Refund policy

This is HostEthical's default refund policy text, written for the business to review and confirm before launch. It explains when a payment can be refunded. It does not affect any rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 or other applicable law.

At a glance

1. Domains

Domain registrations, transfers, renewals and restores are non-refundable once we have submitted them to the registry, because the registry charges us immediately and does not return the fee. This also applies when a domain is included free or discounted with a hosting plan: if that plan is refunded, the standard price of the domain is deducted from the refund and you keep the domain.

If a registration or transfer fails and cannot be completed — for example because the name was taken by someone else moments before, or a transfer is rejected by the losing registrar and you choose not to retry — you receive a full refund or account credit for that item.

2. Web hosting and business email

If you are a first-time customer for a hosting or email plan and you cancel within 7 days of the service being activated, we refund the plan price in full. Setup fees, domain fees (see above) and third-party add-ons such as paid SSL certificates are not included. The 7-day window applies once per customer and does not apply to upgrades, renewals or additional plans.

3. Cloud servers (VPS)

Cloud servers are allocated dedicated resources the moment they are provisioned, so VPS orders are non-refundable once the server has been provisioned. If you cancel a VPS order before it has been provisioned, we refund it in full.

4. SSL certificates

Paid certificates can be cancelled for a full refund until the certificate authority issues them. After issuance they cannot be refunded.

5. Renewals and cancellations

• Renewal payments are non-refundable once the new term has started. If you don't want a service to renew, cancel it — or switch off auto-renew for a domain — before the due date.
• If you cancel a service partway through a term it remains active until the end of that term. We do not give partial or pro-rata refunds for unused time.
• Unpaid renewal invoices for cancelled services are voided; you are never asked to pay for a term you cancelled before it began.

6. When we can't deliver

If we cannot provision a service you paid for, or it is unusable for reasons within our control and we cannot fix it within a reasonable time, you are entitled to a full refund of the affected amount regardless of the windows above.

7. Exclusions

• No refund is due for services suspended or terminated for breach of our Terms of service or Acceptable Use Policy, including spam, phishing, malware or fraud.
• Fees charged by banks or payment providers for currency conversion or international transfers are not refundable by us.
• If you raise a chargeback or payment dispute instead of contacting us, the related services may be suspended while the dispute is open. Please talk to us first — it's almost always faster.

8. How to request a refund

Open a ticket with the Billing department from your dashboard, or email admin@hostethical.com from the address on your account. Include the invoice number and the service you want to cancel. We reply within one business day.

9. How refunds are paid

• Approved refunds go back to the original payment method. Card and UPI refunds usually reach you within 5–10 business days, depending on your bank.
• Payments made by bank transfer are refunded to the account they came from after we verify it.
• You can choose account credit instead, which is applied immediately and used automatically against future invoices.
• Where GST was charged, we issue a credit note against the original tax invoice.