PickGlobe
A promise of 99.9% uptime sounds close to perfect. The arithmetic and the small print show what it allows and what a customer can claim.
This guide is based on the public sources listed at the end. We have not tested the products or services mentioned.
This is a short reference page. The full guide is Web Hosting and Domains: The Complete Guide.
What the percentages allow
| Monthly uptime | Downtime allowed in a 30-day month |
|---|---|
| 99.9% | about 43 minutes |
| 99.99% | about 4 minutes |
Over a whole year, 99.9% allows about 8.8 hours.
A worked example: Amazon's compute SLA
Amazon Web Services publishes a service-level agreement for its compute service. It is a large cloud provider, not shared hosting, so we use it only to show the mechanics:
- Availability is defined narrowly: an instance counts as down only when it loses external connectivity.
- The remedy is a service credit as a percentage of that month's bill, in tiers (for example 10% below the target but at least 99%, 30% below 99%, and 100% below 95%).
- Credits go against future bills. They are not cash refunds.
- You must file a claim with logs and dates within a set window (here, by the end of the second billing cycle).
- Causes outside the provider's control and your own actions or software are excluded.
What to look for in any host's terms
- How is downtime measured, and what is excluded?
- What is the remedy and how do you claim it?
- Is the credit automatic?
- Is there a time limit on claims?
We have no source on typical shared-hosting terms, so read the terms of the plan you are considering.
Last checked: 15 October 2026. Sources: Amazon EC2 service level agreement.
