Maintenance Plan & Hosting Terms
These are the terms of our monthly Hero and Superhero Maintenance Plans. The Maintenance Plans are also known as "Service Plans" or just "Plans". Unless otherwise stated, “Inception Web Designs”, “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to Inception Web Designs LLC. When “you”, “your”, or “client” is used it refers to those having purchased services from Inception Web Designs.
The client agrees to review the terms listed on this webpage each month. Paying an invoice, or agreeing to autopay an invoice for web hosting or a Maintenance Plan, constitutes reading and accepting these terms of service for the month(s) that the invoice lists the services being rendered during.
Read our general Terms of Service as well.
Frequency of Services
Unless otherwise stated, all WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates will be performed once a month. Backups will be made at least once a week on the web hosting server. Off-server backups will be made after any major changes have been made. If, in the rare case, that your website does not function or look correct after an update is performed, then we will restore a previous backup free of charge, or make the necessary changes to the website's code to account for the software update.
Maintenance Plan Types
Our default plans are the Hero Maintenance Plan and the Superhero Maintenance Plan. The specific services provided for each plan is listed on the WordPress Maintenance page. However, if you get a customized Maintenance Plan that adds or removes specific services, then that custom plan supercedes the services listed in the default plans.
Software Updates
At times the developer of the WordPress core, theme, or a plugin is updated in a way that it produces a conflict with your current setup. A future update may resolve this. But if it does not, updating that particular part of your website (whether it be your theme or plugins) may no longer be possible to update. The Maintenance Plan does not cover the time that may be needed to research and replace an existing theme or plugin, in order to keep your website fully up to date.
Software Licenses
All websites under a Maintenance Plan and built by Inception will be allowed to use our agency license for the visual builder add-on. This is usually the Bricks Builder or Beaver Builder. Additional licenses may include a spam blocking service, security plugin, search engine optimization or schema plugin, and a default form builder such as Fluent Forms. A Maintenance Plan does not guarantee any other theme or plugin's licensing fee is covered by Inception. An upgraded form builder license (such as WP Forms, Gravity Forms, or add-on integrations to Fluent Forms) nor any website-specific plugins would be covered by a Plan.
Inception reserves the right to revoke their license for the visual builder and/or other WordPress plugins and services if the client no longer has an active Maintenance Plan, regardless of whether the client or Inception initiates the cancellation. Inception reserves the right to revoke a license months or years after they were first allowed to do so. For example, Inception may provide their license as a courtesy for the 1-2 years after the site launches, although a Plan was never purchased. Advance notice of such a license being revoked will not be given, unless it's due to an existing Plan being canceled.
Website Restoration
The Maintenance Plan includes one (1) free website restoration per every twelve (12) months paid, whether due to data corruption, hacking, deletion, or some other non-user related issue. Restoration or repair due to the actions or inaction of the client (or a party acting in behalf of the client), or failure to pay for web hosting, is not covered by the Maintenance Plan and standard rates will apply.
Software Protection
The Maintenance Plan includes SPAM and security software provided by a third-party. Therefore, we are not responsible for its failure to protect against a threat and any subsequent financial loss due to your site being temporarily down, not fully functional, a contact form failure, or missed communications from customers.
Support Hours
Any support that comes with the Maintenance Plan or web hosting will be provided during regular business hours, Monday–Friday 9am–6pm EST, excluding national holidays.
If support is desired outside of these hours, a surcharge may apply even for support that would typically be performed for free during regular business hours.
Web Host Provider
Unless stated otherwise, we provide web hosting for WordPress websites through WP Engine. Ecommerce websites are usually hosted on Shopify. Web hosting may be subject to these companies' additional terms of service.
Since a third-party provides the web hosting service and web server security, we are not liable for any interruption in service, regardless of cause. Although our Maintenance Plan provides security software, hosting issues outside of a virus, malware, or corruption are the responsibility of the web hosting company. This may include things like DDoS and Brute Force attacks, or being down due network or server issues on their part.
Unless otherwise stated, the WP Engine web hosting plan we provide clients allows a single website to use up to 2 GB of storage, 20 GB of bandwidth per month, and 10,000 visitors per month. If a client's website receives more traffic or uses more data storage than the web hosting plan allows, the hosting plan may have to be upgraded. The client will be billed appropriately based on their website's new hosting needs, plus any administrative fees to make such a change. If the client refuses to pay for a higher hosting plan then their site may be removed from being under our Agency account so that the web host can bill the customer directly, or the website may be taken down until the necessary hosting fees have been paid.
Maintenance Plan Cancellation
Unless stated otherwise in your project contract, you may cancel your Maintenance Plan at any time without penalty. No refund will be issued for any unused portion of the payment period after cancellation, whether it be monthly or a longer period of time.
We reserve the right to stop providing the Maintenance Plan service for any customer at our discretion, without advanced notification. If Inception intiates the cancellation, then we will refund any prepaid services that will no longer be provided. For example, if a customer prepays a Maintenance Plan for 6 months, but Inception cancels the service after 3 months, then the remaining 3 months will be refunded within 15 days to their original payment method.
If you cancel your Maintenance Plan or have an invoice that is sixty (60) or more days past due, then the license for your page builder (Bricks or Beaver Builder), security software, form builder, search engine optimization plugin, and any other software licenses purchased by Inception will be removed, as the license was paid for with the Maintenance Plan’s monthly fee. In addition, backups will no longer be made and any past backups stored off the hosting server may no longer be retained. If the Maintenance Plan is later resumed, an activation fee equivilant up to the cost of six (6) months of a Maintenance Plan will be required to reinstitute the security and backup settings, as well as standard rates for installing previously missed updates.
Web Hosting Cancellation
Unless stated otherwise in your project contract, you may cancel your web hosting at any time without penalty. No refund will be issued for any unused portion of the payment period after cancellation, whether it be monthly or a longer period of time.
We reserve the right to stop providing web hosting for any customer at our discretion, including due to lack of timely payment. We will provide at least fifteen (15) days advance notice. If Inception intiates the cancellation, then we will refund any prepaid hosting that will no longer be provided. For example, if a customer prepays for 6 months of hosting but Inception cancels their service after 3 months, then the remaining 3 months will be refunded within fifteen (15) days to their original payment method.
If the client's website is hosted on WPEngine, the client can have their website transferred to a WPEngine account under their control. Half an hour of labor will be charged for this transfer.
If the client wishes to have their website moved to a different web hosting provider, they may perform the work themselves or pay Inception to do so. Migrating a website to a different web host is not covered under the Maintenance Plan, and hourly rates will apply.
Clients cannot request that their website be transferred to another WPEngine account or another hosting provider until they have paid any outstanding invoices that they may have and any applicaple transfer fees.
Invoices Past Due
An invoice for web hosting or a Maintenance Plan (or a combination of both) must be paid on or before the date listed for "Payment Due" on their invoice. Invoices that are 60 days or more past due will result in the website being taken down until the invoice(s) is paid. Invoices unpaid for 120 days may result in the website being permanently deleted off of Inception's WP Engine account.
Inception will endeavor to contact the customer in advance via the email address and phone number that was previously provided to them. We are not liable if payment is not rendered and the customer's contact information is no longer valid, therefore not allowing them to be notified of the past due payment. It is the customer's responsibility to inform Inception of any change in their billing address, email address, or payment methods.
Discounted Rates
Clients with an active and paid Maintenance Plan receive discounted rates on hourly services. Our regular, non Maintenance plan rate is $150/hour, with a minimum charge of 1 hour regardless of time taken to complete a request.
However, with the Maintenance Plan, the hourly rate is $130/hour, and is billed in half hour increments. So a task that takes 30 minutes would only be billed $60 under the Maintenance Plan. We reserve the right to change our hourly rates at any time.
Monthly Invoicing & Fees
The monthly web hosting and Maintenance Plan is automatically billed on the 1st of each new month, and prepays for that month's services. Autopay is set up by checking the Authorize future payments option in the recurring invoice page or filling out our Payment Info form.
If autopay is not enabled, then a $5 fee per service may be added to each monthly invoice. For example, if both web hosting and a Plan are manually paid, that would be a $10 manual payment surcharge per month.
If manually paying, the invoice is due on the 1st of each month. A fifteen-day (15) grace period is given to pay the invoice. On the 16th of the month, the invoice is considered late and subject to a late fee of $25 or 5% of the invoice, whichever is greater. For these reasons, we highly recommend enabling autopay for your account.
Invoices that are 60 days past due incur an administrative fee of $25 dollars or 5% of the original invoice, whichever is greater. This is in addition to the late fee and covers the administrative time spent on notifying the customer of a past due invoice(s).
We reserve the right to require that six (6) or even twelve (12) months of hosting and Maintenance Plan be prepaid by customers that have a history of paying their invoices late or having their payment method declined when charged during autopay. Having two (2) such occurrences (late payment, a declined payment method, or a combination of them both) within a six (6) month period may require such prepayment. A failure on the client's part to agree to and render pre-payment will lead to the customer being given fifteen (15) days to secure their own web hosting. A zip file of the website will be given for the client to upload on their own, or they may pay for Inception's migration service or pay for the site to be transferred to their own WP Engine hosting account.
Refunds & Chargebacks
No refunds will be issued for services already rendered. Nor will a refund be issued if the client cancels their hosting and/or Maintenance Plan but still has an unused portion of time that was prepaid for.
If a client initiates a chargeback on an invoice previously paid, but then decides to keep web hosting with Inception, the client will have an administrative fee of $100 added to their next invoice to cover the time spent providing documentation for the chargeback dispute. In addition, if the chargeback was successful, that previously paid invoice will now be past due. This invoice must be paid in full, plus late fees, plus the administrative fee before Inception will continue to render any hosting, Maintenance Plan, or other services. If these fees are not rendered within fifteen (15) days, then the customer's web hosting will be shut down and their website taken offline.
Terms Can Change
We reserve the right to change the pricing and what services are included in our monthly Maintenance Plan for existing customers who are on a month-to-month arrangement with no contract. Any change in pricing will be made clear to you before they take effect, allowing you the opportunity to cancel the Maintenance Plan or web hosting if desired. However, the latest Terms of Service for web hosting or Maintenance Plans can be viewed on this webpage.
These Terms of Service last modified: September 22, 2025