torrent traffic, and DDoS activity.

Fair use on shared hosting

• CPU usage must not exceed 25% for more than 90 seconds at a time.
• Memory and disk I/O must remain within published limits.
• Resource-intensive scripts unsuitable for shared hosting are not permitted.
• Storage of backup archives is prohibited on shared hosting.
• "Unlimited" bandwidth is subject to fair use; legitimate website traffic only.
• Accounts are limited to 250,000 inodes; exceeding this allows suspension.

8. Service Limitations

Email port blocking

Ports 25, 465, and 587 are blocked by default to prevent outbound spam. You can request access by contacting support and completing our verification process.

Bandwidth and storage

"Unlimited" bandwidth applies to legitimate website traffic only. Storage is provided exclusively for website files; backup archives, personal storage, and unrelated media are prohibited. Database size limits are specified per package and must remain within the bounds of reasonable website operation.

Technical limits

Concurrent connections, script execution time, cron job frequency, and network ports are subject to limits per package. Standard web ports (80/443) are open on shared hosting; additional ports are available on VPS and dedicated servers.

9. IP Addresses

All IP addresses assigned to your services belong to Cloud Nord Limited (AS215262) and remain their property. You may not transfer, sell, or assign IPs. UKNode reserves the right to reassign IPs with reasonable notice, or immediately where operationally necessary, with updated information provided via the Control Panel.

10. Backup Services

Where backups are provided, they are offered as a courtesy with no guarantee of availability, integrity, or recoverability. Backup frequency and retention vary by package. Restoration is best-effort and not guaranteed; large accounts may experience longer restoration times. You are solely responsible for maintaining independent backups of your data. Restoration requests are subject to fees. Backup files count toward your storage quota and must comply with the Acceptable Use Policy.

11. Service Level Agreement

UKNode targets 99.9% monthly uptime for production services. Excluded from the SLA calculation: scheduled maintenance with at least 24 hours' notice, emergency maintenance, factors beyond our reasonable control (DDoS attacks, upstream network issues), customer-caused downtime, third-party service issues, and suspension or termination for breach of these Terms.

Service credits

• 99.0% – 99.9% uptime: 5% credit on the affected month.
• 95.0% – 98.9% uptime: 10% credit.
• Below 95.0% uptime: 25% credit.

Claims must be submitted within 7 days of the affected period with supporting evidence. Credits apply to future use only and are not redeemable for cash. Annual credits are capped at 100% of the relevant monthly fee. Service credits are your sole and exclusive remedy for SLA failures.

12. Technical Support

Support is available via email ([email protected]), the ticket system in your Control Panel, live chat during Business Hours (09:00–17:00 weekdays excluding UK holidays), and the public knowledge base. VPS and dedicated server customers receive 24/7 emergency support for critical outages.

Support covers

• Hosting infrastructure and Control Panel issues.
• VPS and dedicated server configuration.
• Basic troubleshooting.
• Billing and account inquiries.

Support does not cover

• Custom coding or website development.
• Third-party application support or training.
• Website design or content.
• Errors in customer-supplied code or configuration.

Response targets (goals, not guarantees)

• Critical (service down): 1 hour.
• High priority: 4 hours.
• Normal: 24 hours.
• Low: 48 hours.

Advanced managed services are available as paid add-ons.

13. Data Protection & Privacy

UKNode acts as a data processor in respect of Customer Data; you remain the data controller and are responsible for compliance with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Our Privacy Policy governs the collection of personal data we hold about you.

We implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures but no system can offer absolute security. Customer Data is stored primarily in UK and EU data centres. In the event of a personal-data breach we will notify you without undue delay as required by applicable law. You handle data-subject access requests directly, with our assistance available on request (which may be chargeable). Data Processing Agreements are available on request.

14. Intellectual Property Rights

UKNode owns all intellectual property in our website, services, software, systems, and documentation; we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use them for the duration of your services. You retain ownership of intellectual property in your Customer Data and grant UKNode a limited licence to host and process it for the purpose of providing the Services.

You may not copy or modify our software, reverse-engineer it, remove proprietary notices, develop competing services from it, or resell our services without written authorisation. Use of UKNode trademarks requires our written permission. Copyright-infringement notices are accepted with appropriate ownership evidence; we observe DMCA-style takedown procedures.

15. Warranties & Disclaimers

We provide our services with reasonable skill and care, substantially matching the descriptions on our website. Except as expressly provided in these Terms, services are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind. All implied warranties — including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, uninterrupted or error-free operation, security, defect correction, accuracy, reliability, and completeness — are disclaimed to the fullest extent permitted by law. Third-party services and software carry no warranty from UKNode.

You warrant that you have authority to enter this Agreement, that you own or have appropriate licences for your Customer Data, that your use of our services does not infringe third-party rights, and that you will use the services lawfully.

16. Limitation of Liability

UKNode's maximum aggregate liability under or in connection with this Agreement shall not exceed the total fees paid by you in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

The following are excluded from liability: loss of profits, revenue, business, anticipated savings, business opportunity, goodwill, or reputation; loss or corruption of data (except where caused by our wilful misconduct); and any indirect, consequential, special, or punitive damages — even if a party has been advised of the possibility of such losses.

Nothing in this Agreement excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of section 2 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, or any other liability that cannot be excluded under English law.

You are strongly advised to maintain independent backups. We are not liable for data loss except where caused by gross negligence or wilful misconduct. Failures resulting from force-majeure events are excluded from liability.

17. Indemnification

You will indemnify UKNode against claims arising from your misuse of our services, breach of these Terms, violation of third-party rights, breach of applicable law, the content of your Customer Data, or third-party infringement claims relating to it. UKNode will assume exclusive defence of such claims with your reasonable cooperation. You must promptly notify us of any such claim.

UKNode will indemnify you against third-party infringement claims arising solely from your use of our services in accordance with these Terms, provided you notify us promptly, give us sole control of the defence, and cooperate fully. The indemnity excludes claims arising from your modifications or from combinations with third-party services.

18. Suspension of Services

Grounds for suspension include material breach of these Terms (including the Acceptable Use Policy), payment more than 7 days overdue, reasonably suspected compromise or illegal use, harm or risk of harm to our infrastructure or other customers, valid legal orders, DDoS or other security threats, malware detection, hosting of prohibited content, or emergency maintenance.

We will give advance notice where reasonably possible, but may suspend immediately for emergencies, security incidents, or ongoing violations. We may investigate during suspension; reinstatement requires payment of any outstanding fees and reinstatement charges, removal of prohibited content, confirmation of compliance, implementation of any required security measures, and provision of any documentation we reasonably request.

Where feasible and safe, we will attempt to provide data access during suspension. Suspensions unresolved for 30 days or longer may result in termination and deletion of data. No refunds are issued during suspension; fees remain due.

19. Termination

By you

You may terminate at any time via the Control Panel or by emailing [email protected]. Termination takes effect at the end of the current billing period. No refunds are issued for unused prepaid services (except as set out in Clause 5).

By UKNode

We may terminate immediately for material breach unresolved 14 days after notice, repeated breaches, suspension lasting 30 days or more, conduct creating legal-violation risk, your insolvency / bankruptcy / liquidation / administration, or payment default of 30 days or more. We require professional communication; abusive, threatening, harassing, or defamatory communication constitutes material breach permitting immediate suspension or termination.

For convenience

Either party may terminate for convenience on 90 days' written notice. Pro-rata refunds apply where appropriate.

Effect of termination

All rights granted to you cease immediately, you must stop using the services, all outstanding fees become payable, and your Customer Data is handled per Clause 20. Clauses 14, 16, 17, 20, and 23 survive termination.

20. Data Retention After Termination

Important: back up all of your data before termination or expiry.

We provide a 14-day grace period after termination for data-retrieval requests, subject to payment of any outstanding fees and applicable retrieval charges. After this grace period your data — website files, databases, emails, backups, configuration, and account information — is permanently deleted (except where applicable law requires longer retention).

Retrieval requests must be made before the grace period ends. Legal-retention obligations may extend periods as set out in our Privacy Policy. Recovery is not possible after deletion. We employ secure deletion procedures; some data may persist in backups for a short period before being purged.

21. Force Majeure

Neither party is liable for failures or delays caused by events beyond reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, strikes, government actions, pandemics, fire, accident, public-infrastructure or utilities failure, telecommunications failure, cyber attacks not caused by our negligence, and third-party provider failures.

The affected party will notify the other promptly with details of the event, expected duration, and impact on performance, and will use reasonable efforts to mitigate and to resume obligations promptly. If a force-majeure event continues for 30 days or more, either party may terminate on written notice with a pro-rata refund. Payment obligations are not excused except where the event prevents you accessing the payment system through no fault of your own; in that case payment is made as soon as practicable.

22. Dispute Resolution

Disputes are handled in this order:

1. Good-faith negotiation, initiated by written notice describing the dispute.
2. Escalation to executive-level discussions, lasting up to 30 days.
3. Mediation with a mutually agreed mediator, lasting up to 60 days; costs shared equally.
4. Court proceedings per Clause 23 if the matter remains unresolved.

The parties continue to perform their obligations during the dispute, except for any disputed payment obligations. Either party may seek urgent injunctive or equitable relief from any competent court.

23. General Provisions

Entire Agreement

This Agreement together with the Order Form constitutes the entire agreement between the parties and supersedes all prior understandings.

Amendments

We may modify these Terms by posting the updated version on our website and notifying you by email or via the Control Panel. Material changes take effect 30 days after notice. Continued use of our services constitutes acceptance; if you disagree you may terminate per Clause 19.

Governing law & jurisdiction

This Agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales. The English and Welsh courts have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes.

Severability

Invalid provisions will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to be valid, or severed if modification is not possible; the remaining provisions remain in full effect.

Waiver

No failure or delay in exercising a right waives it. Waivers must be in writing. A waiver of one breach does not waive subsequent breaches.

Assignment

You may not assign this Agreement without our written consent. UKNode may assign to affiliates or to a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, or asset sale. Unauthorised assignments are void.

Third-party rights

No rights are conferred on third parties under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

Relationship of the parties

Nothing in this Agreement creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship. Neither party has authority to bind the other.

Notices

Written notices to UKNode should be sent to [email protected] or to 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. Notices to you will be sent to the email or postal address on your Order Form. Notices delivered by hand or email during Business Hours are deemed given on receipt; outside Business Hours, on the next Business Day; by post, three Business Days after mailing.

Headings, language, counterparts

Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation. The English version of these Terms prevails over any translation. The Agreement may be executed in counterparts.

Survival & interpretation

Clauses 14, 16, 17, 20, and 23 survive termination. The singular includes the plural; references to persons include bodies corporate and unincorporated associations; "including" means "including without limitation"; and references to writing include email and other electronic communications.

Further assurance

The parties will execute any further acts reasonably required to give effect to this Agreement.