“Unlimited.” When shopping for a shared web hosting service, it’s a popular word used frequently to describe a company’s selling points — in particular, “unlimited disk space and bandwidth.” In light of today’s web sites becoming more sophisticated, increasingly more and more businesses and individuals are turning to web hosting companies that provide unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

But what does “unlimited” really mean? Can a web hosting provider truly provide “unlimited” resources? And do you really need it? Let’s take a look at some key points, as well as a few recommended web hosting providers, to consider when shopping for unlimited disk space and bandwidth:

What does disk space and bandwidth have to do with my website?
Every website is made up of files. These files may be a collection of HTML pages, images, videos, audio, and databases. They can also contain email accounts, access logs, and installed programs or scripts. “Bandwidth” and “disk space” are terms that relate to how these files are stored and how your users access these files.

What is unlimited disk space? And why does it matter?
If you are going to be providing content — and every website does — you are going to need a place in the virtual world to store it. “Disk space” refers to the amount of hard disk space needed on a web hosting company’s server to store these files.

The amount of storage required depends on the type of site you plan to support. Unless you have huge audio video files on your website, unlimited data space may not be a necessity. Regardless, the advantage of going with a web hosting service that provides unlimited disk space is that you won’t have to worry about running out of disk space as the website grow.

What is unlimited bandwidth? And why does it matter?
“Bandwidth” refers to the amount of data that is sent back and forth from your website. Every time you access a website, you are downloading a file — it could be an HTML page, an image, an audio file, or a video file. With every file that is downloaded, data is transferred.

Bandwidth is one of the hardest factors to predict when choosing a shared hosting solution. How much data is transferred depends on the size of the file. Videos, music, and database-driven web applications are all examples of types of content that are typically large file sizes and — as your web traffic increases — require more bandwidth.

The additional costs some web hosting providers charge for exceeding your bandwidth allocation can really add up. Choosing a provider that offers unlimited bandwidth can provide you with the peace of mind to offer any kind of content you wish to as many visitors as you want.

Can a web hosting company truly provide “unlimited” resources?
While no web host can provide infinite bandwidth each month, providers who offer “unlimited” disk space and bandwidth are well-equipped to provide more than enough disk space and bandwidth for the average website. As long as your website’s disk space and bandwidth usage are similar to other small business and personal websites, you won’t have to worry about running out.

What unlimited web hosting providers do you recommend?
There are a number of plans out there who offer unlimited disk space and bandwidth, including all three of BigHosts’ top-ranked hosting companies:

1. iPage Web Hosting
2. Webhostinghub
3. JustHost Web Hosting

To learn more about these and other great web hosting providers, visit our Top 10 Web Hosting List.

Web Hosting Tutorial Series

Video #5: What are bits, bytes, megabytes and gigabytes?

This video tutorial will teach you about the units of measurements used in the world of computing.

The smallest unit of measurement on a computer is a binary digit; also know as the “bit”. There are almost always eight bits in one “byte”. A byte is the fundamental data unit for computers and is the unit most computers use to represent a character such as a letter, number, or symbol. It is also the basic unit of measurement for computer storage.

Because they are so similar, these two terms are commonly confused with each other. Not to mention the abbreviation for these two units of measurement – a lowercase b for “bit”, an uppercase B for “byte” – are also easy to confuse. To further complicate the matter, all of the compound forms of bits and bytes – kilobyte (KB), megabyte (MB), gigabyte (GB), etc. – can refer to two different values. Sometimes you’ll see kilobyte and it means 1000 bytes, while it can also mean 1024 bytes.

Why this is true is a much longer and more complicated conversation. In any case, a megabyte refers to roughly 1024 kilobytes, and a gigabyte refers to roughly 1024 megabytes. Gigabytes are currently the most common term being used to describe the size of a hard drive. At the next level is terabytes, and hard drives really haven’t gotten any further past that at this point in time.

One other important thing you should know is that whenever you hear about the speed of an Internet connection, it’s almost always going to be referred to in bits, whether that’s kilobits, megabits, or gigabits.

So just keep in mind that whenever “bits” is used, it should be abbreviated with a small b. For example: kilobits = Kb, megabits = Mb, and gigabits = Gb. The speed of a connection would be referred to “megabits per second” or Mbps. This means a 100 Mbps connection can transfer 100 megabits every second, which equates to 12.5 megabytes per second.

Up Next:

Now that we’ve talked about the units of measurement used to measure computer space, let’s discuss how much of it you need for your website.

Web Hosting Tutorial Series

Video #6: How much disk space and bandwidth do I need for my website?

This video tutorial can help you determine how much disk space and bandwidth you will need to host and support your website.

Perhaps you are already familiar with what the term disk space means. Similar to how it relates to the amount you can store on your personal computer, it is the amount of server disk space a hosting company allots to you to host your website. You can use this space to upload and store the content of your site – HTML pages, images and graphics, video and audio clips, databases, etc.

Now, what is bandwidth? Bandwidth is the rate and maximum amount of which this information can be transmitted. Whenever someone downloads a file or views a picture that you host on your account, it uses up bandwidth. A bandwidth quota is a limit placed on the amount of data that can be transferred each month to and from your websites.

Disk space and bandwidth costs your hosting provider money – as a result, they pass that cost on to you. For most providers, this usage is typically measured over a monthly time period. To determine the amount of bandwidth you use, you would multiply the amount of hard drive space your files take up by the amount of people that access them each month. This number equals your bandwidth usage.

So, how much disk space and bandwidth do you need to host your websites? It depends on a number of factors. Do you intend to host a lot of big downloads such as videos, audio clips or images? Do you anticipate a large amount of web traffic to your website? Such factors can quickly consume your space and bandwidth.

With so much variation among web hosting companies, it can sometimes be difficult to know how much bandwidth your website will require. However, when first experimenting in the world of web hosting, it’s probably safe to choose a plan that supports the average storage and transfer limits. Should you find you need more disk space or bandwidth down the line, you can always upgrade.That being said, it is important to keep an eye out on things and monitor your usage. Most providers will charge extra or suspend your account if you exceed your limits, even if they offer “unlimited” web hosting space and bandwidth.

Up Next:

Now that we’ve talked about how much space you may (or may not) need, let’s discuss the pros and cons of unlimited hosting plans.

Web Hosting Tutorial Series

Video #7: Read the contract when considering an unlimited hosting plan

You can never be too careful when shopping online. When searching for the perfect web hosting provider, take the time to look closely at every detail including the terms of service before agreeing to any account. Precaution will land you an honest and reliable company with reasonable limits.

The Internet is full of web hosting providers that have pieced together enticing offers that truly seem too good to be true. What you need to realize is these companies are masterminds for putting together plans that are irresistible on the surface, but end up being nothing more than a marketing ploy to trick customers.

By now you have certainly run into that web hosting provider that is feeding up to 500 gigabytes of space and 2000 gigabytes of bandwidth for just $3.95 a month. Or better yet, an unlimited amount of space and bandwidth for just $6.95 a month. Just remember, if it seems too good to be true it might be. Conversely, there are some hosts that are still able to provide a good product at a very affordable price while offering unlimited web hosting.

Providers are capable of offering these remarkable pitches because of overselling. Companies are well aware of the fact that most customers will use very little space and bandwidth. And for those that do, the company may or may not be able to afford the costs. If they can, you are fine and dandy. The problem is more often than not these companies cannot afford the high costs.

These are the companies you need to be wary of as they will often have a plethora of hidden terms of service agreement stating you can only use a certain percentage of your space or bandwidth. Their whole goal is to get you to buy into the plan without realizing your account could be suspended for abusing the limits.

Another thing to keep an eye on is poor customer service as this is a key attribute of over-sellers. If the company is a scam, sadly your web sites and downloads will face slow run-times and may even go down from time to time. This is when you know it is time to head elsewhere.

It is upsetting to see the industry turn to this as overselling has become a real problem over the past five or six years. There are still large hosting providers that have an honest reputable image they have built up over the years. But with these companies in constant competition with each other, the average space and bandwidth limits have skyrocketed thus making it incredibly difficult for the legitimate companies to compete.

As with a lot of things in the economy today, hard drive and internet transit prices have plummeted. However, this still compares little to the number of rate hosting offerings have gone up.

The bottom line is you can never be too careful when shopping online. When searching for the perfect web hosting provider, take the time to look closely at every detail including the terms of service before agreeing to any account. Precaution will land you an honest and reliable company with reasonable limits.

Up Next:

Learn about the consequences of exceeding web hosting disk space or bandwidth quotas.

Web Hosting Tutorial Series

Video #8: Ramifications of exceeding bandwidth and space quotas

When running an online business, it can become quite overwhelming and frantic at times. There are countless responsibilities and a plethora of aspects to question or worry over. One such concern for some is what happens if you exceed disk space or bandwidth quotas with a web hosting provider.

The first thing you need to realize is that every hosting provider varies from one another. This is one area you want to consider prior to agreeing to any long-term contract of some sort to ensure you never dig yourself into too deep of a hole.

There are some web hosting providers that will flat out suspend your account for going over the disk space limit or monthly bandwidth quota. Fortunately, there are other providers that will do nothing more than feed up a strict warning. Again, this is why it pays to read into the terms of agreement before signing on board.

While a suspended account or warning may not seem all that bad, there are some companies that will go as far as charging you an outlandishly expensive overage fee. This is when things can get ugly as no one wants to open next month’s bill with a fee that far surpasses that of the bill itself.

The easy solution to this is to make sure you never go over your disk space limit or monthly bandwidth quota. Another solution is to search for a company that offers a large quantity or even an unlimited web hosting plan. Just be cautious with unlimited plans as there are a number of scams spread throughout the internet.

While searching for a reliable web hosting company that offers unlimited plans, take the time to read over the terms of service agreement and any other legal agreements that may be thrown your way during sign-up. You can never be too careful when it comes to signing some kind of contract or agreement no matter what it is for.

With an unlimited plan, you will never have to worry about going over the limit. But if you do have a specific quota to stick by, make sure to contact your hosting provider about upgrading to a plan with higher limits if you find yourself pushing it.

A simple phone call is far better than receiving one late fee after another. Even worse is a late fee that exceeds that of the bill itself and a suspended account to go along with the damage. Do yourself a favor and consider all options before signing on with a web hosting provider.

Up Next:

Web hosting terms of service: Are you allowed to resell web hosting space?

Two key elements of any web hosting service are disk space and bandwidth:

• Disk space is the amount of space you are given to host your website.
• Bandwidth relates the amount of information (or web pages) that you are permitted to transfer from the hosting server to your visitors’ browsers.

A common trend in web hosting today is to offer unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth. While this sounds like an attractive offer, you should be aware that no company can truly offer an unlimited amount of either of these resources – as there are physical limitations and substantial costs associated with both. The amount of information a network carrier’s lines can transfer at one time has a limited capacity. Likewise, the amount of disk space a company can offer is limited to the physical size of its hard drive.

So why the claim of “unlimited” resources? As the majority of web sites out there consume a minimal amount of disk space and bandwidth, many web hosting companies will make such claims based on the assumption that your requirements for both will rarely exceed the average amount. And truth be told, they’re probably right. Unless your website does not require a ton of audio, graphic, or video files – and you aren’t accruing a ton of traffic (viva la Facebook) you probably won’t run into any problems.

If on the other hand you do have a lot of visitors on your site or do offer a substantial amount of audio and visual downloads, you may want to take a look at the fine print some of these “unlimited” options offer.

For example, one well-known web hosting company offering “unlimited disk space” caveats this claim with legalese that essentially states that while you can add as much content as you want, you may not be able to add it all at once. In other words, your “unlimited disk space” may be limited in terms of availability. Ultimately your web hosting company will determine much web content you can add at once and how much of your “unlimited” disk space you can use each time.

Another common practice of web host companies who provide “unlimited” space is to restrict what you can use the disk space for. One web hosting company requires that 90% of your website be HTML and images. If this is not the case, you may be susceptible to additional charges. They do this because let’s face it, if every user were to really use their “unlimited” disk space, the hosting company would be spending copious amounts of money to buy unlimited numbers of hard disks to accommodate them.

Our conclusion? It is impossible for a web hosting company to offer unlimited bandwidth and disk space because it is physically impossible to do so. However, as unsubstantial as these claims may be, it doesn’t necessarily equate to poor service or bad hosting. In fact, if you have a basic website (some examples are listed on our About Us page) there are plenty of affordable web hosts that will suit you just fine – especially since most offer a money-back guarantee. But always check the terms of service and be aware of any limitations that are included in the fine print.

Want to learn more? Here’s a recent conversation on the topic at Web Hosting Talk