Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Definitions

• Webhost, Host, Xponent, Our, We: Xponent Ltd, the WordPress hosting provider.

• Owner, User, Client, You, Your: The paying customer utilizing the services provided by Xponent.

• Scheduled Maintenance: Infrastructure maintenance announced at least 48 hours in advance.

• Technical Support: Support restricted to Domain, DNS, and Server-related infrastructure issues.

• Managed WordPress Hosting Support: Direct support related to your WordPress website core, optimization, and platform environment.

• Email and Third-Party Integration Support: Support for email accounts and external applications integrated into your WordPress website.

• Privacy Policy and Cookie Consent: Platform support ensuring your website remains compliant with global privacy frameworks (GDPR, CCPA, LGPD, and POPI).

1. Scope and Core Commitments

This Service Level Agreement (the “SLA”) is an integral component of your agreement with Xponent. It governs the provision of services in accordance with the features and pricing laid out on our official Hosting Plans Page and related order forms.

This SLA defines the scope and boundaries of Xponent’s technical responsibilities and outlines your exclusive options for reimbursement if we fail to meet our performance metrics.

Sole Remedy: This SLA, including the service credits detailed below, constitutes Xponent’s sole financial obligation and your exclusive remedy for any service unavailability or infrastructure failure.

Infrastructure vs. Application Performance

Our platform is optimized specifically for WordPress, but every website code base is unique. While one site may easily serve thousands of concurrent visitors, a poorly optimized application might experience instability at 50 concurrent users.

Because application-layer performance depends heavily on individual site configurations, plugins, and databases, HTTP 503 (Service Unavailable) errors caused by application resource exhaustion do not qualify as an infrastructure outage under this SLA.

Xponent remains committed to your success. Our engineers will respond to infrastructure and platform issues promptly and provide proactive guidance regarding WordPress security and performance best practices.

2. Infrastructure Architecture & Risk Assessment

Xponent utilizes enterprise-grade Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers for computing, storage, and network services. Our vendor network includes, but is not limited to:

• DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, Hetzner, UpCloud

• Domains.co.za, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Inherent Cloud Risks

The use of public cloud vendors carries inherent risks, including distributed routing anomalies, hardware degradation, localized data loss, and external network interference.

Xponent employs industry best practices in systems architecture, data redundancy, and automated failover mechanics to minimize these disruptions. However, no guarantee or credit applies to events entirely outside of Xponent’s direct control.

This SLA specifically covers the network gateway access provided by Xponent to the public internet. Global routing anomalies, upstream carrier blackouts, or vendor-wide infrastructure failures outside our control are excluded from availability calculations.

3. Uptime Monitoring & Commitments

We utilize third-party monitoring via Better Stack to measure platform availability transparently. You can view our live infrastructure status at any time via our Public Status Page.

Monitoring Parameters

• Frequency: HTTP HEAD requests issued every 5 minutes to your homepage.

• Locations: Checked simultaneously from 4 distinct global geographic regions.

• Failure Threshold: A 30-second response timeout.

• Downtime Definition: If an HTTP status code falls outside the successful 2xx range (after resolving 3xx redirects), the site is logged as down, and an emergency alert is dispatched to our engineering team.

Uptime Targets & Allowed Deviations

4. Service Credit Framework

If our infrastructure fails to meet the guaranteed monthly uptime commitment, you are eligible to receive Service Credits applied against future invoices based on the following cumulative monthly downtime thresholds.

Pro & Business Plans (99.9% Guarantee)

• 45 to 90 Minutes: 5% Service Credit

• 90 to 180 Minutes: 8% Service Credit

• 180 to 300 Minutes: 12% Service Credit

• 300 to 420 Minutes: 20% Service Credit

• Thereafter, an additional 20% credit is awarded for every additional 3-hour increment of unavailability, capped at a maximum of 100% of your monthly fee.

Enterprise Plans (99.99% Guarantee)

• 5 to 60 Minutes: 5% Service Credit

• 60 to 90 Minutes: 8% Service Credit

• 90 to 120 Minutes: 12% Service Credit

• 120 to 180 Minutes: 20% Service Credit

• Thereafter, an additional 20% credit is awarded for every additional 3-hour increment of unavailability, capped at a maximum of 100% of your monthly fee.

5. Backup Retention & Schedules

Xponent maintains rigorous multi-layer backup intervals. Regardless of your plan, all backups have a strict system retention lifespan of 14 days. Business and Enterprise tier clients can optionally link their personal cloud storage buckets (OneDrive, Dropbox, pCloud, AWS S3, or DigitalOcean Spaces) for automated off-site synchronization.

6. Support Tiers, Maintenance, & Compliance

Managed WordPress Platform Support

• Updates: Core WordPress files, themes, and plugins are updated weekly during low-traffic periods.

• Virtual Patching: We monitor the Threatpress database. If an active exploit vulnerability is reported, an automated virtual patch is deployed immediately. Vulnerable software will be safely deactivated or replaced with secure alternatives.

• Visual Regression Checking: An AI-assisted visual scanner reviews your homepage post-update. If a layout shift greater than 3% is detected, the update is rolled back, and a human engineer manually reviews the site.

Support Limitations

• Third-Party Domain/DNS: Xponent cannot troubleshoot or manage DNS records or domain registrations purchased via external, third-party registrars.

• Third-Party Integrations: Support is not provided for third-party tools, external email environments, or applications not directly purchased from or provisioned by Xponent.

Privacy and Data Compliance

All hosted sites are eligible for integration with the iubenda legal compliance engine. Xponent will assist in configuring the cookie consent banner and generating privacy policies.

While Xponent designates an internal Data Protection Officer to ensure data capture mechanisms are accurately mapped and sensitive client info is restricted on a strict need-to-know basis, the ultimate legal enforcement and validation of your policy compliance remains the sole responsibility of the Client.

7. Excluded Events

No Service Credits or liability extensions will be granted for disruptions resulting from:

1. Actions, omissions, or configuration errors introduced by you, your developers, or authorized personnel.

2. Failure, misconfiguration, or bugs within equipment, software, or APIs provided by you.

3. System-wide outages, negligence, or failures originating from our underlying cloud IaaS vendors.

4. Scheduled Maintenance windows (minimum 48-hour advanced notice).

5. Force Majeure events or acts of nature.

6. Accounts flagged for active violations of our Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy.

8. Service Credit Claims & Account Closure

Claim Process

To file an SLA claim, you must submit a written ticket to su*****@********co.za within 7 days of the observed incident. The ticket must include your domain name, a detailed incident description, and corresponding time logs.

To qualify for a credit, your account must be fully paid, in good standing, and not in breach of any company policies. All approved SLA claims are issued exclusively as billing credits toward future invoices. Xponent’s network and logging systems serve as the final, absolute arbitrator for uptime data calculations.

Termination and Account Offboarding

Upon requested termination of service, and subject to your account maintaining a zero balance:

• Data Portability: Xponent will provide a full, clean backup archive of your WordPress website.

• Domain Release: Any domains managed directly by Xponent will be unlocked and authorized for transfer.

• Email Transition: If we act as your email service reseller, we will release your account authorization so you can transition management to yourself or another provider.

• License Revocation: All premium Xponent agency license keys linked to premium themes or plugins will be permanently deactivated upon site migration. You will need to obtain individual retail licenses to continue receiving developer updates for those components.

Right to Modify

Xponent reserves the right to modify this SLA at any time. Clients will be notified of changes. If you disagree with an updated policy, you retain the right to submit an account termination notice prior to the effective date of the modification. Continued utilization of Xponent services past the effective date constitutes full acceptance of the modified SLA.