Frequently Asked Questions

cPanel is a web-based control panel that lets you manage your hosting account through an easy-to-use dashboard instead of complicated server commands. From cPanel you can create and manage email accounts, install WordPress, manage domains, access website files, create backups, manage databases and install SSL certificates. Every Squirrel Hosting account includes full cPanel access.

Our servers are based in South Africa, which means faster loading times for visitors in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal and the rest of the country. Unlike many hosting companies that simply resell third-party services, we manage and maintain our own VPS hosting environment, running LiteSpeed web servers, NVMe storage, CloudLinux, cPGuard and Imunify360.

It depends on the size of your website and how many email accounts you need. Our Starter (R99/month) and Lite (R150/month) packages, both paid annually only, and Basic (R205/month) suit smaller websites and are not for e-commerce. For an online store, choose Power Hosting (R299/month) or higher. Compare everything on our Web Hosting and WordPress Hosting pages, or ask us and we’ll recommend a package.

Yes. A FREE .co.za domain is included with annual billing on our web hosting packages, when it is used as the primary domain for the hosting account. The domain is renewed annually at the normal price. If you cancel your hosting before 12 months have passed, the registration fee for the free domain becomes payable.

No. Our hosting packages have no contracts. You can cancel at any time from your Client Area. See Account Cancellation in our Terms & Conditions for how cancellations work.

We guarantee that our network of servers will be available 99.9% of the time in any given month, excluding scheduled maintenance. See our Uptime Guarantee for what is covered.

Bandwidth is not metered or capped for the normal operation of a typical business website and email. It remains subject to our Fair Use & Resource Limits policy.

You can upgrade your package, add disk space to your account at R25 per GB, or we can custom design a package to suit your requirements. We recommend increasing your disk quota once you reach 85% capacity, to avoid any interruption to your services.

Yes. Depending on your hosting package, you can host multiple domains and websites from a single cPanel account. Contact us and we’ll advise on the right package.

Yes. Our servers run LiteSpeed Enterprise with LSCache, Redis object caching, Memcached and finely tuned PHP, so WordPress sites load faster and handle more traffic. WordPress can be installed in a few clicks through Softaculous in cPanel. See our WordPress Hosting plans.

Yes. Our team handles the technical side of migrating your website from your current provider. A once-off migration fee of R350 applies to manual (non-cPanel) migrations. Please keep your previous hosting account active and paid up until the migration has been checked. Emails stored only on a device (for example POP3 mailboxes) cannot be migrated by us. See Website Migrations.

Our Durban Website Design department can build a brand new website in under 7 days*. *Delivery timeframes depend on receiving all content and approvals. See Website Design and Our Website Designs.

Yes. We update and maintain existing websites. Website updates are charged at R650 per hour, as per our IT support pricelist.

If we design and build your website, you can use our licensed copy of Oxygen Builder while the website is hosted with Squirrel Media. If you cancel your hosting or move the website to another provider, the licence is deactivated and you would need to buy your own licence to keep receiving updates.

Yes. Our mailbox-only Email Hosting plans start from R79/month and include webmail, POP3/IMAP/SMTP, anti-spam and daily backups. If your email is hosted with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or another provider, our DNS cPanel lets you manage your domain’s DNS records without a hosting package.

We strongly recommend IMAP. IMAP keeps your email on the server and synchronises your inbox, sent items and folders across all your devices, so a lost or replaced device doesn’t mean lost email. POP3 downloads email to a single device and usually removes it from the server. Please note: we cannot back up your emails if you set up your accounts as POP3. Read more in POP or IMAP for your email?

Follow our step-by-step guide, Setting up your email on Outlook. Your incoming and outgoing mail settings are in your Client Area and in cPanel under Email Accounts → Connected Devices. Device and Outlook configuration is IT support, which is not included in your hosting plan; we can do it for you at our IT support rates.

An address such as info@yourbusiness.co.za looks more professional than a free email address, builds trust with customers and promotes your brand with every email you send. Read Why your business needs a custom email domain.

Yes. Every web hosting plan includes outgoing mail spam filtering, which helps keep your emails out of spam folders and protects the IP reputation of your email and website.

Search for your name on our Domains page and register it instantly. A domain is only secured once the registry has confirmed the registration. .co.za domains are registered through the ZA Central Registry (ZACR).

Yes. Transfer it to Squirrel Media and manage it alongside your hosting and email. If you ever transfer a domain away, the transfer (EPP) code is released once your account is fully paid up and the request has been verified.

Domain renewals are invoiced in advance. If a renewal is not paid before the expiry date, the domain may be suspended, deleted or registered by someone else, and any redemption fees charged by the registry are payable by the domain owner. Domain fees are non-refundable once submitted to the registry.

Full server backups are made weekly, and daily backups are available in your cPanel through the Backup Wizard. These backups count towards your disk quota and can be downloaded to your own device. For extra peace of mind, our JetBackup off-server backups (from R35/month, paid annually) store a daily copy of your website and email on separate network storage that does not count towards your disk quota. We recommend you also keep your own copies.

Our servers are protected by cPGuard, Imunify360 and CloudLinux. cPGuard blocks attacks in real time, scans for malware, prevents brute-force login attempts and quarantines threats, while CloudLinux isolates each hosting account so one website can’t affect another. Every package includes a FREE SSL certificate.

Repeated incorrect passwords, often from a phone or computer that has saved an old password, can trigger the server firewall and block your IP address. Check the site from a different device or on mobile data, and use our Website Checker to see whether it is online. If your IP has been blocked because of incorrect credentials, an IT fee may apply to unblock it.

By EFT (internet banking), or by credit card, debit card or Instant EFT through PayFast. Please allow 2 additional working days for an EFT to clear. You can pay and print your invoices in your Client Area.

Shared hosting accounts are suspended if they are still unpaid 2 days after the due date, and a R395.00 reconnection fee applies to suspended accounts. Accounts still unpaid after 14 days are terminated. See Payment Policies, Fees and Refunds.

Cancellations are made from within your Client Area, and accounts cannot be cancelled while invoices are outstanding. No refunds or pro-rata refunds are given. Your account stays active until the termination date we communicate to you, and is then terminated and its content permanently removed, so please download a full backup first. To reinstate a cancelled account before that date, you would sign up for a new package at current pricing; previous discounts and historical pricing are not carried over.

Your Client Area lets you manage your hosting and website products, pay and print invoices, check your domains and nameservers, open and update support tickets, order add-on services and update your contact information.

Yes. Earn 5% commission on each referral’s hosting, for the life of that service, and track your signups on your own dashboard. See our Affiliate Programme.

Log a support ticket in your Client Area, or email support@squirrelmedia.co.za. Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. On weekends we offer support via support tickets only.

No. IT, software and hardware support (for example Outlook configuration, device issues and password resets) is not included in your monthly hosting plan, and is billed separately. We offer it as an optional add-on: remote support via AnyDesk anywhere in South Africa, and on-site support in KZN. See our IT Support pricelist.

First check it with our free Website Checker. Browser or DNS caching can make a website appear inaccessible when others can still reach it, and recent nameserver or DNS changes can take time to propagate. If it is still offline, log a support ticket in your Client Area and our Durban team will investigate.

With Squirrel Media you deal with real people who know your business — no call centres. We’re a Durban-based team supporting businesses across KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa. Read why choosing a personal web hosting company might be one of the best business decisions you’ll make.