After a year of relentless escalation, most shared web hosting plans now come with "Unlimited" disk space and bandwidth!
Too good to be true?
YES INDEED!
Don't fall for it! Many restrictions apply!
Of course, the terms & conditions of each hosting company and or hosting plan will vary, but most of the time, if you try to really go unlimited you will hit one of these limits:
- The unlimited diskspace can only be used for public web content. It cannot be used for:
- password protected content
- or backups
- etc.
- The unlimited bandwidth can only be used for "regular web pages", not for:
- videos
- software downloads
- podcasts
- etc.
- There may still be limitations on the number of web requests per second your server can handle.
- There may still be limitations on the processor time your scripts can use.
Does it matter?
NO, NOT REALLY!
Unless you're actually trying to run high traffic sites at virtually no cost, you should not really be concerned about this. Actually, the fact that everybody has aligned on "unlimited" will let you shift your focus on more interesting differentiating factors between software companies, such as:
- Is their software up to date?
- Is their platform secure?
- Is their tech support helpful?
- Is your site going to be fast enough?
- What is your commitment and can you change your mind if the hosting company doesn't live up to their claims and/or your expectations?
To answer all these questions, we recommend that you check out web host reviews, user feedback and tests sites already running with the company you have in mind (important for checking speed).
For more info on choosing a webhost, check out our Web Hosting 101 »
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