Terms of Service
These terms govern your use of Hostable (hostable.games), operated by [LEGAL ENTITY NAME — PENDING INCORPORATION] ("Hostable", "we", "us"). By creating an account you agree to them. If you don't agree, don't use the service.
Related documents that form part of this agreement by reference: the Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, the Acceptable Use Policy, the Refund & Cancellation Policy, and the DMCA/Copyright Policy.
1. The service
Hostable provides a free, lightweight Minecraft server. Free-tier resources (RAM, uptime, features) are limited, and can be increased ("boosted") by watching an ad, completing a survey, or paying, as described on the site at the time. Server specifications, boost mechanics, and available games may change — see §8.
Server limits. An account can have up to 5 servers, but only one of them may be actively running at a time on the free tier — starting a new server while another is already running stops the running one first. These numbers are current as of this version and may change; the site's own interface is the authoritative source for the limits that apply to your account at any given time.
Server console access. Each server comes with a remote console in the Hostable portal that lets you run real administrative commands directly against it (the same kind of access you'd get from a command line on the machine itself). You're responsible for what you run there, in the same way you're responsible for plugins/mods under §5 — we don't review or restrict individual commands beyond what the Acceptable Use Policy already prohibits.
Domains. You can attach a domain you already own to a server you control, so it resolves to that server. We don't register or sell domains on your behalf — you remain the registrant and are responsible for that domain's own registration, renewal, and any fees your registrar charges. Where Hostable charges separately for managing a domain attachment (e.g. a renewal-adjacent fee), that's covered by the same boost/payment terms in §4.
The service is provided free of charge on the free tier and there is no uptime, performance, or availability guarantee on that tier. We aim to keep it running well, but we make no contractual promise about it. If a paid tier is introduced with its own service commitments, those will be stated separately at the point of purchase and will not retroactively apply to the free tier described here.
2. Eligibility and your account
- You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. See the Privacy Policy §3 for the reasoning and what happens if we learn an account belongs to someone under 13.
- You're responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for activity on your account.
- One account per person. We may suspend accounts we reasonably believe are duplicates created to exceed free-tier limits.
- You must provide accurate signup information, including your declared age.
3. Acceptable use
Full detail is in the Acceptable Use Policy. In summary: don't use Hostable's infrastructure to host or transmit anything illegal, don't attack other users or our infrastructure, don't abuse the ad/survey boost mechanism (e.g. bots, click farms), and don't infringe others' intellectual property.
4. Boosts, payments, and free-tier mechanics
- Ad/survey boosts: earned by genuinely completing the advertised interaction. We may reverse a boost obtained through fraud, automation, or a network's own detection of invalid activity, without notice.
- Paid boosts: processed by Stripe (the integration is built and live in the product — see the Hostable repo's TODO.md for the current status of which specific paid boosts/tiers are actually on sale). See the Refund & Cancellation Policy for what happens if you want your money back or cancel.
- We may change what a given boost tier provides going forward, but we won't retroactively reduce what you've already paid for during a period you've already paid for.
Monthly recurring plans. Where a paid boost or plan is sold as a recurring monthly subscription:
- It renews automatically each month on your billing anniversary, charged to the payment method on file, until you cancel.
- You can cancel any time before the next renewal from account settings, or by emailing support@hostable.games — cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, not immediately, unless the Refund & Cancellation Policy's cooling-off right applies.
- Price and plan changes to a recurring subscription require at least 30 days' notice before your next renewal, given by email or in-app notice, with a right to cancel without penalty before the new price or terms take effect. A change never applies retroactively to a period you've already paid for — see §8 for how we notify you of this and every other kind of change.
5. Content and hosted material
- You keep ownership of content you upload or configure on your server (world data, configuration files, plugins you're licensed to use).
- You're solely responsible for ensuring you have the right to use any plugin, mod, texture pack, or other third-party content on your server.
- Servers run on Paper, NeoForge, or Fabric, whichever you choose, and any plugin or mod you install on them runs as real code on your server. We do not review, audit, or vet third-party plugins or mods for security or content before you install them — installing one is entirely at your own risk, and we're not liable for what a plugin or mod you chose to install does.
- We can remove content or suspend a server in response to a valid legal notice (see the DMCA/Copyright Policy), a breach of the Acceptable Use Policy, or a court order.
6. Our liability
To the extent permitted by law:
- We provide the free-tier service "as is," without warranties of uptime, fitness for a particular purpose, or that it will be uninterrupted or error-free.
- We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss (e.g. loss of profit, loss of data you didn't back up yourself), except where that liability cannot be excluded by law (death or personal injury caused by our negligence, fraud, or your statutory data-protection rights).
- Our total liability to you for any claim arising from a paid boost is capped at the amount you paid for that boost in the preceding 12 months.
- Nothing in this section excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 for UK consumers.
We are not liable for content hosted by users on their own servers that we did not create or endorse. See dmca-copyright-policy.md for the notice-and-takedown process that limits our exposure for third-party content under US law (17 U.S.C. §512) and, for other third-party content generally, the equivalent role of 47 U.S.C. §230 in the US context.
7. Suspension and termination
We can suspend or terminate an account for: breach of these terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, non-payment on a paid tier, extended inactivity on free-tier servers (to manage shared infrastructure fairly — see the site for current inactivity limits), or a legal requirement to do so.
You can close your account at any time from account settings, or by emailing support@hostable.games. See Refund & Cancellation Policy for what happens to any paid balance.
8. Changes to the service and these terms
We may change these terms, our policies, or the service. How much notice you get depends on what's changing:
- A material change to these terms or any policy (the Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, etc.) — the next time you sign in, we'll show you an in-app notice summarizing what changed and ask you to acknowledge it, as well as emailing you. We record that you saw it.
- A price or plan change to a recurring paid subscription — at least 30 days' notice before your next renewal, per §4, with a right to cancel without penalty before it takes effect.
- A minor or non-material correction (a typo, a clarified date) — just an updated date on the document, no notification required.
Continuing to use Hostable after a change takes effect means you accept it; if you don't agree, close your account before it takes effect. A change never applies retroactively to a period you've already paid for.
We may change or discontinue features (including free-tier limits, boost mechanics, or supported games) with reasonable notice, but won't do so in a way that retroactively removes something a paid customer already paid for during a period already paid for.
9. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, for every user regardless of where you're based. This is a single governing-law choice made deliberately for simplicity — see _facts.md. If you're a consumer resident outside England and Wales, mandatory consumer-protection provisions of your own country's law that can't be excluded by contract still apply alongside this clause.
10. Contact
support@hostable.games · [REGISTERED ADDRESS — PLACEHOLDER]