Do You Need A Lot Of Bandwidth? Bandwidth measures the volume of data transmitted over an internet connection. You have to know how much bandwidth you need while choosing hosting plans. Be careful when someone claims they provide unlimited bandwidth or monthly transfer. Anyone claiming "Unlimited Bandwidth" is simply lying. There's no such thing as "Unlimited Bandwidth". I’ve never seen any broadband company offering an internet connection as "Unlimited Megabytes per Second." So, how could a web hosting company, which normally doesn't even own its own access lines, claims to customers that it will give them "Unlimited Bandwidth"? Most of the time, high bandwidth sites on these "Unlimited" plans will be disconnected, and no refund given. Normally, the web hosting company will say that the site violated its Acceptable Use Policy or Terms of Service. Whenever you visit a site promoting "Unlimited Bandwidth" as one of the account features, be sure to visit the Acceptable Use Policy, or the Terms of Service. Read the fine text about the so-called "Unlimited" disclaimer. When you first look for web hosting services (those who state clearly bandwidth offered), you have to make your best estimation and watch your usage carefully in the first few months. Take these factors into consideration while estimating. **How many users will access your web site? **How many pages to be access? **How big are the graphic and HTML files? Large audio/video files, computer programs, and file downloads require more bandwidth. Flash web sites use tons of bandwidth. Virtual Reality (VR) and full-length three-dimensional audio/visual presentations require the most bandwidth of all. Though it is not accurate, but still gives you something to work with until your site has been online for a while and actual traffic statistics have been generated. Don’t fall for the unlimited bandwidth trap that some companies throw at you. source: http://www.tips-area.com/computer/article-do-you-need-a-lot-of-bandwidth.html
No it isn't. You're talking about data transfer. Bandwidth doesn't measure anything, bandwidth just "is". Bandwidth is the size of the connection, data transfer is how much data you transfer over that connection. No, what you want to know is how much data you are likely to transfer over the bandwidth that is available. Even then, it's a moot point. The vast majority of web sites use very little data transfer and bandwidth rarely comes into the equation. Really? When you don't seem to know the difference (and connection) between bandwidth and data transfer, how can you be so sure? Is there actually a finite amount of bandwidth available? Probably. Will the average web site ever exceed the bandwidth available within a datacentre? Not likely. Data centres run thousands of servers without issue (usually!). Do you really think a single server will be able to out-use the bandwidth capabilities of a datacentere? A server's network cards and performance will run out of puff long before they get anywhere near maxing out the bandwidth available, and if the server or web site can never outpace or outuse the bandwidth available then by that virtue there are no actual limits to the bandwidth being made available by the host to that customer. That kinda makes sense, but see above. If you can never reach the limits, then there isn't a limit you could ever reach, so as far as reality is concerned there is no limit. You're showing a bit of prejudice now. How do you know? Name them? Are you quoting facts, your opinion, or your experience of all hosts who offer no limits? Bandwidth is now so cheap in most datacentres that hosts don't normally give it a second thought. That's a lot different from a few years ago when bandwidth costs were a real concern. The biggest concern that most hosts have now is resource usage. The huge uptake of open-source apps like Wordpress and Joomla are putting massive strain on servers now, particularly in relation to some plug-ins or themes that are not well written and use up massive amounts of a server's resources (particularly the CPU) to the detriment of other users. It's exceeding your "fair share" of these other shared resources that are more likely to get your web site shut-down or suspended than the use of too much bandwidth (or data transfer). All hosts have these conditions - not just "unlimited" hosts - and they will all have the same outcome for the site owner. The "unlimited" host is not unique here. I agree, you should always read the small print, but mostly in relation to shared resource usage. Some hosts specify resource limits, others just talk about "fair use" without defining what "fair use" is. It's the ones that have an unspecified "fair use" that I'd be most concerned about - and that applies whether they are an unlimited host or hot. That's all correct, but the fact is most web site owners don't know up-front WHAT the number of site visitors will be, and any guess they make will be a very uneducated one. The data transfer limits of most hosts will be adequate for most web sites, and a site-owner really shouldn't be that concerned unless they are running a very busy site (these are rare in the general scheme of things), but if the site is already live then they will know what sort of data transfer they need. For most new sites, for the "average" web site owner, data transfer should be the least of their concerns. What most site owners should be looking for is a host that will provide additional bandwidth or data transfer when needed, do not charge too much for it, and who are set-up to cope with that persons site if it does take off and be willing to work with them rather than just suspend them. For the average web site, being concerned, in the first instance, with things like data transfer for a new web site is just nonsense. In fact, it's uninformed and biased articles such as these that have encouraged the growth and popularity of "unlimited" hosts - the very opposite of what they are intending to do. In a bid to "inform" these types of articles just spread worry and confusion, and cause new site owners to choose "the most resources for the cheapest price". You can't blame people for doing that based on what so-called experts are saying. Not that long ago it wasn't uncommon for hosts to provide a "generous" 5GB of transfer and charge $10 per additional GB over that limit. These were the times when it was worth making an effort to decide how much data transfer was required, but times change and the information being provided really should be keeping up with the times. Now most new site owners shouldn't really give it a seconds thought. We have customers who regularly exceed their monthly transfer limits by 10 or 20GB, and we don't invoice them for it because it costs us more to raise the invoice than we'd get back. It's not just that though, why should we spoil a long-term relationship with a customer for what, to us, is an additional cost of a few pennies? Best to be flexible, reliable, and helpful to your customers, than nit-pick about pennies. And, to be honest, there aren't that many shared hosting customers exceeding their limits (a VERY small percentage). More importantly, don't let articles such as this force you into the hands of an unscrupulous host or let it think that you need to worry about data transfer for your new web site. If/When your web site gets lots of visitors, and your data transfer starts to climb, your biggest worry will more likely be the amount of shared resource-usage you are consuming, not the amount of data you are transferring. Find a host you feel comfortable with, one who seems to "speak to you", who you think you would be happy working with. Don't get suckered by the cheapest price or offers of things you'll never use, and don't spend too much time reading these "expert" articles...or replies to them! Finally, to answer some questions my reply may raise: 1. No, our hosting company does not offer unlimited data transfer or bandwidth in any of our hosting plans 2. Yes, some "unlimited" hosts are scammers (probably), but there are many good honest hosts out there 3. No, not all hosts are the same 4. Most "hosts" are actually resellers of other companies services 5. The number of actual hosting companies with their own (multiple) servers and networks is VERY small
@RonBrown Thank you for taking the time to write a detailed explanation, seems like many people don't really know what they are talking about even though they claim to be hosting providers. To everyone looking for a new host the most important facts to look for as a website owner are: - Uptime (there are enough services providing data to check) - Support - Flexibility (From my own experience it's a crucial point) - Customer Reviews (check sites like hostsearch besides the reviews at the point of sale) Of course you will also have to make sure you have enough resources and I would be lying if I told you the price doesn't matter - of course it does BUT you need to decide if a cheap price is worth risking your income from a site. It's a decision you will have to make on your own.