Free Trial and Offer Terms

These terms cover the free trial and every discount, promotional code and introductory price we offer. They are part of the terms of service, which you accept when you place an order, and they add to it rather than replace it. Where an advertisement, an email, a post or a coupon site says something different, this page and the checkout are right.

The free trial, in short

7 days of a real hosting plan — WP Starter, WP Pro, Boutique or Emporium — for 0.00, with no card.
One per customer, ever. Not one per email address, per account or per company name.
When the 7 days end, the plan's first monthly payment is due. Pay it and the plan carries on; leave it, and the plan is suspended the next day and deleted 7 days later.
The trial takes the place of the money-back guarantee: a plan that began as a free trial is not refundable once it is paid for.

Who can have one

A person or business that has never had a free trial from us, under any account. A new email address, name, company, phone number or device does not make a new customer.
Signed in to an account whose email address is verified.
With true details, as the terms of service require of every account. A trial started with false details is ended when we find it.

How we tell that two accounts are one customer. We compare what the accounts have in common — the email address (dots and +tags ignored), the phone number, the browser they were used from, and the domain names added to them — and we limit how many trials can start from one network in a month. We may use any other detail on an account to the same end. The privacy policy says what we keep for this and for how long.

If checkout finds that an account is the same customer as one that has had a trial, the trial is refused there. We do not say which detail matched, because that would be instructions for getting round it. If you think we have it wrong, ask support and a person will look.

What the trial includes, and what it does not

The plan you chose, with that plan's websites, storage, resources and features as listed on the pricing page, with one difference: while the trial runs, the plan sends at most 20 emails a day (10 an hour). A free plan with full mail limits would be a free spam relay; the plan's own limits return the moment its first payment is made.

Billing is monthly. A trial cannot be started on a yearly or any other term. Changing plan is possible once the first payment has been made, as on any plan.
Only the plan is free. Anything else in the same order — a domain name, a second plan — is charged at its normal price, and domain names are never refundable.
The acceptable use policy applies to a trial exactly as it applies to a paid plan.

Day by day

Day 0 — you start. Checkout shows 0.00 for the plan and asks for no card. The plan is built and the 7 days begin. The same day we issue the invoice for the plan's first month at its normal monthly price, due on day 7, so what continuing costs is in front of you from the first minute.
Days 0 to 7. Everything on the plan works. You can pay the invoice early, or cancel at any time from the panel.
Day 7. The invoice is due. Paid, the plan carries on as an ordinary monthly plan, renewing each month at the price shown on its renewal invoice until you change or cancel it.
Day 8 — not paid. The plan is suspended and its websites go offline. Nothing has been deleted yet, and paying the invoice brings it all back.
Day 15 — still not paid. The plan and everything in it — websites, databases, files and mailboxes — are deleted permanently. A trial is kept for 7 days after it ends, not the 30 days a paid plan gets.

If you want to keep what you built, take a copy before the end. A full backup is one click in the panel, and it is yours. We do not promise that any copy of a trial survives its deletion, and we will not rebuild one.

Ending a trial early — yours, or ours

You can cancel at any time from the panel. Cancelling also cancels the unpaid invoice, so nothing is owed, and the plan ends on the timeline above.

We may end any trial at once, without notice and without giving a reason, if we believe it is being used for something other than trying our hosting in good faith. That includes, and is not limited to: bulk or unsolicited email; phishing, malware or anything else illegal; proxies, VPNs, miners, download mirrors or file hosting; attacking or load-testing other people's services; and starting trials under more than one account. A trial ended for any of these may be deleted immediately instead of after 7 days, and the accounts involved may be closed.

We may refuse a trial, limit how many are available, and change or withdraw the offer at any time. A trial that has already started keeps the days it started with.

The free trial and the money-back guarantee

The money-back guarantee exists so that a first-time customer can try us at no risk. The free trial does the same job, earlier and without paying anything, so the two do not add up:

A plan that began as a free trial is not refundable once its first payment is made. You had 7 days to decide before paying it.
A customer who has had a free trial, whether or not they paid for it afterwards, is no longer a first-time customer, so the money-back guarantee does not apply to their later orders either.

Cancelling still works as it does on every plan: it stops the next renewal.

Promotional codes, discounts and introductory prices

One code per order. Codes cannot be combined with each other or with the free trial.
A code does exactly what it states — the plans, billing terms and payment it names, usually the first payment of a new plan — and nothing else. Renewals are at the plan's normal price, which the panel and the renewal invoice show before anything is due.
"New customers" in an offer means what it means for the trial: a person or business that has never had a plan with us, under any account, judged the same way.
A discount has no cash value. It cannot be exchanged, transferred, sold or turned into credit, and it is never paid out: a refund returns what you actually paid, not what a discount was worth.
An offer can be limited in number, changed or ended at any time. An order already paid keeps the price it was paid at.
Codes found elsewhere. Coupon sites and articles publish codes we never issued and codes that have ended. If a code is accepted at checkout it is valid; if it is not, we will not honour it afterwards.
A code or a trial obtained against these terms — through several accounts, false details or automated sign-ups — may be withdrawn after the order. We may then invoice the full price, end the plan, or close the accounts involved, and an account closed for this is not refunded.

Changes to this page

The date at the top is when this page last changed. A trial that has started, or an order that has been paid, is governed by the version in force when it began. To ask about an offer before you use it, talk to us.

Free trial and offer terms