Service Level Agreement
Last updated May 18, 2026
TopSyde guarantees 99.9% monthly uptime for every managed WordPress site we host. In plain English: across any 30-day month your site will be unreachable for no more than 43 minutes and 49 seconds of unplanned downtime. If we miss that target, you receive a credit toward your next invoice under the schedule below. This SLA forms part of our Terms and Conditions and applies to every paid hosting plan.
What 99.9% Uptime Means in Real Numbers
Uptime percentages sound abstract. Here's how the common tiers translate to actual minutes of allowed downtime per month and per year:
| Uptime guarantee | Allowed downtime / month | Allowed downtime / year |
| 99.9% (TopSyde standard) | ~43m 49s | ~8h 45m |
| 99.95% | ~21m 54s | ~4h 22m |
| 99.99% (TopSyde Enterprise target) | ~4m 22s | ~52m 35s |
| 99.999% | ~26s | ~5m 15s |
For commercial sites, every additional “nine” meaningfully reduces lost revenue. We cover why this matters in our analysis of the true cost of website downtime and how to architect against it with AI-powered uptime monitoring.
How TopSyde's SLA Compares to Other Managed WordPress Hosts
Most managed WordPress hosts publish an uptime number; far fewer publish the exact credit schedule, escalation path, or remediation terms. The table below summarizes what each major provider publicly commits to as of May 2026.
| Provider | Published uptime SLA | Credit schedule public? | Named-engineer escalation |
| TopSyde (Standard / Growth) | 99.9% monthly | Yes — 5% / 10% tiers | On Enterprise |
| TopSyde (Enterprise, 100+ sites) | Negotiated up to 99.99% | Yes — custom contract | Yes, named senior dev |
| WP Engine | 99.95% (most plans); 99.99% on enterprise | Yes — pro-rated credit | Enterprise only |
| Kinsta | 99.9% monthly | Yes — 5% / 10% / 25% tiers | No (chat support only) |
| Flywheel (WP Engine brand) | Inherits WP Engine SLA on Growth+ | Partial | No |
| Cloudways | 99.99% (managed cloud) | No public schedule | No |
Comparison data is sourced from each provider's publicly published SLA or terms-of-service page. See our broader 2026 managed WordPress hosting comparison for feature-level differences beyond uptime.
1. Service Commitment: 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
TopSyde is committed to providing a reliable hosting environment. We guarantee a Monthly Uptime Percentage of at least 99.9% for every site on a Standard, Growth, or Enterprise plan. Enterprise customers may negotiate higher targets in their master services agreement.
2. Definitions
- “Monthly Uptime Percentage” is calculated as: (Total minutes in a calendar month − Downtime minutes) ÷ Total minutes in a calendar month × 100.
- “Downtime” means the total number of minutes in a calendar month during which your website is unavailable and inaccessible to the public, measured based on our internal server monitoring systems.
- “Service Credit” means a dollar credit applied to your next monthly invoice, calculated as a percentage of the affected site's monthly fee.
3. Exclusions from Downtime Calculation
Downtime does not include service unavailability resulting from:
- Scheduled Maintenance: Maintenance with at least 24 hours of advance notice.
- Emergency Maintenance: Critical maintenance for security or stability.
- Client-Side Issues: Issues caused by your code, applications, plugins, themes, or misconfigurations. See our plugin audit guide for prevention.
- Third-Party Services: Failures of services not managed by TopSyde.
- Malicious Acts: Security breaches, denial-of-service attacks, or other malicious actions covered by our WordPress security playbook.
- Force Majeure Events: Circumstances beyond our reasonable control.
4. Service Credits
If we fail to meet the 99.9% Uptime Guarantee in any calendar month, you may be eligible to receive a service credit:
- 99.0% to 99.89% Uptime: 5% credit of your monthly fee.
- Below 99.0% Uptime: 10% credit of your monthly fee.
- Enterprise contracts: May specify custom credit tiers up to 100% of the affected month's fee.
5. Credit Request Process
To receive a service credit, submit a request by opening a support ticket within seven (7) days of the end of the month in which the downtime occurred. The request must include the dates and times of the suspected downtime. Credits will be applied to your next invoice and are non-transferable.
6. Response Time Commitments
Beyond uptime, TopSyde commits to the following initial-response targets for support tickets opened through the client portal:
| Severity | Definition | Initial response |
| P1 — Site down | Production site fully unreachable | Within 15 minutes, 24/7 |
| P2 — Degraded | Major function impaired (checkout, login, forms) | Within 1 hour, 24/7 |
| P3 — Standard | Non-blocking issue or change request | Within 1 business day |
| P4 — Advisory | Question, planning, or optimization request | Within 2 business days |
7. Sole Remedy
The service credits described in this SLA shall be your sole and exclusive remedy for any failure by TopSyde to meet the Uptime Guarantee. Nothing in this SLA limits remedies expressly granted in a negotiated Enterprise master services agreement.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a 99.9% uptime SLA actually mean in minutes?
A 99.9% monthly uptime guarantee permits no more than 43 minutes and 49 seconds of unplanned downtime in a 30-day month. Anything beyond that triggers service credits under TopSyde's SLA.
How does TopSyde's SLA compare to WP Engine, Kinsta, and Flywheel?
TopSyde, Kinsta, and WP Engine all guarantee 99.9% monthly uptime on standard plans; WP Engine raises this to 99.99% on enterprise. Flywheel inherits the WP Engine SLA on Growth and above. TopSyde additionally publishes its exact credit schedule (5% credit at 99.0–99.89%, 10% credit below 99.0%) and offers a named senior engineer escalation path on Enterprise.
What happens if TopSyde misses the 99.9% uptime guarantee?
You may request a service credit by opening a support ticket within seven days of the end of the affected calendar month. Credits are applied to your next invoice — 5% of the monthly fee for uptime between 99.0% and 99.89%, and 10% for uptime below 99.0%.
What is excluded from the uptime calculation?
Scheduled maintenance announced at least 24 hours in advance, emergency security patching, client-caused outages (custom code, plugin conflicts, misconfiguration), third-party service failures, DDoS and other malicious acts, and force-majeure events are all excluded from the downtime calculation.
Do TopSyde Enterprise customers get a stronger SLA?
Yes. Enterprise customers (100+ sites) receive named senior developer access, a documented escalation path, procurement-ready SLA documentation, and can negotiate custom uptime targets above 99.9% and remediation terms tailored to their contract.
How is downtime measured?
Downtime is measured by TopSyde's internal infrastructure monitoring, which performs HTTP health checks against your origin and edge endpoints on a sub-minute cadence. Customers may also reference third-party monitoring data when filing a credit request.