Cookie Policy
What this page covers
This page explains what cookies are, which kinds hosting123.org uses or allows, what happens when you click an affiliate link, and how to control all of it. It goes with our Privacy Policy, which covers personal data more broadly.
What cookies are
A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to store, which the site can read back on later visits. Related technologies such as local storage and pixels do similar jobs and are covered by the same rules on this page. Cookies are not programs and cannot read your files; what matters is who sets them and what they are used for, which is why we break ours down by purpose below.
Cookies we use on hosting123.org
Essential cookies
These make the site function: remembering a consent choice you made, keeping basic security features working, and remembering simple display preferences where the site offers them. They do not track you across other sites and they do not need consent, because refusing them would simply break the features they exist to provide.
Analytics cookies
These help us count visits and see which reviews and guides are actually read, in aggregate. We use this to decide what to retest and what to write next, not to profile individuals. Where the law requires consent for analytics cookies, they are not set until you give it, and the site works fully if you decline.
Advertising cookies
If display advertising on the site is served by an advertising partner, that partner may set cookies to measure ad performance or, depending on your consent choices, to personalise ads. These are third-party cookies governed by the partner’s own policy. Where consent is required, ads fall back to non-personalised behaviour when you decline.
Affiliate links: the cookie that pays for this site
This is the part most cookie policies bury, so we will be direct. HOSTING123 earns money from affiliate links, as our Disclaimer and Ownership and Funding page explain. When you click a link to a hosting company, the destination site or its affiliate network sets a cookie in your browser, on their domain, so that if you buy a plan within their attribution window, often 30 to 90 days, the sale is credited to us and we receive a commission. Three things worth understanding about this:
- The cookie is set by their systems, not ours. We never see your identity or payment details, only aggregate commission reports.
- It does not change the price you pay. Affiliate commissions come out of the host’s marketing budget, not your invoice.
- Clearing your cookies before purchase breaks the attribution, which costs us the commission but changes nothing about your order. That is your right, and we would rather explain the mechanics than obscure them.
Your choices
Consent controls
Where a consent banner is shown, you can accept or decline non-essential cookies, and you can change your mind later; the banner’s settings can be reopened from the site. Declining analytics and advertising cookies does not restrict any content.
Browser controls
Every modern browser lets you view, block, and delete cookies, block third-party cookies entirely, or clear everything on exit. The settings live under Privacy in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. Blocking all cookies can break consent memory on this site, meaning you may be asked again on each visit, but reading the site works fine.
On the hosts’ sites
Once you click through to a hosting provider, their cookie policy applies. Providers large enough to review are generally large enough to have their own consent tooling; use it with the same attention you gave ours.
Changes and contact
If we add a new category of cookie or a new advertising partner that changes what this page describes, we update the page and its revision date. Questions about cookies on hosting123.org: support@hosting123.org.
