Before you take your first client, two documents are non-negotiable: a Terms of Service and a Privacy Policy. These protect your business, set client expectations, and in many jurisdictions are legally required.
Acceptable Use Policy
Define what clients can and cannot host. Standard prohibitions include spam, malware, illegal content, copyright infringement and activities that harm other users or your infrastructure. Be specific. Vague policies are difficult to enforce.
Service Level Agreement
State your uptime commitment (99.9% is standard) and what compensation clients receive if you fall short. Define planned maintenance windows and how you communicate them.
Payment Terms
When are invoices due? What happens if payment is late? What is your suspension policy for non-payment? How long before a suspended account is terminated and data deleted? Be explicit about each stage and the timeline.
Refund Policy
Standard practice: 30-day money-back on hosting, no refund on domain registrations, no refund on setup fees.
Limitation of Liability
Hosting providers typically cap liability at the amount paid in the past 12 months. Without this clause, a single outage could expose you to claims far exceeding what the client ever paid you.
MHM Theme includes template legal pages for Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, SLA and Refund Policy. View them here.
