Terms of Service

Draft - not yet in effect. Last updated: 2026-10-05.

This is a working draft, not a finished legal document. It has not been reviewed by a lawyer. Sections flagged below are the ones most worth a professional's eyes before this goes live - small-scale hosting businesses still benefit from a real review, especially around liability limits and the acceptable-use/termination language.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of HandCraftForge's game server hosting service (the "Service"), operated by HandCraftForge ("we", "us"). By creating an account or subscribing to a plan, you agree to these Terms.

1. The service

We provide hosted Minecraft (and in the future, other game) server instances on a subscription basis. Plans differ in RAM, CPU allocation, and whether the server stays running continuously or sleeps automatically when idle and wakes when a player connects. We may change plan specifications, pricing, or available games with reasonable notice to existing customers.

2. Accounts and billing

You must provide a valid email address and keep your account credentials secure. Subscriptions are billed monthly in advance via our payment processor (Stripe). You can cancel at any time from your dashboard; see our Refund Policy for what happens to your server and data after cancellation.

If a payment fails, we'll attempt to notify you and allow a grace period before your server is suspended, and a further hold period before associated data is deleted. Exact timing is shown in your dashboard.

3. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to:

Host or distribute illegal content, or content that infringes someone else's intellectual property;
Attempt to disrupt, scan, or gain unauthorized access to our infrastructure or other customers' servers;
Use server resources for anything other than the game hosting purpose the plan was sold for (e.g. cryptocurrency mining, running unrelated services, or using the server as a relay/proxy for other traffic);
Exceed the resource limits (RAM/CPU/disk) of your plan in a way that degrades service for other customers;
Harass, threaten, or abuse us or other customers.

Flag for review: the exact enforcement mechanism (warning first vs. immediate suspension, what counts as "degrading service for others") should be made more concrete once we have real abuse-handling experience.

4. Your content and world data

You retain ownership of the Minecraft worlds, mods, and other content you upload or generate on your server. We don't access, inspect, or use your world data except as needed to operate the Service (for example, automated backups) or to investigate a reported Acceptable Use violation. You are responsible for keeping your own backups in addition to the ones we provide - see our Privacy Policy for details on data retention after cancellation.

5. Service availability

We aim for high availability but do not guarantee the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free. The Service is hosted on infrastructure we operate; scheduled maintenance, hardware issues, or upstream internet/power outages can cause downtime. Current status is visible at our status page.

6. Cancellation and termination

You may cancel your subscription at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms, including for Acceptable Use violations, or for non-payment after the grace period described in your dashboard. We'll make reasonable efforts to notify you before permanent deletion of your server's data.

7. Limitation of liability

Flag for review: this section in particular should be reviewed by a lawyer before launch - the language below is a reasonable starting point for a small hosting business, not a finished liability shield.

The Service is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, including loss of data, arising from your use of the Service. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the three months before the claim arose.

8. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We'll notify active customers of material changes by email before they take effect.

9. Contact

Questions about these Terms: use the support contact shown in your dashboard once you're a customer. (Not open for signups yet - see the homepage to be notified at launch.)