Service Level Agreement v3 Archive

1. Purpose and Scope

1.1 This Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) sets out the service level commitments that Pladinum Group SL (“Pladinum”, “we”, “us”, “our”) makes to its Customers in relation to the Services described herein.

1.2 This SLA forms an integral part of the Agreement between Pladinum and the Customer and should be read together with the General Terms and Conditions. In the event of conflict between this SLA and the General Terms and Conditions, the General Terms and Conditions shall prevail unless this SLA explicitly provides otherwise.

1.3 Applicable Services. This SLA applies to the following categories of Services: shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated server hosting, reseller hosting, email hosting, ecommerce hosting, business email, domain name services, SSL certificates, backup and disaster recovery, website protection, VPN, and server administration, each as further defined in the General Terms and Conditions.

1.4 This SLA does not apply to free trials, beta services, third-party services not operated by Pladinum, or services that have been suspended or terminated.

2. Definitions

“Downtime” means a period during which a Service is materially unavailable or inaccessible to the Customer, as measured by Pladinum’s monitoring systems. Downtime is measured from the moment Pladinum’s monitoring systems first detect the Service as unavailable until the moment the Service is restored.

“Monthly Uptime Percentage” means the total number of minutes in a calendar month minus the total Downtime minutes (excluding Excluded Downtime), divided by the total number of minutes in that calendar month, expressed as a percentage.

“Planned Maintenance” means scheduled maintenance activities that are communicated to the Customer in advance via the customer portal, email, or the Pladinum status page.

“Service Credit” means a credit applied to the Customer’s account as compensation for Downtime that falls below the committed SLA target, calculated in accordance with Section 7.

“Excluded Downtime” means periods of unavailability that are excluded from SLA calculations, as defined in Section 8.

“Monthly Recurring Charge” or “MRC” means the monthly fee payable by the Customer for the affected Service, calculated as one-twelfth (1/12) of the annual fee for annual subscriptions, or one-twenty-fourth (1/24) for biennial subscriptions, as applicable.

“Incident” means any unplanned interruption to, or reduction in the quality of, a Service.

“Business Hours” means Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:30 CET/CEST, excluding Spanish public holidays.

“Maintenance Window” means the recurring weekly scheduled maintenance period on Tuesday nights from 23:00 to 06:00 CET/CEST, or any other maintenance period communicated in advance via the Pladinum network status page.

3. Network Uptime Guarantee

3.1 Commitment. Pladinum guarantees a network uptime of 99.9% per calendar month. This guarantee ensures that all core routing infrastructure within Pladinum’s network remains reachable from the global internet.

3.2 Measurement. Network availability is measured by Pladinum’s internal monitoring systems using automated health checks at intervals of no more than one (1) minute. The monitoring endpoints are deployed across multiple geographic locations to ensure representative measurement.

3.3 Scope. The network uptime guarantee covers the availability of Pladinum’s core network infrastructure, including routers, switches, and backbone connectivity between Pladinum’s network edge and the Customer’s server or hosting environment. It does not cover availability of the Customer’s individual website, application, or content, which may be affected by factors outside Pladinum’s control.

4. Server and Hosting Uptime Guarantees

Pladinum commits to the following Monthly Uptime Percentages for each category of hosting service:

Dedicated Server Hosting: 99.99% monthly uptime target, maximum downtime approximately 4 minutes 23 seconds per month.
VPS Hosting: 99.95% monthly uptime target, maximum downtime approximately 21 minutes 54 seconds per month.
Managed WordPress Hosting: 99.95% monthly uptime target, maximum downtime approximately 21 minutes 54 seconds per month.
WooCommerce Hosting: 99.95% monthly uptime target, maximum downtime approximately 21 minutes 54 seconds per month.
Shared Web Hosting: 99.9% monthly uptime target, maximum downtime approximately 43 minutes 50 seconds per month.
Reseller Hosting: 99.9% monthly uptime target, maximum downtime approximately 43 minutes 50 seconds per month.
Email Hosting: 99.9% monthly uptime target, maximum downtime approximately 43 minutes 50 seconds per month.
Ecommerce Hosting: 99.95% monthly uptime target, maximum downtime approximately 21 minutes 54 seconds per month.
Business Email (Mail Server): 99.9% monthly uptime target, maximum downtime approximately 43 minutes 50 seconds per month.

4.2 The uptime targets above are measured per individual server or hosting environment, not per individual website, application, or email account.

5. Hardware Replacement — Dedicated Servers

5.1 Commitment. In the event of a hardware failure on a dedicated server, Pladinum commits to replacing or restoring the defective hardware component within thirty (30) minutes of problem identification by Pladinum’s monitoring systems or support team.

5.2 Scope. This commitment applies to server-level hardware components including but not limited to hard drives/SSDs, RAM modules, power supplies, network interface cards, and motherboards. Replacement is performed using equivalent or superior components.

5.3 Exclusion of Software Restoration. The 30-minute hardware replacement commitment does not include time required for supplementary software-related activities following hardware replacement, including but not limited to:

(i) Restoring hosting accounts from backups;
(ii) Cloning or rebuilding hard drives;
(iii) Reinstalling or reconfiguring the operating system;
(iv) Reconfiguring applications, control panels (cPanel/WHM), or server software;
(v) Reconstructing or resynchronising RAID arrays.

5.4 Compensation for Delay. If the 30-minute hardware replacement target is not met, Pladinum will issue a Service Credit equivalent to ten (10) times the duration of additional Downtime beyond the 30-minute target, as measured by Pladinum’s monitoring systems. The total compensation for any single hardware replacement Incident shall not exceed the Customer’s Monthly Recurring Charge for the affected dedicated server.

5.5 This section applies exclusively to dedicated server hosting. Hardware replacement for shared, VPS, and managed hosting environments is handled at the infrastructure level and is covered by the general uptime commitments in Section 4.

6. DNS, SSL, and Domain Service Levels

6.1 DNS Resolution
6.1.1 Pladinum commits to a DNS resolution availability of 99.9% per calendar month for domains using Pladinum’s authoritative DNS servers.
6.1.2 DNS query response time for authoritative queries shall not exceed two hundred (200) milliseconds under normal operating conditions, measured from Pladinum’s DNS infrastructure.

6.2 SSL Certificate Provisioning
6.2.1 Domain Validated (DV) SSL certificates (including Let’s Encrypt and equivalent automated certificates) shall be issued within fifteen (15) minutes of a valid request, subject to successful domain validation.
6.2.2 Organisation Validated (OV) and Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates are issued by the upstream Certificate Authority (via Pladinum’s accredited registrar partner) and are subject to the processing timelines of that authority. Pladinum shall submit the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) within one (1) business day of receiving all required documentation from the Customer.

6.3 Domain Name Operations
6.3.1 New domain name registrations shall be submitted to the upstream registry (via Pladinum’s accredited registrar partner) within one (1) hour of receiving a valid order and successful payment.
6.3.2 Domain transfer processing shall be initiated within one (1) business day of receiving a valid transfer request with the correct authorisation code (EPP code). Transfer completion is subject to the timelines imposed by the gaining and losing registries.

7. Service Credits and Compensation

7.1 Service Credit Calculation
If the Monthly Uptime Percentage for a Service falls below the committed SLA target, the Customer is entitled to a Service Credit calculated on a granular, percentage-point basis as follows:

Below target but ≥ 99.90%: 10% of MRC.
99.80% – 99.89%: 20% of MRC.
99.70% – 99.79%: 30% of MRC.
99.60% – 99.69%: 40% of MRC.
99.50% – 99.59%: 50% of MRC.
99.40% – 99.49%: 60% of MRC.
99.30% – 99.39%: 70% of MRC.
99.20% – 99.29%: 80% of MRC.
99.10% – 99.19%: 90% of MRC.
Below 99.00%: 100% of MRC.

Note: The applicable SLA target varies by service category (see Section 4). For example, if a Dedicated Server (99.99% target) achieves 99.70% uptime in a given month, the Customer is entitled to a 30% Service Credit. If a Shared Hosting plan (99.9% target) achieves 99.70% uptime, the Customer is entitled to a 20% Service Credit, since 99.70% is two tiers below its 99.9% target.

7.2 Maximum Credit
7.2.1 The maximum aggregate Service Credit for any single Service in any single calendar month shall not exceed one hundred percent (100%) of the Monthly Recurring Charge for that Service.
7.2.2 Service Credits are applied as a credit to the Customer’s account for use against future invoices. Service Credits are not refundable in cash, transferable, or convertible to Pladinum Balance.

7.3 Claiming Service Credits
7.3.1 To claim a Service Credit, the Customer must submit a written request (via support ticket or email to support@pladinum.com) within thirty (30) calendar days of the Incident. The request must include: (i) the affected Service; (ii) the date and time of the Downtime; (iii) the duration of the Downtime; and (iv) a description of the impact.
7.3.2 Pladinum will verify the claim against its monitoring data and respond within ten (10) business days. Pladinum’s monitoring systems shall be the authoritative source for Downtime measurement.
7.3.3 If a claim is validated, the Service Credit will be applied to the Customer’s account within one (1) billing cycle.

7.4 Sole and Exclusive Remedy
7.4.1 Service Credits constitute the Customer’s sole and exclusive remedy for any failure by Pladinum to meet the SLA commitments set forth in this agreement, except as otherwise provided by mandatory applicable law.
7.4.2 Nothing in this Section shall limit or exclude liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law, including liability for wilful misconduct or gross negligence.

8. SLA Exclusions

The following events and circumstances are excluded from SLA calculations and do not qualify for Service Credits:

8.1 Planned Maintenance. Scheduled maintenance periods that are communicated to the Customer in advance via the customer portal, email, or the Pladinum status page. Non-urgent maintenance and system updates are scheduled weekly on Tuesday nights between 23:00 and 06:00 CET/CEST. If urgent activities cannot be performed within the weekly maintenance window, they will be communicated in advance on the Pladinum network status page. Pladinum will use commercially reasonable efforts to minimise duration and customer impact during all maintenance windows.

8.2 Emergency Maintenance. Urgent, unscheduled maintenance required to address critical security vulnerabilities, data integrity risks, or imminent infrastructure threats. Pladinum will provide notice as soon as reasonably practicable and will endeavour to minimise the duration and impact of emergency maintenance.

8.3 Force Majeure. Events beyond Pladinum’s reasonable control, as defined in Article 17 of the General Terms and Conditions, including but not limited to natural disasters, war, terrorism, epidemics, government actions, power outages, telecommunications failures, and large-scale cyberattacks (e.g., DDoS attacks exceeding Pladinum’s mitigation capacity).

8.4 Customer-Caused Downtime. Downtime caused by the Customer’s actions, including but not limited to: misconfiguration of software, applications, or DNS settings; excessive resource consumption in violation of the Acceptable Use Policy; installation of faulty or incompatible plugins, themes, or code; or failure to keep software up to date.

8.5 Third-Party Failures. Downtime caused by third-party services not operated by Pladinum, including upstream internet service providers, domain registries (e.g., ICANN, SIDN), certificate authorities, CDN providers, or external APIs integrated by the Customer.

8.6 DNS Propagation. Delays attributable to DNS propagation following domain changes, transfers, or nameserver updates, which are governed by TTL values and global DNS resolver caching outside Pladinum’s control.

8.7 Suspended or Terminated Accounts. Downtime occurring during any period in which the Customer’s account or Service is suspended or terminated for non-payment, breach of the Acceptable Use Policy, or breach of the General Terms and Conditions.

8.8 Alpha and Beta Services. Services designated as “alpha,” “beta,” “preview,” or “experimental” are provided without SLA commitments.

8.9 Free Services and Trials. Services provided free of charge or during a free trial period are not covered by this SLA.

8.10 Customer Non-Cooperation. Delays in restoration caused by the Customer’s failure to respond to Pladinum’s requests for information, access, or authorisation required to diagnose or resolve an Incident.

9. Incident Management and Response Times

9.1 Incident Severity Levels
Pladinum classifies Incidents according to the following severity levels:

Critical (P1): Complete service outage affecting production environment; data loss or security breach. Examples: server down, network unreachable, data centre connectivity loss, active security breach.
High (P2): Significant degradation of service; major feature unavailable; no workaround. Examples: severe performance degradation, email delivery failure, control panel inaccessible.
Medium (P3): Partial service impact; workaround available; non-critical function affected. Examples: intermittent errors, slow response times, individual feature malfunction.
Low (P4): Minor issue; informational request; cosmetic issue; general inquiry. Examples: documentation question, feature request, minor display issue.

9.2 Response and Resolution Targets — Managed Services
The following targets apply to Managed WordPress Hosting, Managed WooCommerce Hosting, Managed Dedicated Servers, and any service purchased with a Managed Support add-on:

Critical (P1): Initial response 15 minutes, status updates every 30 minutes, target resolution 4 hours.
High (P2): Initial response 1 hour, status updates every 2 hours, target resolution 8 hours.
Medium (P3): Initial response 4 hours, status updates every 8 hours, target resolution 24 hours.
Low (P4): Initial response 1 business day, status updates upon status change, target resolution 5 business days.

9.3 Response and Resolution Targets — Unmanaged (Self-Managed) Services
The following targets apply to Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Email Hosting, unmanaged VPS, unmanaged Dedicated Servers, and all other self-managed services:

Critical (P1): Initial response 1 hour, status updates every 2 hours, target resolution 8 hours.
High (P2): Initial response 4 hours, status updates every 4 hours, target resolution 12 hours.
Medium (P3): Initial response 8 hours, status updates every 12 hours, target resolution 48 hours.
Low (P4): Initial response 1 business day, status updates upon status change, target resolution 5 business days.

9.4 For managed services, P1 and P2 incidents are monitored and addressed 24/7/365. For unmanaged services, P1 incidents are monitored 24/7/365 at the infrastructure level; P2–P4 response and resolution times are measured during business hours (Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:30 CET/CEST, excluding Spanish public holidays).

9.5 Resolution times are targets, not guarantees. Complex issues involving third-party dependencies, data recovery, or root cause analysis may require additional time. Pladinum will keep the Customer informed of progress.

9.6 Escalation Procedure
9.6.1 If a P1 or P2 Incident is not resolved within the target resolution time, the Customer may request escalation through the support ticket system or by emailing support@pladinum.com with the subject line “ESCALATION: [Ticket Number].”
9.6.2 Escalated incidents are reviewed by a senior engineer or member of Pladinum’s management team and receive priority allocation of resources.

10. Backup and Data Recovery Service Levels

10.1 Automated Backups. Where the Customer has purchased a backup service (daily automated backups or Acronis disaster recovery), Pladinum commits to performing backups at the intervals specified in the service description (e.g., daily, weekly).

10.2 Backup Retention. Backup retention periods are defined by the specific backup product purchased. Standard daily backups are retained for a minimum of seven (7) days. Extended retention is available through the Acronis disaster recovery service.

10.3 Restoration. Restoration requests submitted through the customer portal or support ticket system will be initiated within four (4) hours during business hours and within eight (8) hours outside business hours. Restoration time depends on the volume of data and the complexity of the environment.

10.4 Limitation. Backups reduce but do not eliminate the risk of data loss. Pladinum does not guarantee that all data can be recovered in all circumstances. Customers are strongly encouraged to maintain independent backups of critical data, as stated in the General Terms and Conditions.

11. VPN Service Levels

11.1 The VPN service availability target is 99.5% per calendar month, measured across the VPN infrastructure as a whole.

11.2 Pladinum does not guarantee specific throughput, latency, or connection speed for VPN services, as performance is inherently dependent on factors including the Customer’s internet connection, geographic distance to the VPN server, network congestion, and protocol overhead.

11.3 Temporary unavailability of individual VPN server locations does not constitute Downtime if alternative server locations remain available.

12. Monitoring, Reporting, and Transparency

12.1 Infrastructure Monitoring. Pladinum operates 24/7/365 automated monitoring across all core infrastructure, including servers, network devices, storage systems, and critical services. Monitoring uses both internal and external probe points to detect outages.

12.2 Status Page. Real-time and historical service status is available on the Pladinum network status page. The status page displays current operational status, active incidents, planned maintenance windows, and historical uptime data.

12.3 Incident Reports. Following any P1 or P2 Incident, Pladinum will produce a post-incident report (“PIR”) within five (5) business days of resolution. The PIR will include: (i) a timeline of the Incident; (ii) root cause analysis; (iii) impact assessment; and (iv) corrective actions taken or planned to prevent recurrence.

12.4 Monthly Reports. Dedicated server customers may request a monthly uptime and performance summary report at no additional charge.

13. Customer Responsibilities

To enable Pladinum to fulfil its SLA commitments, the Customer agrees to:

(i) Maintain accurate and up-to-date contact information in the customer portal to ensure timely receipt of maintenance notifications and incident communications;
(ii) Keep all software, CMS installations (e.g., WordPress, plugins, themes), and applications within their hosting environment up to date with the latest stable versions and security patches;
(iii) Comply with the Acceptable Use Policy and refrain from activities that may degrade server or network performance;
(iv) Respond to Pladinum’s requests for information, access, or cooperation in a timely manner during incident investigation and resolution;
(v) Maintain independent backups of critical data;
(vi) Report suspected incidents promptly through the designated support channels.

14. SLA Review and Modification

14.1 Pladinum reserves the right to modify this SLA at any time. Material changes will be communicated to affected Customers at least thirty (30) calendar days before they take effect, via the customer portal, email, or the Site.

14.2 If a modification to this SLA materially reduces the service levels previously committed to the Customer, the Customer may terminate the affected Service within thirty (30) calendar days of notification without early termination penalty.

14.3 Pladinum will review this SLA at least annually to ensure that service level commitments remain aligned with infrastructure capabilities and customer expectations.

15. Governing Law

This SLA is governed by the laws of Spain. Unless mandatory consumer protection law provides otherwise, any disputes arising from or in connection with this SLA shall be submitted to the competent courts in the judicial district where Pladinum is registered. This SLA is subject to the hierarchy of precedence defined in Article 1 of the General Terms and Conditions: mandatory law prevails over service agreements, which prevail over this SLA.

16. Contact Information

For SLA claims, incident escalations, or questions about this agreement, please contact us:

Pladinum Group SL
Avenida Manolete 3a
29660 Marbella, Málaga, Spain
Support: support@pladinum.com
Customer Portal: my.pladinum.com
Network Status: status.pladinum.com
Telephone: +34 697 989 840

History