BearHost Terms of Service

Outbound SMTP (port 25) is blocked by default.

Outbound TCP port 25 is blocked at our network edge on all services - shared hosting, VPS, RDP, and dedicated. Submission ports 587 (STARTTLS) and 465 (SMTPS) remain open for legitimate transactional email sent through a reputable email service provider (Mailgun, Postmark, SendGrid, Amazon SES, etc.). This policy is industry standard and exists to protect our IP reputation for every customer on the network.

Port 25 will not be unblocked on request for the use cases below, even with a written justification: email verification, list-washing, list-validation, list-cleaning, bulk-mail sending, mail relays, SMTP test harnesses, or any workload that opens outbound SMTP connections to mail servers you do not control. These workloads consistently produce Spamhaus and SpamCop listings against the assigned IP and are the leading cause of suspension on our network.

For genuine ESP integration or self-hosted transactional mail where you control both sides (your own application sending to your own MTA), you may request port 25 unblock by writing to abuse@bearhost.com with the use case, expected volume, and the receiving infrastructure. We review each request individually and reserve the right to refuse without explanation.

Reverse DNS (PTR records).

PTR records are available on request for VPS, RDP, and dedicated services. Submit the request via support ticket including the IPv4 address and the desired hostname (which must resolve via forward A record to the same IP). We do not set PTR records for shared cPanel hosting accounts, as the underlying IP is shared with other customers.

IPv4 allocation.

Each VPS, RDP, and dedicated server is provisioned with one dedicated, publicly routable IPv4 address. Our IP space is not behind CGNAT and is not shared between VPS instances. Additional IPv4 addresses are available as a paid add-on, subject to availability and justification. Shared cPanel hosting accounts use a shared IP pool by design.

Virtualisation.

VPS instances run on full KVM hardware virtualisation with dedicated vCPU, RAM, and NVMe storage as advertised on each plan page. We do not oversell RAM or storage. CPU is allocated with fair-share scheduling - sustained 100% CPU use on a shared-CPU plan is permitted, but workloads that materially degrade performance for other tenants on the same hypervisor may be migrated, throttled, or asked to upgrade to a higher-tier plan.

Network firewalling.

Inbound 5900-5999 (VNC) is firewalled at the host level on VPS instances to prevent direct public exposure of the noVNC service; you reach the console via the BearHost dashboard, which proxies through an authenticated channel. All other ports are open to and from the public internet by default; you are responsible for firewalling at the guest OS level.

Consequence of violation.

Any outbound port-25 traffic detected from a customer IP, or any RBL listing (Spamhaus, SpamCop, Barracuda, etc.) caused by activity originating from the assigned IP, results in immediate suspension under the Acceptable Use Policy and forfeiture of the remaining service term under Section 07 - Cancellations & Refunds. This applies regardless of whether the suspension occurs inside the 30-day money-back window.

Automatic renewal and saved cards.

Services renew automatically at the price shown in your dashboard — for existing services this is the price you signed up at unless we notify you at least 30 days before a change. If you enable auto-renew, you authorise us to charge your saved card (stored and tokenised by our payment processor, Stripe — we never hold your full card number) on each renewal date until you turn auto-renew off in your dashboard or cancel the service. We email you before each renewal and after every payment. Promotional discounts apply to the first billing term only unless stated otherwise. Prices are shown in GBP, EUR or USD depending on your region and exclude any applicable VAT or sales tax unless stated at checkout.

Payment processing.

Card payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. and cryptocurrency payments by Cryptomus. We do not store full card numbers. Stripe's handling of your payment data is governed by Stripe's Privacy Policy (https://stripe.com/privacy).

30-Day Money-Back Guarantee:

• Available on new hosting plans only (Website Hosting, WordPress Hosting, VPS/RDP, Dedicated Servers), for a customer's first purchase of that plan, and limited to one money-back refund per customer/account.
• Full refund if you cancel within 30 days of your initial purchase, provided the service was used in good faith to evaluate its suitability. The guarantee is not intended for extended use of a working server followed by a refund request.
• We may first attempt to diagnose and resolve any technical or performance concern before issuing a refund — most issues are resolved quickly.
• For refunds requested after 14 days of active use, or on the basis that the service was not fit for purpose, we may ask for a brief good-faith explanation and, for any technical or performance claim, reasonable supporting evidence (what was not working, when, and any measurements such as CPU, RAM, latency or benchmark results) together with reasonable access to investigate. Refunds are provided where the service genuinely did not meet its advertised specifications.
• The refund covers the plan fee only; usage-based, bandwidth or overage charges already incurred, and the non-refundable items listed below, are excluded.
• We reserve the right to decline a refund where the request pattern indicates abuse of this guarantee (for example, repeated order-then-refund cycles) or where resource usage has been substantial.

Non-Refundable Items:

• Domain registrations and transfers - Domain fees are set by registries and cannot be refunded
• SSL certificates - Third-party SSL certificates are non-refundable once issued
• Setup fees - One-time setup or migration fees are non-refundable
• Renewals - The money-back guarantee applies only to initial purchases, not renewals
• Add-on services - Additional services like backups, extra storage, or premium support
• Accounts suspended or terminated for abuse, AUP violations, or fraudulent activity - All service fees, including unused portions of the billing term, are forfeited and non-refundable

No Refund for AUP / Abuse Suspensions:

If your service is suspended or terminated because of a violation of our Acceptable Use Policy - including, without limitation, sending or facilitating spam, running bulk-email or email-validation tooling, using our network as a proxy for abuse, hosting malware or phishing content, triggering a Spamhaus or other RBL listing against the IP address assigned to your service, or any other activity that places BearHost or its other customers at risk - no refund will be issued. This applies regardless of whether the suspension occurs within the 30-day money-back window. The remaining paid term is forfeited under this Agreement, and any credit balance on the account may be voided.

We rely on this clause because abuse-driven suspensions cause direct harm to our network reputation and to other customers sharing the same infrastructure. The forfeited fees offset the cost of remediation, IP-block reputation recovery, and the loss of the affected IP for future use.

How to Request a Refund:

• Log in to your BearHost account and submit a cancellation request
• Contact our support team at support@bearhost.com
• Refunds are typically processed within 5-7 business days to your original payment method

Cancellation Process:

You can cancel your services at any time. To avoid automatic renewal charges, please cancel at least 24 hours before your renewal date. Once cancelled, your account will remain active until the end of your current billing period. After that, your data may be permanently deleted.

Chargebacks:

If you file a chargeback or payment dispute instead of contacting us for a refund, we reserve the right to immediately suspend your account and withhold all data. Please reach out to us first - we're here to help resolve any billing concerns.

Uptime Guarantee:

• Shared Hosting (Website & WordPress): 99.9% uptime guarantee
• VPS/RDP Hosting: 99.9% uptime guarantee
• Dedicated Servers: 99.95% uptime guarantee

What's Covered:

Our uptime guarantee covers server availability and network connectivity. Uptime is measured monthly based on server availability, excluding scheduled maintenance windows.

Scheduled Maintenance:

• We perform scheduled maintenance during low-traffic hours (typically 2-6 AM UTC)
• Advanced notice of at least 24 hours will be provided for planned maintenance
• Scheduled maintenance is excluded from uptime calculations
• Emergency maintenance may occur without advance notice to protect service integrity

Exclusions from SLA:

The uptime guarantee does not cover downtime caused by:

• Scheduled maintenance (with proper notice)
• Issues caused by your scripts, applications, or configurations
• DDoS attacks or other malicious activity targeting your account
• Violations of our Acceptable Use Policy
• Third-party services or DNS providers
• Force majeure events (natural disasters, wars, acts of terrorism, etc.)
• Your internet service provider or local connectivity issues

Service Credits:

If we fail to meet our uptime guarantee, you may be eligible for service credits:

• 99.0% - 99.89% uptime: 10% account credit
• 95.0% - 98.99% uptime: 25% account credit
• Below 95% uptime: 50% account credit

Credits are calculated as a percentage of your monthly hosting fee for the affected service and applied to your account balance for use against future invoices. The maximum credit in any month is 50% of that service's monthly fee. Credits do not apply to domain registrations, SSL certificates, or third-party services.

How to Request Service Credits:

• Contact support@bearhost.com within 7 days of the downtime incident
• Provide details of the downtime period and affected services
• We'll verify against our monitoring and apply eligible credits within 2 business days

Monitoring and Transparency:

You can check our real-time service status and historical uptime at status.bearhost.com. We're committed to transparency and will keep you informed of any service issues.