The Truth about Website Uptime Guarantees

As we previously discussed, a web host that is offering an uptime guarantee for the site that you host with them can be an alluring offer. After all, if a host is willing to put their money where their mouth is, then their uptime really must be everything they promise – right? Unfortunately that’s just not the way it works in the real world. We’d all like to think that web hosts that offer uptime guarantees are doing it for their customers’ peace of mind and to compensate them if things go south. The truth is, these guarantees are little more than a marketing tactic. Here’s what you need to know and why…

What Are They Really Guaranteeing?

When you decide to look for a new web host, the biggest mistake you could make would be to choose one specifically because they offer a guaranteed uptime of 99.9 percent. Yes, they are guaranteeing that your site will be up 99.9 percent of the time, but how are you protected by that guarantee? If your website uptime is only 97 percent, will you get back the hundreds or thousands of dollars in lost profits you experience? No, you won’t – and this is why.

When a web host offers an uptime guarantee, they aren’t offering to reimburse you for lost profits. They aren’t even going to credit you for an entire month of service. What they are going to do is credit you for any downtime you experienced that was above and beyond the downtime quoted in their uptime guarantee. In most cases, this equates to pennies. Does a bit of spare change do you any good when your website downtime has cost you substantial lost profits? Absolutely not.

Good Companies Can and Do Offer Guarantees

Now don’t think that good hosting companies don’t offer uptime guarantees, because they do. We here at Alertra just don’t think you should put all of your stock in the guarantee that is offered when you are thinking of signing up with a new web host. If a web hosting service has an uptime guarantee but miserable reviews, don’t let that guarantee sway you into signing up for one of their hosting packages. You won’t be compensated for the amount time that your site is down by any more than a few cents (or a few dollars at the most).

Get the Real Story

Instead of looking to uptime boasts and uptime guarantees to decide where to host your site for maximum uptime, look to reviews to find the best web hosts. Trust us, there are plenty of people who are willing to complain when a web hosting company doesn’t perform up to par. If you are thinking of signing up with a host that has a lot of complaints, look elsewhere – regardless of whether or not they have an uptime guarantee.