Trial & Split Payment Policy

24-hour free trial

An eligible new customer must create a Runic Client Area account with their name, email and password; billing details are collected if they choose a paid plan. They can activate one supported shared game server where that game’s page offers the free trial. No payment card is required to start the trial. The trial begins when the customer account or game panel reports the trial Service as available.

The standard trial is a 24-hour evaluation period. If the offer shown before activation states a different duration, eligible products or other trial conditions, that offer controls.

The trial is intended to evaluate the game-server experience, panel access, connection quality, configuration and supported workflows before payment. A trial is not a guarantee that every mod, plugin, world or custom workload will perform correctly.

Trial eligibility

• Trials are limited to supported shared game-server products for which the billing flow explicitly shows a trial offer.
• Trials may not be offered for dedicated, custom or unusually resource-intensive services.
• Unless the offer states otherwise, the standard trial is limited to one trial per customer, household, payment identity, organization or other reasonably related identity.
• We may require email verification, anti-abuse checks, CAPTCHA or other reasonable verification before provisioning a trial.
• Creating additional accounts to obtain repeated trials is prohibited.
• We may refuse or end a trial where there is credible evidence of fraud, abuse, automated sign-up activity, ban evasion, malicious network behavior or other policy violations.

Conversion to paid service

A trial becomes a paid Service only after the customer completes the actual checkout flow and authorizes the applicable payment through the supported billing system. Merely using the trial does not authorize a charge.

When a trial is converted, the selected paid product, RAM allocation, billing cycle and price shown at checkout control the paid Service. Any trial resource allocation may be resized to match the paid configuration.

The standard 7-day first-order refund window begins when the eligible paid Service is activated after conversion, not when the free trial originally began, unless the checkout terms expressly state otherwise.

Trial suspension and deletion

For the standard 24/48-hour schedule, an unconverted trial is suspended at hour 24. If it is still unpaid at hour 48, the live game server is terminated and deleted from the game panel.

Suspension may include game connections, panel access, SFTP and other management functions. Deletion of an unpaid trial does not create a charge, refund or account credit. Converting before the deletion deadline preserves the same server and world when the live server still exists.

We may end a trial earlier where reasonably necessary for security, abuse prevention, capacity protection, legal compliance or a material violation of the Terms or Acceptable Use Policy.

Trial data

Customers should download any trial worlds, saves or configuration they want to keep before the deletion deadline. The live trial server and its live files are deleted at hour 48 if the trial remains unpaid.

If a separate backup or recovery copy exists, it may be retained for up to 7 days under the normal post-termination retention rules. A recovery copy is not guaranteed for free trials, and Runic does not promise that a deleted trial can be restored.

Split the Cost

The owner of a Service with an unpaid USD invoice may create an official Split the Cost link from that invoice in the Client Area and share it so other people can contribute toward the amount due. A link stays valid for up to 7 days unless the owner revokes it earlier or the invoice is paid. Anyone with the link can contribute through PayPal without a Runic Hosting account, from the minimum shown on the contribution page (currently $1.00) up to the amount still due. We may change link duration, minimum amounts or eligible invoices; the contribution page shows the current terms.

Split the Cost is a payment convenience. It does not divide the hosting contract, create multiple service owners or make Runic Hosting responsible for collecting an equal share from each participant.

Do not send money to a person based only on a screenshot, private message or unofficial payment address and assume it will credit a Runic Hosting invoice.

Service owner responsibility

• The account holder remains the sole customer responsible for the Service and the full invoice balance.
• If contributions do not cover the full amount by the due date, the owner remains responsible for the unpaid remainder.
• Normal non-payment, suspension and termination rules still apply when the invoice is not fully paid.
• The owner controls cancellation, service configuration, support authorization and account-level decisions unless Runic Hosting separately provides an authorized-user feature.

Contributor rights

A contribution toward another customer’s invoice does not grant ownership of the server, the Runic Hosting account, game-panel access, SFTP credentials, support authority, cancellation rights, control of backups or any other administrative permission.

Contributors should only pay through an official Runic Hosting contribution link associated with the intended invoice. We are not responsible for private reimbursement arrangements made outside the billing flow.

Refunds and payment reversals

Where a paid Service qualifies for a refund, we will determine the appropriate refund allocation based on the original payments that funded the invoice. Approved refunds are normally returned to the original payment source where technically and legally possible.

A contributor cannot independently cancel or demand a refund of the owner’s Service merely because they contributed toward the invoice. Payment-provider rights and mandatory legal rights remain unaffected.

A chargeback or reversal by a contributor may reduce the amount considered paid on the invoice and can place the owner’s Service into an unpaid state if the invoice is no longer fully funded.

Fraud and abuse controls

We may limit, delay, disable or review free trials and split-payment contributions to prevent fraud, stolen-payment use, repeated trial abuse, sanctions violations, money laundering, chargeback abuse or other misuse of the billing system.

We may require additional verification before accepting a contribution or converting a trial to paid service.

Contact

Questions about a trial, contribution or billing issue may be sent to legal@runichosting.com. The Terms of Service, Refund & Cancellation Policy and other policies at Legal & Policies also apply.