All customers regardless of service are provided with access to the customer portal. The portal is available 24/7 to enter a ticket which will be answered within 24-48 hours. The portal does not require a login after entering your ticket, allowing you to easily reply from your phone on-the-go from the authorized email on your account.

Starcresc support is also available via phone. You may call the office via the number on our contact page at any time and leave a message to be returned within 48 business hours.

Working business hours for support are:
Mon – Fri: 9AM – 4PM
Sat: 12PM – 3PM

Other times available by appointment. Weekends and holiday hours may conflict with this schedule. Starcresc is usually closed on all federal banking holidays.

Starcresc employs strict security practices to keep your website safe.

All Starcresc developed websites include a WAF (Web Application Firewall) that regularly scans for and blocks malicious traffic. We employ a server-level firewall which blocks bad actors and aggressive bots. We use encryption for all billing systems and customer data, and encourage all customers to use strong passwords and 2-factor authentication. In addition, we maintain a comprehensive backup schedule and regular maintenance on our systems to ensure our servers are up-to-date and secure with the latest stable versions of software.

We believe the best security is using common-sense data protection standards and we encourage all users to use secure, unique passwords for any services or logins with us. Additional security infrastructure may or may not be employed by Starcresc and not specified here.

Starcresc welcomes clients from all backgrounds, industries, viewpoints, and identities. We believe businesses, organizations, and individuals have the right to express themselves responsibly and respectfully at any time. We work with clients that are honest, dependable, and trustworthy regardless of race, creed, or gender identity.

We do not routinely moderate website content, including opinion-based blogs, editorials, or news articles for content or accuracy. However, all content hosted on our servers must comply with applicable laws and our Acceptable Use Policy. The following types of content are prohibited on Starcresc-hosted services:

• Pornographic or sexually explicit material;
• Content that is unlawful or promotes illegal activity;
• Copyright infringement, software piracy, or unauthorized distribution of copyrighted media;
• Malware, phishing pages, scams, or other malicious content;
• Fraudulent, forged, or intentionally deceptive documents or media;
• Inflammatory content that incites violence or constitutes unlawful harassment or discrimination;
• Content that violates the rights of others or exposes Starcresc to legal liability.

In short, if prohibited content is discovered or reported to us, Starcresc will investigate and, at our sole discretion, reserves the right to immediately remove access to the content by deleting, suspending, or terminating services with us. Starcresc reserves the right to terminate any and all customer relationships, at our sole discretion, at any time.

More information coming soon. This exciting perk is in development – a Starcresc member database exclusively available to our customers to find the best and most trusted businesses in WNY and a referral program launch to reward those who bring new clients into Starcresc infrastructure.

There is no cost to this platform for use or for listing. (Customers can opt-out of listings). More details to come.

We encourage users to pay online with a stored credit card on file. A notification invoice will be sent a few days before, payment will automatically be completed on the due date, and a successful transaction receipt will be updated in the customer portal and sent directly via email. 

Check payment by mail is also accepted, however we cannot accept cash payment through postal mail. We do not currently accept Paypal or Venmo, however these options are being actively investigated to offer for our clients. We do not accept wire transfers or bank account details, trade, credit, promotional advertising, or any other payment methods.

Payments are handled through a secure, encrypted, third-party payment processing provider and never directly stored with us. 

Please note we will never send invoices via regular mail. Invoices are delivered via the customer portal, and sent via email. It is the customer responsibility to ensure invoices are paid which may require periodically checking the customer portal.

We encourage users use a credit card payment option to ensure mail delivery times do not cause any service outages. Our billing system is managed automatically, and due dates and service terminations are enforced by automation.

We allow monthly, quarterly, and annual payment options for hosting fees and termed website packages.

For website projects we require an initial downpayment of 50%, with the remainder due at the end of the project before go live.

Additional payment terms can be arranged to fit within your budget. Refer to your client documentation for particulars.

Due to the nature of our business we do not offer refunds. However, we do not require contracts and users are free to not renew at any time.

For website hosting clients, you may terminate hosting with us at any time. It is your responsibility to backup your website files as inactive accounts due to non-payment will be terminated and removed from our servers.

For website design clients, you may terminate a project with us at any time. At that time, we will invoice you for any work completed based on an hourly rate, provide any work-in-progress pieces, and terminate our agreement.

For any projects that require additional expenses, we will invoice you for those costs, if incurred, separately from any time spent.

These requests will be handled on a case-by-case basis and are subject to the user agreements and project agreements designated at time of purchase.

We do! We offer non-profits a credit off our normal website development package prices, with a discount for life on the hosting fee. Essentially, giving users the STAR treatment with a $5 discount per month.

As we charge competitive rates for domain registrations and renewals that are at-cost with what we are charged from ICANN, we do not offer discounts on domain purchases.

If you have your own web developer, or wish to technically maintain the website on your own, you will look to an unmanaged hosting package. Unmanaged websites still require active maintenance to be performed by a qualified web developer such as security and content management system updates. Additionally, in most cases Starcresc will not provide assistance with content or technical updates, you would reach out to your web developer for that.

A managed website means that Starcresc will actively update and maintain the website infrastructure on your behalf.

Regardless of plan, Starcresc will always provide free technical assistance for your hosting package and will interface with your developer in instances where server-level troubleshooting may be required.

No. All of our a la carte hosting plans are offered on a month-to-month basis with no contracts.

If you purchased a website with us, you may have a 2-year commitment (paying for the website and hosting over time) until the website is paid back in full. Please refer to your client documentation for details.

Disk space is the amount of storage space your website takes up. For example, if you are a typical website hosting client, will have your website files for all your pages, images, videos, and documents. Your site will also consist of a database, this is the backend that manages the configuration of your website and stores the data that makes up the site. Additionally, if you are a webmail user, you will find that your webmail also takes up part of your diskspace.

Each package comes with its own disk space limits. If you approach your disk space limit, you will receive a warning. Additional disk space can be purchased in blocks as an add-on for an additional charge.

A bandwidth limit is essentially a cap on the amount of visitors your site can have per month. Technical limitations require us to enforce a limit, but we will generally increase it, at no extra charge, for typical usage scenarios.

Each package comes with its own default bandwidth limits.

Starcresc stores redundant backups of your website. These backups are made automatically and incrementally, although we encourage users to take manual backups themselves at regular intervals.  Starcresc stores at least 3 backups of your site at all times including the last week, last month, and last years backup.

Our specific backup schedule can be found in your client documentation.

We encourage clients to keep their website up-to-date with new info, specials, and product offerings which is why we offer one hour of FREE changes as a perk with certain hosting plans.

Quarters are defined as

• Spring – Mar, Apr, May
• Summer – Jun, Jul, Aug
• Fall – Sept, Oct, Nov
• Winter – Dec, Jan, Feb

Updates can be requested through the customer portal.

Note: Credits have no monetary value and do not stack or rollover. More info can be found in your client documentation.

If you have a domain before joining Starcresc, or you wish to purchase your domain elsewhere it is considered unmanaged. Managed domains are those which you have purchased or transferred to us and are visible in your customer portal. Transferring the domain to us is not necessary, only pointing of the domain.

Transferring a domain to Starcresc required renewing the domain for an additional year. This simply extends the expiration date of your domain by an additional year.

All .com and .net domains are compatible with our hosting platform and we can register those domains for you. Transferring of custom tlds (domain.abc or domain.xyz) are generally possible but may require us to confirm before purchasing.

Support for certain custom TLDs is not possible at this time, including .gov. .us, and other reserved country codes and some vanity domain names.