What is Uptime?

Uptime is the most important single metric you can use to measure the performance of your website hosting company. It is a representation or percentage your website is up and available for your visitors. Availability is the same as uptime. Both metrics are often measured in “Nines.”

Let’s see how the “nines” translate to uptime for 30 day period:

• 1 nine would be 9% (horrible) – I didn’t waste time even calculating this.
• 2 nines would be 99% (still horrible) – This is 7+ hours of downtime a month
• 3 nines would be 99.9% (getting better) – This is 40+ minutes of downtime a month
• 4 nines would be 99.99% (our basic package) – This is 4+ minutes of downtime a month
• 5 nines would be 99.999%  – This is 3 seconds of downtime a month

Service Level Agreements (SLA)

Some hosting plans provide a Service Level Agreement. It states the guaranteed level of availability. If we don’t deliver the specified uptime level, you will be entitled to refunds or hosting credits.

I want the most uptime

Typically, hosting plans with the most uptime also cost the most. Most business should seek a middle ground where the uptime is adequate and the costs are affordable.

100% Uptime

No web hosting company has 100% uptime. They may have a 100% uptime guarantee, but that just means you’ll get a credit if you actually report it. The burden is on you to report the downtime  and request a credit. if you never notice the 5 seconds of downtime, and you never report it, you’ll just end up paying an outrageous monthly cost and get very little in return.

If your website is down more than 4 minutes a month, you should switch your web hosting provider to AllPro Technologies.