How Does Proportional Use Work?

Rather than set hard and fast limitations on bandwidth and system usage, which cause people to limit what they do online, and also cause you to constantly worry about the cost of your online presence we operate what we describe as the Proportional Use Policy. It works by comparing your usage trends to other customers on similar hosting packages to you, and comparing your usage over a period of time.

We recognise that from time to time customers have more traffic than they would on a typical month, perhaps because of a special promotion or mention in a publication, with traffic and usage dropping off after, or being low in the months preceding. We don't believe it is fair to penalise you for having a high traffic month when your average traffic usage is far lower, so before we look at limiting your usage or changing your hosting plan, we look at how your average usage has been, and look at your overall length of service with us.

While this is perhaps unusual, and for some customers brings memories of providers who claim "unlimited" usage, we would like to ensure you understand this is not the same. Firstly, we'll be honest - it's our policy, and tell you that there is no such thing as unlimited, we do not claim to offer any such thing. Any ISP that does offer it is unable to match those claims - can they truly provide *unlimited* amounts of bandwidth to you, no matter how busy and how much traffic you use, without increasing the costs to you? We don't believe so.

The second part of our proportional use policy compares you to other customers. For example, if you were on a hosting package that cost £400 a year, and provided 500Mb of web space, and on an average month you used 10Gb bandwidth, and our average customer on similar packages used 8Gb, we would consider this proportional. If on the other hand, if you use 40Gb and the average customer on a similar package uses 8Gb, we would typically consider this out of proportion.

The good news is that we do not cut you off at this point, but look at your usage - if in previous months you'd only used 2-3Gb on average, then providing you did not consistently then use 40Gb every month, we would consider this as a peak/fall period, and ignore it - it is an integral part of our understanding of site usage that lets us do this.

Do you provide typical examples?

Yes, on some packages, we show you typical usage by customers on the same sort of package - you can determine therefore if your site is suited to the package you want, or have.

OK, so lets say I do use resources which you consider as out of proportion, what happens?

Our process involves working with you as a customer, with an aim of coming to an agreement on usage, rather than simply disconnecting you - this is ultimately our last resort and always wish to avoid it. Our process is based on the following principles:

1) We would look at ways to reduce your overall usage. It could be that you house some web content which is vastly inefficient in the way it uses bandwidth. We would work with you to find ways to reduce this usage.

2) We would look at ways to reduce your overall usage. It could be that you house some web content which is vastly inefficient in the way it uses bandwidth. We would work with you to find ways to reduce this usage. It could involve all manner of ideas and processes, and we will work with you to address this. Assuming this works, we're done, and you can continue with us.

3) We may look at adjusting your hosting package - it could be that you joined us with a simple package, and need to look at moving to either a newer package from our standard range, or even a customised solution - again, we look at your circumstances and use with us individually - it may be that we include a service on your standard package which you do not use, and instead convert it to additional bandwidth allowance or it may be that we re-align you to a more appropriate hosting package.

4) If moving you to a different hosting package is not an issue, it may be we need to look at offering you some form of co-located service or managed server service, to accommodate your usage. It is important to understand that unlike some companies, we do not force you to these points simply to "make money from you". We make our recommendations based on what we truly believe will be of the best benefit to you as our customer. Should this be necessary, we will work with you to ensure a smooth transition and help you every step of the way.

5) Finally, if we are unable to help you further, or you do not wish to work with us, we would need to consider terminating your service with us - this is our last resort and we want to avoid this wherever possible. We like to think that we operate in a fair manner. Fair to you as our customer, fair to those visiting your web solutions, and fair to us also - it's a 2-way street, and we expect our customers to work with us, as we work with you. It's all part of being a specialist service provider.

I'm not sure what this means, or I have a further question about this usage policy.

Please feel free to contact us to discuss this, or any other aspect of our service at any time. We welcome feedback from our customers