Limited vs. Unlimited Web Hosting

Web hosting companies are trying their best to attract new customers by offering attractive offers. To keep up with the competition, many web hosting companies have dropped their prices. Many web hosting companies are selling unlimited web hosting plans with features like unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domain hosting, and so on. Let us do an analytical comparison of limited and unlimited web hosting to find out which one is suitable for you.

First of all, when a web hosting company says that they are offering unlimited hosting, it actually means that they are offering unlimited resources such as unlimited server space, unlimited bandwidth, etc. However, if you think about unlimited web hosting carefully, you can understand that no company can actually offer unlimited resources because they have a limited amount of resources available for their customers, and it is practically impossible for them to provide you unlimited hosting.

limited-hosting

Still web hosting companies try to get around this as they know websites (even the heavier ones) can only use a small amount of resources and can never use total resources available on the server.

Is unlimited web hosting really unlimited?

The answer to this question can be found by reading the Terms and Conditions page of the unlimited hosting service provider. You will get to know exactly how much of resources are available for each customer and how much you’ll be charged if you happen to exceed the amount of resources allotted to you. Thus, the so-called unlimited web hosting is actually a limited web hosting service, and the usage limits can be found hidden in the terms of conditions of the service provider.

Many may consider that unlimited web hosting service is nothing but false advertising strategy adopted by web hosting companies. But it is certainly true and possible that even though the resources are limited they will never get used up.

What is limited web hosting?

In limited web hosting, the service provider puts a clear cut limit on the server usage. For example, a limited web hosting provider may have a plan like this:

  • Server storage limit: 500 MB
  • Monthly bandwidth usage: 5 GB

Most of the limited hosting providers offer multiple plans with different limits with an option to upgrade to the higher plan. Many website owners find this type of web hosting more satisfying since all the limits are pre-defined and you can plan as per your requirements. Very few companies offer limited web hosting services.