Short answer: an SLA in software is a promise about availability and support with a price tag attached. It has six moving parts, and the one that decides what it costs you is not the uptime percentage everybody argues about. It is the definition of downtime sitting underneath it. I
Most software vendors cap liability at fees paid. In a 2025 Eighth Circuit decision, that language barred an Omaha vendor from recovering a dollar of the $1,884,000 its enterprise customer walked away from. Here is what to change in your own agreement.
Acceptance criteria are subjective (“the customer decides if it is good enough”) and completion criteria are objective (“we delivered X, here is the proof”).
A little of both, but mostly trust. The lesson from Salesforce is that there is no SaaS SLA in its subscription agreement.