1. Introduction

This Hosting Usage Policy ("Policy") governs the use of web hosting services provided by Online Digital (Pty) Ltd, trading as Online By Digital and Creative Digital Agency (Registration No. 2022/505183/07) ("we", "us", "our"), to clients whose websites are hosted on our servers or through our hosting partners.

By engaging our hosting services — whether as part of a web design package or as a standalone service — you ("Client", "you") agree to comply with this Policy in full. This Policy is designed to protect the security, performance and reliability of all hosted websites, including those of other clients sharing the same hosting environment.

This Policy is subject to South African law, including the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 25 of 2002 (ECTA), the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (POPIA), and the Films and Publications Act.

2. Acceptable Use

You may use our hosting services to host lawful website content that is:

  • Related to your registered business, organisation or personal brand.
  • Compliant with all applicable South African laws and regulations.
  • Accurate, not misleading, and respectful of third-party intellectual property rights.
  • Consistent with the services agreed upon in your web design or hosting contract with us.

Acceptable use includes standard business websites, e-commerce stores, portfolios, blogs, landing pages and informational content.

3. Prohibited Activities

The following activities are strictly prohibited on our hosting infrastructure and may result in immediate suspension without notice:

  • Illegal content: hosting, distributing or linking to content that is unlawful under South African or international law, including child sexual abuse material, incitement to violence, hate speech or defamatory content.
  • Malware and hacking tools: uploading, storing or distributing malicious code, viruses, spyware, ransomware, phishing pages, exploit kits or hacking utilities.
  • Spam and mass email: using our hosting to send unsolicited bulk email (spam), operate open mail relays or conduct email bombing campaigns. Email marketing must comply with POPIA and ECTA opt-in requirements.
  • Unauthorised access: attempting to gain unauthorised access to our servers, other clients' hosting accounts, or any third-party system.
  • Copyright infringement: distributing pirated software, unlicensed music, films, images or other copyright-protected material without the rights holder's authorisation.
  • Resource abuse: running processes, scripts or applications that consume excessive server resources (CPU, memory, bandwidth, disk I/O) to the detriment of other hosted clients.
  • Cryptocurrency mining: using hosting resources to mine Bitcoin, Ethereum or any other cryptocurrency.
  • Proxy and VPN services: operating anonymous proxy servers, VPN gateways or Tor exit nodes from hosted accounts.
  • Adult content: hosting sexually explicit material unless specifically agreed upon in writing and all applicable age-verification requirements under South African law are met.
  • Gambling: operating online gambling, sports betting or lottery services without the required licences under the National Gambling Act.
  • Fraudulent content: hosting content intended to deceive consumers, including fake reviews, misleading advertising or fraudulent financial schemes.

4. Resource Usage & Fair Use

Our hosting plans are subject to fair use principles. Unless your plan specifies dedicated resources, you share server infrastructure with other clients. You agree not to:

  • Exceed your allocated disk storage space. If your website approaches or exceeds the limit, we will notify you and a storage upgrade will be required.
  • Generate sustained high CPU or memory usage through inefficient code, unoptimised databases or poorly configured scripts.
  • Upload and store files unrelated to your website (e.g. using hosting as cloud storage or a file-sharing service).
  • Run background processes, cron jobs or automated scripts that are not essential to website operation without prior written approval.

We reserve the right to throttle, suspend or migrate accounts that consistently exceed acceptable resource thresholds. We will make reasonable efforts to contact you before taking action, except in cases of severe abuse.

5. Email Hosting Usage

Where email hosting is included in your package, the following conditions apply:

  • Email accounts must not be used to send unsolicited bulk messages. All marketing emails must include a clear unsubscribe mechanism as required by ECTA Section 45.
  • Sending bulk emails through standard shared hosting mail servers is prohibited. Dedicated email marketing platforms (e.g. Mailchimp, Brevo) must be used for campaigns exceeding 50 recipients.
  • Email accounts must not be used to store excessive volumes of email. Regular archiving or deletion is the client's responsibility.
  • Forging email headers, spoofing sender addresses or using email for phishing is a serious violation and will result in immediate account termination.

6. Content Standards & POPIA Compliance

All content hosted on our servers must comply with applicable South African legislation. In particular:

  • POPIA: if your website collects personal information from South African users (e.g. via contact forms, online shops or newsletter sign-ups), you are responsible for ensuring your website complies with POPIA. This includes displaying a compliant Privacy Policy, obtaining lawful consent where required, and securing personal data appropriately. We offer POPIA Integration as a paid service (R1,650) to assist with this.
  • ECTA: your website must include the disclosures required by ECTA Section 43, including company registration details, contact information and a complaints process if you conduct electronic transactions.
  • Consumer Protection Act (CPA): e-commerce websites must comply with the CPA, including clear pricing, cancellation rights and returns policies.
  • Accuracy: you are solely responsible for ensuring that all content on your website is accurate, up to date and not misleading to consumers.

7. Security Responsibilities

Website security is a shared responsibility between Online By Digital and the client:

  • Our responsibilities: we maintain server-level security, apply operating system patches, manage firewalls, monitor for known threats and provide SSL certificate management as included in your plan.
  • Your responsibilities: you are responsible for keeping your CMS (e.g. WordPress), themes and plugins updated unless you are on a maintenance plan that includes this service. Using outdated software is the leading cause of website compromises.
  • Password security: you are responsible for maintaining strong, unique passwords for your CMS, cPanel, FTP and email accounts. We strongly recommend the use of a password manager.
  • Compromised accounts: if your website is compromised due to your failure to maintain updates or secure credentials, clean-up and restoration work will be billed at our standard hourly rate of R495/hr.
  • Reporting: you must notify us immediately at [email protected] if you suspect your website or hosting account has been compromised.

8. Backups

We perform automated backups of hosted websites as part of our hosting infrastructure. However:

  • Backups are provided as a best-effort service and are not guaranteed to be complete or available at all times.
  • We strongly recommend that clients maintain their own independent backups of all website files and databases.
  • We accept no liability for data loss. It is your responsibility to ensure adequate backup arrangements are in place.
  • Clients on our Website Maintenance plans benefit from scheduled, monitored backups as part of their plan. Restoration from backups outside of a maintenance plan is billed at R495/hr.

9. Uptime & Service Availability

We aim to maintain high availability for all hosted websites. Our target uptime is 99.9% per calendar month, excluding scheduled maintenance windows. However:

  • We do not guarantee uninterrupted service. Downtime may occur due to hardware failures, network issues, load-shedding impacts, necessary maintenance or circumstances beyond our control.
  • Scheduled maintenance will be communicated in advance wherever possible.
  • We are not liable for any loss of business, revenue or data resulting from hosting downtime.
  • In the event of a hosting outage caused by our infrastructure, we will work to restore service as quickly as possible.

10. Domain Names

Where we register or manage domain names on your behalf:

  • The domain is registered in your name and you retain full ownership.
  • You are responsible for ensuring your domain registration details (WHOIS) are accurate and up to date.
  • We will provide renewal reminders, but the responsibility to renew your domain rests with you. We accept no liability for domain expiry if you fail to respond to renewal notices.
  • Domains registered in your name may be transferred to another registrar at your request with 30 days written notice.

11. Suspension & Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate hosting services under the following circumstances:

  • Immediate suspension: for any activity that poses a security risk to our infrastructure or other clients, including malware detection, spam activity or hacking attempts — with or without prior notice.
  • Non-payment: hosting accounts more than 14 days overdue will be suspended. Accounts more than 30 days overdue will be terminated and data may be permanently deleted.
  • Policy violation: breaches of this Policy will result in a written warning and 48-hour period to remedy the breach, after which hosting will be suspended pending resolution.
  • Client-initiated cancellation: 30 days written notice is required to cancel hosting services. No refund will be issued for the remaining period of the current billing cycle.

Upon termination, you have 14 days to request a copy of your website files and database. After this period, data will be permanently deleted from our servers.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by South African law:

  • We are not liable for any indirect, consequential, special or incidental losses arising from the use or unavailability of hosting services, including loss of revenue, customers or data.
  • Our total liability for any claim related to hosting services is limited to the fees paid by you for hosting in the three months preceding the incident giving rise to the claim.
  • We are not liable for any content published on your website, or for any third-party claims arising from your content or activities on your hosted site.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Hosting Usage Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, technology or applicable law. Updates will be posted on this page with a revised "Last updated" date. Continued use of our hosting services following notification of changes constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy. For material changes, we will notify active hosting clients via email.

14. Contact Us

For questions, concerns or reports of policy violations, please contact us:

To report abuse or a security incident involving a website hosted by us, please email [email protected] with the subject line "HOSTING ABUSE REPORT". We take all reports seriously and will respond within one business day.