Terms of Service

Shard Hosting
Last updated: 21 October 2026
Website: https://shardhosting.net
Support: [email protected]
Billing: [email protected]

These Terms explain how Shard Hosting provides hosting and what you can expect from us. They apply to Minecraft hosting, website hosting, Discord bot hosting, and any other service we offer at the time you order. Please read them together with our Acceptable Use Policy, Privacy Policy, and Refund & Cancellation Policy.

1. Accounts and responsibilities

1.1. You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you are under 18, you need a parent or guardian's permission to make a purchase.

1.2. Give accurate information when you register and order, and keep your account email up to date so we can contact you about billing, security, and your services.

1.3. Keep your passwords, API keys, and other credentials safe. If you give someone access to your service, you are responsible for that access, except where a problem is caused by our systems or our actions.

1.4. We may review, decline, or hold an order when reasonably necessary to prevent fraud, abuse, or a security problem. This does not affect your legal rights.

2. Services and orders

2.1. Minecraft hosting is ordered on our website. After your Stripe payment succeeds, your server is normally set up automatically through our Pterodactyl panel. We don't guarantee a specific setup time. If setup fails, contact support.

2.2. Website and Discord bot hosting are set up manually. Contact us by email or Discord, we agree the plan and price with you, and we usually send a Stripe invoice.

2.3. Your plan description, or the plan we agree with you, sets the resources and features included. Only the features listed for your plan are included. CPU on a shared node is a share of the processor, not a whole dedicated physical processor.

2.4. You manage the files, plugins, mods, worlds, code, websites, bots, and other content on your service, unless we have separately agreed to manage it for you.

2.5. We may need to carry out planned or urgent maintenance. We'll try to give notice in our Discord community when we can, but urgent maintenance may happen with little or no warning. Important account-specific notices may also be sent by email.

2.6. We work to keep our services reliable, but they can be interrupted by maintenance, security incidents, technical faults, or problems at our upstream providers. We don't offer an uptime guarantee, service credits, or compensation for interruptions.

3. Prices, payments, and renewals

3.1. Prices are in US dollars (USD), and standard billing is monthly. Payments are processed by Stripe. Any other arrangement must be agreed with us by email or Discord before you pay.

3.2. Minecraft hosting is paid through checkout on our website. Website and Discord bot hosting are usually paid by Stripe invoice. You will see the price, billing cycle, and any charges before you pay.

3.3. Some orders are recurring subscriptions. A subscription renews on the billing cycle shown with your order until it is cancelled. A one-off invoice does not automatically renew.

3.4. Keep your payment method and billing details up to date. We may contact you about unpaid invoices or failed renewals.

3.5. Overdue payments are reviewed case by case. We may give you up to seven days to pay an overdue amount, but there is no automatic grace period. When practical, we will warn you before suspending a service for non-payment. Serious fraud or security concerns may require immediate action.

3.6. A failed payment on its own is not treated as misconduct. Refunds, incorrect charges, and payment disputes are covered by our Refund & Cancellation Policy.

4. Cancellation and ending a service

4.1. You can cancel at any time. To cancel, email [email protected] or open a support ticket on Discord at https://discord.gg/shardhosting or at https://shardhosting.net/tickets. We handle cancellations manually.

4.2. Include your account email and the service or invoice number. We'll check that you own the account and confirm when the cancellation takes effect.

4.3. Cancelling stops future renewals and your service stays active until the end of the period you've paid for. You can ask us to end it earlier, but ending early doesn't on its own make you eligible for a refund. We only give refunds when something is wrong with the service on our side, as set out in our Refund & Cancellation Policy.

4.4. Once a service has actually ended, the 14-day file recovery period in Section 6 begins. Cancelling a future renewal while your service is still running does not start that period.

4.5. Cancelling does not take away a refund you are eligible for under our Refund & Cancellation Policy, or any right you have under the law where you live.

5. Acceptable use, resources, and reselling

5.1. Our Acceptable Use Policy is part of these Terms. You must not use our hosting for attacks, malware, phishing, fraud, or any other activity it prohibits.

5.2. You may use the full resources included in your plan. Normal use of your allocation is not a violation. If a workload clearly threatens shared infrastructure or other customers, we may take proportionate action and explain why when we can.

5.3. CPU, RAM, and disk benchmarks within your plan limits are allowed, and so are ordinary, non-disruptive network tests. DDoS simulations, traffic floods, and other high-risk network tests need our written approval first.

5.4. Reselling needs our written approval first. If we approve it, you remain responsible for the people using the resold service.

5.5. Cryptocurrency mining needs our written approval first. We can't approve anything that is illegal or that our upstream providers prohibit.

6. Files, backups, and recovery after a service ends

6.1. Always keep your own copies of anything important. Backup features depend on your plan.

6.2. We may keep backups, but we can't guarantee that every file or a particular restore point can be recovered. You should keep your own backups.

6.3. For 14 days after a service actually ends, you can ask support for a copy of your recoverable files. We'll verify your identity first. We may offer temporary panel access instead, but we can't guarantee it.

6.4. The 14-day recovery period normally applies after a permanent ban too. We may hold back illegal or dangerous material, or use a safer way to deliver files, where releasing them would create serious risk or break the law.

6.5. After the 14 days, files and their backups are deleted. We may keep some data for longer where the law requires it or where it's needed for a dispute or security investigation. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data.

7. Security, support, and staff access

7.1. Use strong credentials, keep your software up to date, and remove access you no longer need. Tell us promptly if you think your account or service has been compromised.

7.2. We only access your files or server console when it's reasonably necessary: to help with a support request, investigate a security issue or a breach of our Acceptable Use Policy, carry out essential maintenance, or comply with the law.

7.3. You can contact support by email or Discord at any time. We reply as soon as we can, but we are not online around the clock and we don't guarantee response or resolution times.

7.4. We use traffic filtering and other measures to reduce the impact of attacks, including DDoS attacks. No protection can stop every attack.

8. Restrictions, suspension, and appeals

8.1. Depending on how serious a problem is, we may warn you, restrict the activity, temporarily suspend your service, or end it. For minor problems, we'll give you notice and a chance to fix it first whenever practical.

8.2. We may need to act immediately for active attacks, serious fraud, harmful software, major security threats, or a legal requirement. We'll explain what happened and how to appeal when we reasonably can and the law allows.

8.3. You can appeal by emailing [email protected] or through Discord. Where possible, someone other than the person who made the original decision will review your appeal. We'll reply as soon as we can.

8.4. If we find we restricted or ended your service by mistake, we'll restore it where possible. Any refund is handled under our Refund & Cancellation Policy and the law.

9. Your content and intellectual property

9.1. You keep the rights to your own content. You must have the right or licence to use and share the software, plugins, maps, websites, and other material you host.

9.2. By using our services, you let us store, transmit, process, and back up your content as reasonably needed to provide, secure, maintain, and end your service.

9.3. Report copyright or other abuse concerns to [email protected]. We'll review reports and give the affected customer a fair chance to respond, unless the law requires immediate action.

10. Liability and your rights

10.1. We take reasonable care in providing the service you've ordered. Nothing in these Terms removes or limits any responsibility that cannot legally be excluded.

10.2. We are not responsible for problems caused solely by your own plugins, scripts, configuration, or misuse, or by third-party services outside our control, except where the law says otherwise.

10.3. If we fail to provide the service you paid for, the remedies in our Refund & Cancellation Policy and your legal rights apply.

11. Changes and complaints

11.1. We may update these Terms to reflect changes to our services, security, operations, or the law. We'll publish the updated version on our website and announce important changes by email and Discord where appropriate. Urgent security changes may take effect sooner.

11.2. If an important change negatively affects a service you've already paid for, you can cancel. Any refund follows our Refund & Cancellation Policy. This does not remove any legal right you have to refuse the change or get a remedy.

11.3. If you have a complaint, contact [email protected]. You can also use your payment provider, a regulator, a court, or a consumer complaint service. We encourage you to contact us first, but you don't have to.

12. Contact

Shard Hosting
General help, cancellations and appeals: [email protected]
Payments, invoices and refunds: [email protected]
Privacy and data requests: [email protected]
Security vulnerability reports: [email protected]
Legal notices: [email protected]
Abuse reports: [email protected]
Discord: https://discord.gg/shardhosting
Website: https://shardhosting.net