Terms of Service: Do You Really Need to Read Them?

• Tweet

• Tweet

You think you’ve found a great web hosting company: Its website has a long list of features, the price is right, and there’s a money-back guarantee in case you’re not happy. Sounds like time to sign up, right?

Well, sort of. But first you need to read the Terms of Service. No, really.

Before you sign up, you’ll probably see a little box like this:

When you see that box, usually one of three things happens:

Sound familiar?

If I had to guess, I’d say that most of us fall into the “blind acceptance” category: After all, who has a zillion hours to spend reading the fine print? All you want to do is get your website up and running.

Let’s say you sign up with Web Host X. You fill in all the forms, sign a contract, pay your deposit – and then you get to the little box. You check it – without reading a word of the Terms of Service. And then you get a huge charge on your credit card. You call sales support – and they tell you that there’s nothing they can do. It’s a charge included in the Terms of Service. By checking that little box, you’ve already agreed to pay additional setup charges. So what exactly should you look for in the Terms of Service? Here are a few good places to start:

Acceptable Use Policy

Most web hosts have policies about how you can use their service—for instance, some hosts might forbid certain types of sites or have specific rules about file sharing, spam, etc. Even if you think your website would pass all acceptable use policies, you should read this section carefully. Violating a host’s terms of service is a guaranteed way to get booted off the server.

Cancellation Policy and Refund Policy

You might think, “Well, the host advertised a money-back guarantee, so I don’t need to read this.” Wrong. Your web host may only give you 30 days to change your mind – or they may only give you a partial refund. And what happens if you cancel early? Do you have to pay a fee? If you read the Terms of Service, you won’t have any unpleasant surprises if you decide to cancel your service.

Billing and Payment

This is where your web hosting hides their additional fees! Read this section carefully: Do you have to pay for technical support? Does the web hosting company automatically renew your service at the end of the term and charge your credit card? What happens if you make a late payment? Some web hosts will shut down your account, then charge you all over again to restart it!

Resource Usage

Did your web host advertise “unlimited” diskspace, emails, etc.? Well, you need to read this section anyway — it’s where they explain what they really mean by “unlimited.” Usually it means that they will give you as much as they can without affecting others on the server, although some web hosting companies will provide you with an actual number in this section. Also some host measure usage by using inodes (Yes they measure “unlimited”.)

Back-up Policy

Does your web host back up your website files for you? Do they charge for this service? This is important to know because if they don’t backup your files, then you need to do it yourself in case of emergency!

Of course, you really should read the entire Terms of Service, but if you’re one of those people who find legal documents boring (and who doesn’t?), you should at least focus on the most important sections. If you ignore the Terms, you might end up with an accidental violation of your host’s policy. Or you might end up paying unexpected fees!