Website support SLAs: what should actually be guaranteed?
A support agreement should say how quickly the provider replies, how quickly they fix the site when it goes down, which hours count, and what is excluded. A fast reply is not the same as a fast fix.
01 - The Short Answer
A reply is not a fix.
A website support agreement should say, in plain words, how quickly the provider will reply, how quickly they will fix the site if it goes down, which hours and days count, and what is excluded. The most important distinction is between a response time and a fix time. A promise to reply within an hour is not a promise that the site will be working within an hour.
If an agreement only states response times, ask what happens after the reply.
02 - The Terms
Eight terms that matter.
| Term | What it means | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Response time | How soon someone acknowledges your request | Whether an automatic email counts as a response |
| Fix time | How soon the problem is put right | Whether it is stated at all, and for which problems |
| Working hours and days | When the clock runs | Whether evenings, weekends and bank holidays count |
| Detection | Who notices a problem | Whether the provider monitors the site, or waits for you to report it |
| Severity levels | How problems are ranked | Whether "the website is down" is treated differently from a typo |
| Exclusions | Causes the provider is not responsible for | Whether the list is reasonable and specific |
| Uptime percentage | The share of time the site should be available | How it is measured, and what happens when it is missed |
| Remedies | What you get if the promise is broken | Credits, a right to leave, or nothing at all |
03 - Response Or Fix
The promise that actually counts.
Many agreements quote fast response times because they are easy to meet. Anyone can reply quickly. Fixing the problem is the part that takes skill and time, and it is what your business actually needs.
A fix time is a harder promise, so it is often missing, or limited to a narrow definition of "down". Read how the agreement defines a fault. "The server is running" and "customers can use your website" are not the same thing.
04 - Working Hours
When the clock stops.
Most small business agreements run on working hours. A fault reported at 6pm on a Friday may not be counted until Monday morning. That can be perfectly reasonable, as long as you know it in advance and the website matters less to you at weekends.
If your enquiries or bookings peak in the evening or at weekends, check this term first. Round-the-clock fix times exist, but they cost more, because someone has to be available to deliver them.
05 - Uptime Figures
What 99.9% really promises.
Hosting companies often quote an uptime figure, such as 99.9%. It usually describes their own infrastructure, not your website, and the remedy for missing it is often a small credit against the hosting bill. It tells you how reliable the servers are, not what happens when your site breaks for another reason, such as a failed update or a broken form.
Our guide to website hosting versus website management explains why the two are different products.
06 - Exclusions
The small print worth reading twice.
Every agreement excludes some causes. Reasonable exclusions are specific: a domain the owner let expire, a fault at a third-party service, a change the owner made themselves, or an outage at a large infrastructure provider. Even then, a good provider tells you what happened and what to do.
Be wary of exclusions so broad that almost any fault could fall under them, such as "issues outside our reasonable control" with no examples given.
07 - Questions To Ask
Seven questions for any provider.
- 1. If my website goes down at 10am on a weekday, when will it be working again?
- 2. Who notices first, you or me?
- 3. Which days and hours does the clock run?
- 4. What counts as "down", and what counts as a routine request?
- 5. What is excluded, with examples?
- 6. What happens if you miss the time you promised?
- 7. If the person who usually helps is unavailable, who responds?
The last question matters most with small providers and freelancers. One skilled person can give excellent service, but the agreement should say what happens when they are ill or away.
08 - What Keep Promises
Fix times, published.
Keep by Dettogni states fix times, not only response times, and publishes them:
- Keep Care: requests answered by the next working day, with an expected completion date for each content update; downtime fixed by the end of the next working day.
Keep is alerted automatically when a site goes down, day or night. Working days are Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays. If the cause is outside Keep's control, such as a domain the owner let expire or a Cloudflare-wide outage, Keep explains what happened and what to do. Keep is run by one person, and its FAQ says so plainly: if Alex is ill or away, response and fix times pause until he is back, and clients are told as soon as possible. Keep Starter is hosting only and carries no response or fix time. Keep Care sets out the full terms.
Does your agreement state a fix time?
If you are not sure what your current provider has promised, a free Website Check is a sensible place to start. For a business-critical website, request a discovery call instead.