What does “unlimited hosting” mean?

What does “unlimited hosting” mean?

The term ‘unlimited hosting’ refers to the hosting companies who offer an unlimited number of websites, storage, bandwidth and domains, if your host doesn’t provide you one of these factors as unlimited then we can’t call the hosting package truly unlimited. Web hosting providers are known to offer unlimited services because they know as a result of their large hosting capacities, they wouldn’t be able to use the space completely, and therefore, they offer unlimited hosting for the spaces to be occupied. Most website owners choose unlimited web hosting as per their requirements. To know more about these concepts, let’s take a look:

1# Unlimited websites and domains

If any hosting company is offering you unlimited websites that means you can host an unlimited number of websites as you need, registering and utilizing an equal number of domain names. This hosting plan will be beneficial for entrepreneurs who are running various websites and businesses simultaneously.

 

2# Unlimited storage

If any company is offering you unlimited storage that means you can host an unlimited number of files on your website’s server. Unlimited storage is mostly required by large websites, photography blogs or other sites which require a large number of images and media to upload.

While choosing a hosting provider, you can consider those hosts who offer unlimited disk space so that you can add content and pages into your website as you need without paying extra money to your host.

 

3# Unlimited/unmetered bandwidth

Bandwidth is considered as the amount of data transferred between your website’s server and your user’s computer. The hosting company who offers unlimited bandwidth means you need to pay only for the whole package and you can use unlimited bandwidth.

Unlimited bandwidth is basically useful for business or websites which receive high traffic and it will continue running smoothly and those websites will not be penalized by their hosting company.

 

Does “unlimited space” exist?

It is an important question and may also raise many questions. There are many web hosting companies who offer unlimited disk space with hosting package and some users who don’t have enough technical knowledge, accept their package without raising any question. For those customers who feel harmed to get unlimited disk space without knowing its limitations, we are going to explain the rules that are usually applied in web hosting with unlimited disk space.

As we know the purpose of hosting companies is to host websites and advertise their services to attract more customers so that they can encourage them to buy their services. If they are providing you unlimited disk space with the hosting package that means there will be no limit to use of disk space, but customers have to store only those files which are referring to their site or linked with their site. However, if customers are using their disk space to store repository or file sharing purpose then hosting company will never allow this thing.

In some cases, if hosting companies find that their customers are excessively using server resources and it impacts on the performance and stability of the server, then the support team will contact the customer and offer them to upgrade their package to a VPS or dedicated server, or customers have to limit the use of server resources.

The files and data that can be stored on the server will be limited by the space available from its connected disk drives. Consider an example, suppose hosting plan with unlimited storage, when disk space is about to full or nearing its capacity then additional disk drivers will be added to the server to maximize storage space. Unlimited storage may be described as unlimited storage available.

 

How does “unlimited hosting” work?

Now, you know the answer to “does unlimited space exist?” now it’s a time to know how unlimited hosting works? First, consider the following term “overselling”:

 

What does overselling mean?

As the name suggests, overselling refers to selling something more than have. In simple words, hosting companies sell more than they have the actual capacity to offer. What normally hosting companies do, they own incomprehensible amount of hosting capacity to ensure that it wouldn’t be exceeded by a single website.

There are some websites that need only a few resources to use such as any new website that doesn’t have high traffic on his/her website. The hosting company will check its unused resources, and they are able to re-sell those unused resources, this is known as overselling.

 

Unlimited hosting will work if you are not using too much

Consider an example to know more about this concept, suppose you are buying something online and you have read an ad “if you buy two t-shirts then you’ll get one t-shirt free”, and when you click on that ad, you see that if you buy t-shirts of Rs.1500, only then you can get one t-shirt free. This is called a business.

Similarly, if you are getting an unlimited hosting package with unlimited space and bandwidth then there will be some conditions or restrictions that you may have to follow.

 

Things need to be considered for unlimited hosting

There are some important factors, everyone should know before buying an unlimited hosting package. The following are some key factors:

1# Amount of resources your website need

It is an initial step you must take even before you research on unlimited web hosting options. Consider an example, suppose you already know that your website is going to have monthly traffic in hundreds or thousands and you have to upload large video also, then choosing unlimited hosting isn’t going to work for you.

 

2# Check whether servers are optimized for speed or not

If you have to share a server with other customers then ensure that server is optimized for speed. Take a look for unlimited hosts that use CDNs, SSD storage, and allow you to choose the datacentre location of your choice so that you can get the max amount of speed.

 

3# Offer full security or not

If you are choosing shared hosting then make sure that your host is provided you full security, because the shared server is more vulnerable to hacking as compared to VPS or dedicated server, so it is important to choose an unlimited host that offers security to the server. If your unlimited hosting includes the following security features then go for it:

• Firewalls
• Spam and malware filters
• Daily backups
• 24/7 network monitoring

 

4# Is it scalable?

Small-scale unlimited hosting plans are a great place to start your business with web hosting, however, if you want to expand your business then you can’t stick with the basic plan forever. To grow your business you need a best unlimited hosting provider who can provide easy scalability, either by yourself or through support team, so that when the time comes, you can scale-up the resources when you need.

 

The hidden limits of “unlimited” hosting space and bandwidth

When you finish developing a website then you will search for a hosting company which offers you the best and cheapest hosting service. You may have seen several hosting companies who are offering a hosting package with unlimited space, bandwidth or perhaps even unlimited server resource usage which includes memory and CPU power. Have you ever surprised how these hosting providers can offer those unlimited resources to you at a reasonable cost? Here is the answer:

 

# Unlimited space

Plenty of hosting companies provide “unlimited disk space”, as it is one of the biggest offenders. Besides this, some hosting companies offer limited disk space measured in gigabytes to your website or for your VPS. Others call it unlimited disk space, but hosting companies hide some limits in Terms of Service (TOS) about what they are able to do and what they can’t use and how much space they acquire for their hosting. There are some restrictions behind unlimited disk space:

 

1. Restricting the number of files you can host

Hosting companies you pretend to offer unlimited disk space often restrict the number of files you can host, this is known as Inode limit. Basically, if you have an expensive hosting plan then there will be a higher Inode limit. Usually, hosting plans allow you to host between 100,000 to 250,000 files.

 

2. Restriction on the type of file you can host

If you are hosting your website with the unlimited hosting package then you may face an issue to store large file that means your host wouldn’t allow you to host large files. This may include videos and backup of your files. The limit of the file size will vary host to host.

 

3. You are not allowed to store website backup

Plenty of shared hosting providers don’t allow customers to store backups of their site on their server. So, in this case, customers have to store their backup on an external server or they can use backup service of a hosting company but for this, a hosting company will charge an extra fee.

 

4. Limit the size of MySQL databases

When hosting companies offer unlimited storage, they often limit the size of MySQL databases, usually between 500MB and 2GB, this size may vary from one host to another.

 

# Unlimited bandwidth

Unlimited bandwidth is another offender as there is no such thing which is without limit. There are limits of what amount of data can be sent and the number of visitors can visit a particular website. There are common restrictions on unlimited bandwidth:

 

1. Limit the type of website you can host

Some websites use significantly more bandwidth as compared to other websites. These include:

• High-quality image sharing websites
• Large video sharing websites
• Script-heavy websites

Running these files always will be hidden in Terms of Service of the hosting providers who offer unlimited data transfer.

 

2. Restrict server-to-server file transfer

Let’s take an example to know the detail of this concept, suppose you are working on WordPress and you use WordPress plugin to take a backup of your site and then automatically upload that backup to another server for security, this is known as a server-to-server transfer.

 

In these cases, a lot of bandwidth is used, as a result hosting companies prohibit this activity.

 

3. Limit the number of concurrent database connections

When users visit your website then their browser will connect to your database to fetch the information about your website. When they retrieve the information they use a single database connection. When more users concurrently browse your website and refresh it at the same time then you are about to encounter a database connection limit.

 

# Unlimited usage of resources

Server resources are claimed to be unlimited in shared hosting rather than in VPS hosting. Perhaps, all resources are finite and a hosting provider must allocate a particular amount of RAM and CPU to a server and containers within the server. These resources are difficult to expand and are limited.

 

What happens if you exceed any of the limits mention above?

Generally, you will receive a warning email from your hosting provider when you exceed the limit. For example, your host offers you 100,000 Inode limit with your hosting package, you’ll receive a warning email when you reach to 80,000 or 90,000. If it happens then you have to upgrade your package because it can cause big issues for your website.

 

Who should avoid hosting plan with unlimited resources?

If you are going to run the following types of websites then you will likely to run into trouble if you choose a host who offers “unlimited” resource:

1. Image sharing websites

If you are running image sharing and blog website which contains high-quality images then you should avoid using an unlimited hosting plan.

 

2. Large scripts websites

A website which executes large scripts- modelling, scientific tools and advanced calculations.

 

3. Video sharing websites

If you need to host large videos on your server then choosing an unlimited hosting plan is not appropriate for you.

 

4. High-traffic websites

If your website is having high-traffic or receiving 1000-3000 visitors a day then opting for unlimited hosting is not a good option for you.

 

Who should opt unlimited web hosting?

Basically, unlimited web hosting is designed to meet the typical requirements of small businesses and home-based businesses instead of large businesses or high-traffic business websites.

Unlimited web hosting is suitable for small and middle-size business websites as they can acquire enough resources for their websites in the shared web hosting environment and they have to pay less as compared to VPS or dedicated web hosting packages.

Although, if you already know, your website will have high-traffic and you are planning to include high-quality videos then you should opt for VPS hosting because it gives you exclusive server resources.

 

Benefits of unlimited hosting

Unlimited hosting refers to being able to utilize unlimited resources involving unlimited space, bandwidth, and an unlimited amount of websites and data transfer. Unlimited web hosting is very important for web developers who can host their websites without worrying about whether their website is complex or large. There may be some hidden rules and restrictions behind unlimited hosting plans, it is because any web host wouldn’t allow their customers to use unlimited resources without paying any extra fee.

Apart from this, web hosting providers offer unlimited websites hosting as you can manage as many websites as you need. The following are the benefits that will encourage you to choose an unlimited web hosting:

# Wallet-friendly and reliable

You can get unlimited web hosting package at a reasonable cost for your small or new business. Some people who have just started their business or have a small business and can’t afford expensive hosting plan then choosing an unlimited hosting plan is the best option for them. It offers reliability and stability features which is another positive feature and attract more customers to get an unlimited hosting plan.

 

# Unlimited space

One of the finest features of unlimited hosting is its storage capacity. Customers who are having an unlimited hosting plan can create large and complex websites without worrying about storage.

 

# Unlimited data transfer

Another most important advantage of unlimited web hosting is you can transfer an unlimited amount of data. Suppose you have a website of music where any visitor can download the music file from your website they transfer data in and out of the server. On the other hand, some hosts offer limited data transfer, when you reach this limit then they will suspend your account or slow down the speed.

 

# Avoid overage charges

Due to overage charges, customers have to pay extra money. The hosting companies who offer limited data transfer policy charged overage charges. When your website reaches to the monthly bandwidth limit then you may experience overage charges. Whether your business is small or large, you may always want to avoid additional charges, due to this, unlimited hosting is offered by hosts so that customers can avoid extra expenses because it’ll have required amount of bandwidth.

 

Demerits of choosing “unlimited hosting”

Every single element or concept which has plenty advantages, similarly it will also have demerits, so we should be aware of both sides of any concept so that we can take decisions by keeping all positive as well as negative points in mind. Now, we are going to discuss demerits of choosing “unlimited hosting”:

1. For those website owners who want to create traffic on their websites or they want people to download things such as videos from their websites, the unlimited hosting may not work for them. The reason behind this, suppose they have overused the allocated resources then they can lose their visitors that they get.
2. If you overuse an unknown resource then maybe your website speed can be throttled.
3. All unlimited hosting providers use Terms of Service agreement to limit what their hosting service can be used for. A common restriction is on unlimited storage where customers can’t store their personal file, they can solely store website-related files.

Another limit behind unlimited hosting is a restriction on reselling, i.e. customer can’t resell resources.

 

How to protect yourself from the limitations of unlimited hosting plans

If selecting unlimited hosting is the only and best option for you, hence there are some steps that can take place to protect you from running into their actual limitations:

• Use a Content Delivery Network
• Website optimization
• Third-party application
• Select the right plugins

 

# Use a Content Delivery Network

A content delivery network moves your static assets to optimized edge servers near to your website’s customers. This is done to maximize the speed of your website, however, it also minimizes the bandwidth and request load on your hosting account, because your assets are delivered from CDN’s server, not your own.

 

# Website optimization

Optimize your website involving cleaner code, minified CSS and JS files, better SQL queries, and accurate image size and number of other improvements in your website design, all these can impact in reducing the overall use.

 

# Third-party application

Many website-related functions such as lead capture forms and blog comment systems can incorporate at browser level from third-party SaaS providers. These services are even freely provided for low volume use.

 

# Select the right plugins

To create a better user experience for your website visitors, select appropriate plugins. These plugins can be anywhere from caching to backups and security.

 

Why is it important for website owners to track the use of disk space?

It is hard to measure the usage of site’s disk space, and it holds true for both for those who already have bought the hosting package and for those who are planning to buy a hosting plan for their website.

If you plan to buy a hosting plan, first, you should know how much web hosting space you need for your website. In this way, you’ll have a clear idea and security in choosing a suitable hosting plan. On the other hand, if you already have hosting plan then you need to track how much your website is using disk space to avoid overflowing the site. Therefore, it is important to know in advance the requirement for a planned upgrade and migrate hosting with your website.

 

How website owners can find how much web hosting space they need

Storage or disk space is required for business or website on your hosting account or server and the disk space is required for documents, music, video and images, however, it also includes emails, the page of your website and system files as well, but all these require less storage as compared to those files which we have mentioned previously. Usually, how much disk space or storage you require will depend on the number of pages of your website and the media which is used in your website.

As we know disk space is measured in megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB) and if you want to find how much space your website need then it depends on the number of pages on your website and the size of each page.

If you don’t have an idea what amount of resources you need or how much space you need to store your website then you can take help of space measuring tools, StarDot bandwidth and storage calculator, to help you if you plan on streaming video on your website.

You could measure the website size by identifying the average size of every web page and then multiply it with the number of web pages you want to incorporate into your website. It is essential to have enough disk space so that in the future you could incorporate multiple web pages into your website to grow your business. If you are expecting high-traffic on your website or you want to add large video files into your website in the future then opting for unlimited data space is not going to work for you.

 

Types of files- identify in which category your website falls into

• Consider you have static website with minimum data, and approximate 4-5 web pages, then you don’t need much space.
• Having a website with dynamic content such as images, audio and video files, and scripting language then you would require huge space to accommodate these files.
• The website owners who have their blogging site, they can determine how much space they require depending on the requirement of the textual content, image and audio files they intend to use.
• If you have an e-commerce website or website which is specifically for gaming, video or music purpose, they need huge data space.
• If you have an active email account on your website then your web space must be affected by this because emails occupy a lot of disk space when they contain spam emails in it.
• If your website is having high-traffic then again, the amount of hosting space will be affected. So, you must have an idea of average monthly visitors to your website and how many pages will be visited during a single visit. Every time a visitor visits your website, access your page, and upload or download data from your website, it will affect the amount of bandwidth you need.

Basically, if you have an estimate the number of web pages that can be included in your website and approximate size of each page will help you to decide how much space you require for your website. You must have an idea what you will incorporate into your website in the future, you have to decide whether you want to put lots of videos or images into your website or just plan to add textual content and a few images. While making an idea of web space you require, it is important to consider scaling-up resources in the future. For example, today you may be hosting a simple website with minimal space, but in the future maybe you expand your business and you might have to consider your web space limit.

 

Unlimited hosting space providers

Unlimited hosting means you can enjoy unlimited hosting without any restrictions. If you are opting unlimited hosting services then you need to concern about the unexpected site visitors or an unexpected spike in the website and a large amount of data uploads. As you know there is no such thing which is really unlimited, there will be absolutely some limits behind it. But on the other hand, those limits are so high that hosting user would never reach those limits, this is the reason why it is called unlimited.

Generally, unlimited web hosting includes unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, data transfer, add-on domains, and unlimited databases. As an unlimited web hosting space providers are providing the freedom to host as many websites as they want at an affordable cost. The following are the top unlimited hosting providers:

# iPage

iPage is the best option for those who have a small business and looking for a host with a near-instant setup. It offers very few plans and its core hosting plan offers unlimited disk space, unlimited domain names are allowed and unlimited MySQL databases. Users will also get access to a free website builder with a simple drag and drop interface.

 

# A2 Hosting

With A2 Hosting, your account will be packed with all the features you need and help you to build a successful website and brand. Your unlimited hosting plan will include unlimited disk space, unlimited data transfer, unlimited MySQL databases and email accounts. And the major advantage of choosing this hosting provider is that it gives a fast performance.

 

# Bluehost

Bluehost offers unlimited hosting while offering four packages based on shared web hosting. The following are the four packages with their corresponding features:

 

1. Basic

• Starting at Rs.199/month
• Host 1 website
• 50 GB SSD Storage
• Unmetered bandwidth and many more

 

2. Plus

• Starting at Rs.299/month
• Host unlimited websites
• Unlimited SSD storage
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Unlimited domains, parked domains and sub-domains and many more features are included

 

3. Choice plus

• Starting at Rs.299/month
• Unlimited websites
• Unlimited SSD storage
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Spam expert
• Domain privacy
• Unlimited domains, parked domains and sub-domains and many more features are included

 

4. Pro

• Starting at Rs.859/month
• Unlimited websites
• Unlimited SSD storage
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Unlimited domains
• Unlimited parked domains and sub-domains and many more features

 

# Inmotion

Inmotion

Inmotion is another unlimited hosting provider and it offers three packages under a shared hosting plan. The following are the features offered by Launch, Power and Pro plans:

 

1. Launch

• Starting at $3.99/month
• Host 2 website
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited emails and many more

 

2. Power

• Starting at $5.99/month
• Host 6 websites
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited emails and many more features are included

 

3. Pro

• Starting at $13.99/month
• Host unlimited websites
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited email
• Free SSL and many more features

 

# GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks offers unlimited web hosting at reasonable prices. The following are the packages fall under the web hosting:

 

1. Lite

• Starting at $2.95/month
• Host 1 website
• Unlimited web space
• Unlimited data transfer
• Standard performance and many more

 

2. Pro

• It is suitable for growing websites that require more space and resources
• Starting at $5.95/month
• Unlimited websites
• Unlimited web space
• Unlimited data transfer
• 2X performance and many more

 

3. Premium

• It is suitable for online stores
• Starting at $11.95/month
• Unlimited websites
• Unlimited web space
• Unlimited data transfer
• 4X performance etc.

 

# Milesweb

Milesweb offers unlimited web hosting and offering three packages such as Tyro, Swift and Turbo. The detailed information of these packages is written below:

 

1. Tyro

• Starting at Rs.200/month
• Host 1 website
• 1GB disk space
• Unlimited bandwidth
• 3 MySQL DBs and many more

 

2. Swift

• Starting at Rs.650/month
• Host 1 website
• Unlimited SSD disk space
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited MySQL databases
• Unlimited email accounts and many more features are added

 

3. Turbo

• Starting at Rs.850/month
• Host unlimited websites
• Unlimited SSD disk space
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Website builder
• Unlimited MySQL databases
• Unlimited email accounts and many more features are included

 

# Bigrock

Bigrock offers various services to the customers including domain registration, shared hosting, reseller hosting and WordPress hosting etc. It also offers unlimited web hosting space under shared hosting. Linux advanced and Windows premium plan, both fall under shared hosting.

 

1. Linux advanced plan

• Starts from Rs.249/month
• Single domain
• Unlimited space
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited emails

 

2. Windows premium plan

• Starts from Rs.399/month
• Offers single domain
• Unlimited space
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited emails

 

# PetalHost

PetalHost is one of the leading companies as it offers various services including domains registration, unlimited Linux hosting, shared hosting, Linux reseller hosting and SSL certificate and many more. Unlimited Linux hosting offers three package and Windows hosting also includes three packages with unlimited features:

 

• Unlimited Linux hosting

 

It includes three packages with unlimited features at affordable prices:

 

1. Deluxe pack

• Starts from Rs.299/month
• Host 1 website
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited email accounts
• Unlimited databases
• Unlimited bandwidth etc.

 

2. Business pack

• Starts from Rs.399/month
• Host 3 websites
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited email accounts
• Unlimited databases
• Unlimited bandwidth and many more

 

3. Professional pack

• Starting at Rs.499/month
• Unlimited websites
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited email accounts
• Unlimited databases
• Unlimited bandwidth etc.

 

• Windows hosting

 

You can get the best Windows hosting here with unlimited disk space, bandwidth and many more features are included.

 

1. Essential plan

• Starts from Rs.299/month
• Host single website
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited email accounts
• Unlimited databases
• Unlimited bandwidth
• 24/7/365 customer support etc.

 

2. Premium plan

• Starting at Rs.449/month
• Host 5 websites
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited email accounts
• Unlimited databases
• Unlimited bandwidth
• 30-days money-back guarantee and many more

 

3. Pro plan

• Starts at Rs.599/month
• Host 10 websites
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited email accounts
• Unlimited databases
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Plesk control panel
• 30-days money-back guarantee etc.

 

Conclusion

 

Now, we know our disk space is used to store the content which we have used on our website. I hope, all you understand why it is necessary to understand the type of website so that you can decide which hosting you should choose. Disk storage is a significant aspect which needs to be considered by all customers who plan to build a website or who already have a website.

If you want to estimate how much disk space is required for your website then you must know the type of website and what amount of content you plan to use. It is the case when you plan to host a website and if you already host your website then you must track of your disk space usage and you can find this information easily on the dashboard of your hosting.

Despite all of the above, if you still have a question whether you should buy hosting with unlimited bandwidth and storage then answer is ‘yes’. But the condition is, you should have a website which doesn’t have high-traffic because low-traffic websites don’t use extra server resources and if you are planning to launch your first website, then choosing to host package with unlimited bandwidth and space will work well for your website.