I run a small online shop and two client sites. I used to host on SiteGround; now I’m on WP Engine with Cloudflare in front. I thought that was enough. Then I bought web hosting insurance—well, it’s called cyber insurance, but it covers stuff tied to your host and your site. I’ve used it. It helped. It also let me down once. Both can be true.
Want a blow-by-blow of the policy language and where it hides the traps? I unpack it all in my real take on web hosting insurance.
Here’s the thing: your host keeps the lights on. Insurance pays the bill when the lights blow out.
What I Bought (and why I picked it)
I got a $1 million cyber policy from Coalition. Yearly price: $830. Deductible: $1,000. I also got quotes:
- Hiscox: $1,050, solid name, but higher price for what I needed
- Next: $690, cheaper, but lower media coverage and no active alerts
Coalition had a 24/7 hotline, vendor help, and “active monitoring” tools. I liked the dashboard. It nagged me to patch plugins. Annoying. But helpful.
You know what? I didn’t want more tools. I wanted a person when things broke. They gave me both.
The First Hit: Malware Weekend
I learned the hard way. On a Saturday in May, a client’s WordPress plugin went stale. The bad kind of stale. We saw weird redirects, then “suspicious traffic” notes from Cloudflare. Orders failed. People got mad.
I called the insurance hotline. A human answered in two minutes. They pulled in a response team. Not big fancy suits—just a calm tech who knew WordPress.
What they did:
- Took the site to a safe copy
- Cleaned the theme and plugins
- Set a web app firewall rule
- Wrote a short notice we could send to users
- Helped file a PCI self-check, even though we use Stripe and don’t store cards
Costs that hit:
- Forensics and cleanup: $9,600
- Customer email notice: $1,200
- Lost sales: we tracked it at $4,000
What got paid:
- They covered $14,800 after my $1,000 deductible
- Lost sales were tricky. They counted some, not all. You need proof. Screens, logs, the whole thing.
Time to close the claim? About three weeks. Not fast. Not slow. Claims are like molasses with rules.
The One That Stung: Downtime During Black Friday
Different site. Big sale day. A DDoS smack hit us. The site stayed down for almost seven hours. Cloudflare helped, and WP Engine support was kind. We got back up in time for late-night sales.
Did the insurance pay lost revenue? Nope. The policy had a “waiting period” of 12 hours for business interruption. Seven hours didn’t count. I learned that line the hard way. I found out later that these waiting periods are pretty normal—most cyber policies won’t consider lost-income claims until a site has been down at least 6 to 12 hours (here’s a deeper explainer).
What I did next:
- Upgraded Cloudflare plan for better bot tools
- Set a static “sale” page in my host so the store could go to a light mode if the main app got hurt
- Asked the underwriter to tweak the waiting period at renewal; they dropped it to 8 hours (still long, but better)
Host credit? $60. It felt small, but it was fair by their SLA. Insurance didn’t fix it. Prep did.
A Weird One: Photo Claim
I posted a blog with a “free” stock photo. Later, a company said I used their image. They wanted $1,500. I panicked.
Media coverage in my policy kicked in. They gave me a lawyer. We swapped the image. He wrote two letters. The claim was dropped. Legal bill was about $3,200. The policy paid that. My cost? $0 for defense under that part. I didn’t know that was even a thing. Now I read those little lines.
Sidenote: If your blog ever dives into reviews of niche dating services aimed at mature audiences, you might study a live example such as the profiles of local seniors featured on FuckLocal’s “Old Women” section — browsing it shows how user-generated images are handled and what attribution rules apply, a useful reference when you’re trying to keep your own media usage squeaky-clean. Likewise, exploring the regional classified boards on Backpage Rosemount can give you a real-world look at the disclaimers, watermark rules, and DMCA language adult platforms use—checking out how they structure those policies helps you tighten your own terms of service and avoid surprise infringement claims.
What It Covers (from my seat)
- Incident response: Cleanup, forensics, advice when your site gets hacked
- Business interruption: Lost income after a “waiting period” (watch that number)
- Media stuff: Claims over images, text, even a spicy blog post
- Data duties: Notices, credit help if user info leaks
What it doesn’t do:
- It doesn’t stop attacks. Tools do.
- It doesn’t replace backups. I still keep daily backups at the host and off-site in Backblaze.
- It won’t pay for shady shortcuts. If you run nulled plugins, good luck.
Setup That Saved Me Later
I’m not perfect. I forget patches. I skip nights. But this helped:
One big lesson: email is still the easiest way in for attackers—over half of all cyber-insurance claims now trace back to inbox threats like funds-transfer fraud and business email compromise (source).
- Cloudflare with rate limits and a “I’m under attack” switch
- Managed WordPress with real support (I moved from shared hosting after the first mess)
- 2FA on everything: host, WP, registrar
- Off-site backups and a one-click restore test once a month
- Plugin list cut in half; fewer doors, fewer problems
For a deeper dive on hardening your stack, the free guides over at WebspaceHost walk you through practical steps that pair well with any cyber-insurance policy.
Separately, I’ve also tested how a dedicated IP affects real-world web hosting—spoiler: it matters more for mail reputation than ranking, but the numbers surprised me.
If you’re curious how easy it is to roll a site with built-in certificates, I chronicled a full launch on Web Hosting Plus with AutoSSL right here.
Insurance loved these. My renewal was smoother. The price stayed flat.
Things I Wish I Knew Sooner
- Keep proof of traffic and sales. Screenshots, logs, payout reports. Claims need receipts.
- Ask about the waiting period for downtime. Twelve hours was a gotcha for me.
- Media coverage matters. Even for a tiny blog.
- Call fast. The sooner you call, the cleaner the paper trail.
- Keep a contact list: host support, domain registrar, insurance hotline, and your “oh no” tech friend.
Pros and Cons From a Real Week on the Job
Pros:
- A real human answered my 2 a.m. call
- Vendor cleanup was fast and calm
- Media claim defense saved me time and money
Cons:
- Waiting period on downtime felt long
- Paperwork made me cranky
- Not all lost sales counted
Who I Think Needs It
- Small shops who sell online (even a little)
- Agencies who host client sites or manage them
- Bloggers who post images and hot takes
- Anyone who would lose sleep (or rent money) if their site broke
If you only run a hobby site with no data and no money at stake, you may just want backups and a solid host. That’s fair.
My Bottom Line
I pay about $830 a year. I’ve had one big covered event, one small legal mess, and one painful “no” on downtime. It still paid for itself, more than once. It won’t fix a sloppy stack. But it will catch you when you fall.
Would I buy web hosting insurance again? Yes. I still keep better tools, better habits, and a short list taped by my desk. And, honestly, I sleep a lot better.
If you’re on the fence, ask about three things: the waiting period, the media defense, and who they send when you call at 2 a.m. The names on that list matter more than pretty brochures.