Fair Use Policy

1. Scope and Purpose

This Fair Use Policy ("FUP") governs the use of all VumaCloud services, including VumaHost shared hosting, VumaMail email hosting, VumaShops e-commerce stores, VumaERP cloud ERP, and any service that advertises "unlimited" or "unmetered" resources. It exists to ensure that all customers receive reliable, consistent performance and that no single account degrades the experience for others.

"Unlimited" and "unmetered" mean that we do not set a hard numerical cap on the resource in question. It does not mean the resource is infinite. All resources are subject to the fair use limits described in this policy. If you are uncertain whether your planned use falls within fair use, contact us before signing up.

2. VumaHost Shared Hosting

Shared hosting means your website runs on a server alongside other customers' websites. All customers share the same CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network resources. This model keeps costs low but requires every customer to use resources responsibly.

2.1 What "Unlimited" Means on VumaHost

2.2 Resource Limits

While we do not publish hard caps, the following guidelines define normal usage for shared hosting accounts. Accounts that consistently exceed these levels will be flagged for review:

2.3 Prohibited Uses on Shared Hosting

The following activities are strictly prohibited on all VumaHost shared hosting plans:

• File storage and distribution — using your account as a file locker, backup repository, or media distribution platform. Your account must serve active websites, not downloadable archives.
• Video and audio streaming — hosting video or audio files for streaming or progressive download. Use a dedicated streaming service or CDN.
• Cryptocurrency mining — running any form of cryptocurrency miner, blockchain node, or proof-of-work computation.
• Background daemons and persistent processes — running any long-lived process, daemon, bot, or worker. Shared hosting is for request-response web traffic only.
• Proxy, VPN, and anonymiser services — operating any form of proxy server, VPN endpoint, Tor exit node, or traffic relay.
• Game servers — hosting multiplayer game servers, voice chat servers, or any real-time persistent connection service.
• Scraping and crawling — running web scrapers, crawlers, or bots from your hosting account.
• Mass email from cPanel — sending bulk email, newsletters, or automated email campaigns from cPanel-provided email. Use VumaMail or a dedicated email platform.
• External backups — storing backups of other servers, databases, or services not hosted on VumaCloud.
• API-heavy applications — running applications that primarily serve API traffic rather than rendered web pages, if they create sustained server load.

3. VumaMail Email Hosting

VumaMail provides business email with a 50 GB mailbox per user. Fair use for email hosting means:

• Email is for normal business correspondence — not bulk mailing, newsletters, or automated transactional email
• Outbound email is limited to 500 messages per user per hour (normal business use rarely exceeds 50)
• The 50 GB mailbox is for email messages and attachments — not for storing non-email files
• Accounts with bounce rates above 5% or spam complaint rates above 0.1% will be automatically flagged and may be suspended
• Auto-responders and forwarding rules must not create mail loops or amplification

4. VumaShops E-Commerce

VumaShops plans are designed for genuine e-commerce businesses selling legitimate products and services. Fair use means:

• Product images should be optimised for web use (we recommend under 2 MB per image)
• Stores must sell genuine products or services — fake stores, dropshipping fronts with no real inventory, or stores used solely for payment fraud are prohibited
• Stores must not be used to sell prohibited items (see our Anti-Spam & Anti-Abuse Policy)
• API access (where available) is for normal store integrations, not for scraping or bulk data extraction

5. VumaERP Cloud ERP

VumaERP plans are scoped by user count and modules. Fair use means:

• User accounts must correspond to real, individual users — not shared credentials or bot accounts
• Automated imports, exports, and API integrations should not place sustained heavy load on the system
• Data storage is for genuine business records — not for archiving unrelated data

6. Absolutely Prohibited Across All Services

• Malicious use of any kind — malware, phishing, fraud, hacking, denial-of-service attacks, or any activity intended to harm others
• Illegal content — any content that is illegal under the laws of Kenya, South Africa, or the jurisdiction in which you reside
• Spam — any form of unsolicited bulk messaging via email, WhatsApp, RCS, SMS, or web
• Abuse of infrastructure — cryptocurrency mining, network attacks, port scanning, or deliberate resource exhaustion
• Circumvention — creating multiple accounts to bypass plan limits, trial limits, or enforcement actions
• Unauthorised reselling — reselling or sublicensing VumaCloud services without a written reseller agreement

7. Enforcement

VumaCloud distinguishes between fair use overages (you accidentally exceeded a resource limit) and prohibited use (you are using our platform for something it was never designed for, or something malicious).

7.1 Fair Use Overages

If your account exceeds the fair use guidelines in Section 2–5 (e.g., your website went viral, your database grew larger than expected), we will:

1. Email you a notification identifying the resource overage
2. Give you 48 hours to reduce usage, optimise, or upgrade your plan
3. If usage is not resolved within 48 hours, we may throttle or temporarily suspend the account until it is
4. If overages are repeated (3 or more times in 90 days), the account may be required to upgrade or be terminated

7.2 Prohibited and Malicious Use

8. Monitoring

VumaCloud monitors resource usage across all services using automated systems. We reserve the right to inspect account usage, server logs, traffic patterns, and hosted content to enforce this policy. By using VumaCloud services, you consent to this monitoring.

9. Changes to This Policy

VumaCloud reserves the right to update this policy at any time. Changes take effect immediately upon publication on this page. Continued use of VumaCloud services after a policy update constitutes acceptance. We recommend reviewing this policy periodically.

10. Contact

For questions about this policy or to check whether your planned use falls within fair use: [email protected]
To report abuse: [email protected]
VumaCloud Ltd.