SLA Directory

How we grade SLAs

Every vendor on SLA.directory gets a plain-language report card: a letter grade, a transparent score, and a list of the specific SLA terms that matter, each tied to the vendor's official source. Here is exactly how it works.

The grade

The grade is a quick read on how customer-friendly a vendor's SLA is, from A (strong, customer-friendly terms) to E (no meaningful SLA). It is derived from a 0–100 score, so it is comparable across all 159 vendors.

AStrong, customer-friendly terms (80–100)
BSolid, with minor gaps (60–79)
CWorkable but uneven (40–59)
DWeak, important caveats (20–39)
ELittle or no enforceable SLA (0–19)

The score

The score adds up the things that decide whether an SLA is actually worth anything when a vendor misses its commitment. The weighting is fixed and public:

  • Credit remedy (up to 45): whether a missed SLA actually entitles you to service credits, versus a weaker remedy like termination-only or no SLA at all. This is the single biggest factor, because an uptime number with no remedy is just marketing.
  • Uptime commitment (up to 15): the headline availability percentage.
  • Maximum credit (up to 20): how much you can recover for a bad month.
  • Claim window (up to 12): how long you have to file; longer is friendlier.
  • Automatic credits (8): whether credits are applied for you, with no claim to file.
  • Accessible plan (up to 5): whether the SLA applies to ordinary plans, not just top-tier enterprise contracts.

Vendors that publish a separate SLA per service (most hyperscalers) are scored on representative top-level values; the per-service table on each vendor page shows the full detail.

The report-card points

Below the grade, each vendor page lists the specific terms that shaped it, in plain language. Every point is classified so you can scan the trade-offs at a glance:

  • Good — a customer-friendly term (high uptime, automatic credits, a 100% credit cap, a generous claim window).
  • Neutral — a standard, expected term that is neither a plus nor a minus.
  • Caution — worth checking before you rely on it (a short claim window, an enterprise-only SLA, many exclusions).
  • Bad — a term that materially weakens the SLA (a very short claim window, termination-with-refund only).
  • Blocker — there is effectively no SLA protection (no public SLA, or credits unavailable entirely).

What the verification badge means

SLA terms change quietly. Every vendor record carries a verification state so you know how much to trust it:

  • Community-verified — the data was read directly from the vendor's official SLA, with a source link and a last checked date.
  • Needs review — the entry is flagged for re-checking (often a vendor with no clearly published SLA, gated terms, or values that need confirmation). A note on the page explains why.

We only record what a vendor's official document actually states; we never estimate a number. Source links are checked monthly for rot, and entries past a twelve-month freshness window are surfaced for re-verification. Individual services can also carry their own verification date when re-checked on their own. See the open dataset for the raw records, or suggest a correction if something looks off.