Websites Unlimited Limited
Last Updated: April 29, 2025

1. Introduction and Purpose
This Fair Usage Policy (“FUP”) forms part of the Terms and Conditions (“Agreement”) governing your use of the website development, hosting, and maintenance services (“Services”) provided by Websites Unlimited (“we”, “us”, “our”).

Our goal is to provide high-quality, reliable, and affordable Services to all our clients. This FUP is designed to ensure that the usage of shared resources by any one client does not unfairly or negatively impact the experience and performance for other clients. It helps us maintain service stability, manage costs, and prevent abuse of resources included within our subscription plans.

By using the Services, you (“Client”, “you”, “your”) agree to abide by this FUP.

2. Scope of this Policy
This FUP applies primarily to resources provided as part of your Subscription Plan that may not have explicit numerical limits, or where usage patterns can significantly impact shared infrastructure. These typically include:

• Data Transfer / Bandwidth: The amount of data transferred to and from your hosted website.
• Website Storage: The total disk space occupied by your website files (excluding specific, plan-limited storage such as dedicated form submission storage – see Section 3).
• Server Processing Power (CPU / Memory): The amount of server processing resources consumed by your website’s operations and scripts.

This policy is designed to address sustained or excessive usage patterns, not occasional spikes in activity that fall within reasonable bounds.

3. Relationship to Specific Plan Limits
Your chosen Subscription Plan may include specific numerical limits for certain features (e.g., a maximum number of form submissions per month, a defined total storage capacity for uploaded form files, or a maximum number of email accounts). Those specific, defined limits are separate from this FUP. However, extreme or abusive usage patterns related even to features with defined limits could still be subject to review under this FUP or the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) if they threaten service stability or violate other terms.

4. Determining Fair Usage
We establish fair usage benchmarks based on the typical usage patterns observed across our client base for comparable Subscription Plans. We monitor resource consumption trends to identify usage that consistently or significantly deviates from these established norms for prolonged periods. Usage is generally considered “Fair” if it aligns with these typical patterns and does not negatively impact the shared hosting environment or overall service performance.

5. Excessive Use
Usage may be deemed “Excessive” under this FUP if your consumption of resources covered by Section 2:

• Consistently exceeds the typical usage benchmarks established for your Subscription Plan level over a sustained period (e.g., a billing cycle).
• Causes, or reasonably threatens to cause, degradation of service performance, instability for other clients hosted on the same infrastructure, or significantly increases our operational costs beyond what is sustainable for the plan price.
• Is indicative of activities that, while perhaps not explicitly violating the AUP, consume resources vastly disproportionate to the intended use of the Subscription Plan (e.g., using website hosting primarily for large-scale file sharing or archiving rather than typical website operation).

6. Procedure for Addressing Excessive Use
We aim to handle instances of Excessive Use transparently and collaboratively:

• (a) Monitoring & Identification: We monitor resource usage across our platform. If your usage pattern appears to constitute Excessive Use, we will investigate further.
• (b) Notification: If Excessive Use is confirmed, we will typically contact you via email or the Client Portal. This notification will explain the situation, identify the resource(s) being overused, provide data where possible, and reference this FUP.
• (c) Discussion & Options: We encourage you to discuss the usage with us. It may stem from legitimate website growth, inefficient website configuration, or other factors. We will explore options, which may include:
  • Optimising your website (e.g., compressing images, improving code efficiency).
  • Upgrading to a higher Subscription Plan with greater resource allowances.
  • Agreeing to pay supplementary charges for usage exceeding fair levels, based on a provided rate card.
• (d) Opportunity to Rectify: We will generally provide a reasonable timeframe (e.g., 7-14 days) for you to address the Excessive Use by implementing optimisation measures, upgrading your plan, or agreeing to overage charges.
• (e) Further Action: If, after notification and the opportunity to rectify, the Excessive Use persists without an agreed resolution, we reserve the right to take further action. This may include, upon further notice where practicable:
  • Applying charges for excessive usage based on our current rate card.
  • Implementing technical measures to restrict resource consumption (e.g., throttling bandwidth).
  • Requiring an upgrade to a more suitable Subscription Plan.
  • In persistent or extreme cases, suspending or terminating your Services in accordance with the main Terms and Conditions.

7. Supporting Legitimate Growth
We understand that successful websites grow. This FUP is not intended to unfairly penalise clients experiencing genuine growth. If your resource needs increase significantly due to legitimate business success, we are committed to working with you to find a suitable solution, typically involving a planned upgrade or utilising our rate card for predictable overages.

8. Client Responsibility
While we manage the core infrastructure, you share responsibility for efficient resource use. This includes reasonably optimising website content (e.g., image sizes), keeping software components updated (if client-managed), and promptly addressing any notices regarding Excessive Use.

9. Amendments
We may update this FUP from time to time to reflect changes in technology, usage patterns, or our service offerings. We will provide notice of significant changes by posting the updated policy on our website or notifying you via the Client Portal or email. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised FUP.

10. Governing Law
This FUP shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of New Zealand.