There is no free lunch! This phrase holds true in almost every situation involving money. But we still tend to forget that with the passage of time.
The advent of internet has given way to clever marketing techniques that has given the word “unlimited” a whole new meaning. Take Internet Service Providers for instance. They often offer their customers “unlimited data plans” promising of no cap on uploads/downloads.
While the trick does work, and we are often lured into taking the deal, we later find out there’s a maximum cap of 200GB, 500GB, etc. For the average household consumer, this may seem like a fair meaning to the word “unlimited”, but this may not hold for someone planning on downloading 8K videos all day and night!
Similarly, Web Hosting Providers also play with the word “unlimited” and use it in every way possible to increase their customer-base. Really, it all depends on the perspective. Read on and I’ll unwrap what is unlimited web hosting and if its worth while for your website.
First Off, What is Web Hosting?
For those of you who don’t know, Web Hosting is a service that allows companies, enterprises or individuals to have their website up & running on the internet. Web Hosting is offered by service providers who possess the necessary software and/or hardware capabilities and charge a fee for their services. Within the reins of web hosting, computers run the show, called servers to be precise. These servers are connected to the internet and respond whenever your website gets a hit.
There are different types of websites. Some are as simple as a personal webpage, while others provide users with the ability to trade over the internet. The complexity of the website influences the total resources it requires, usually quantified in terms of Storage and Data Transmission (Upload/Download).
Web Hosting Service Providers charge according to these resources, and this is where the Marketing Bundles come in, one of which has the word “Unlimited” in it.
So What Is Unlimited Web Hosting?
Apart from their standard bundles, most Web Hosting Service Providers also have an Unlimited one. It is claimed that there is no set disk space limit, bandwidth, email accounts, and any other parameter being considered. Clients get the capability to upload/download files without ever worrying about a performance degradation.
Let’s say you own a media website. At a particular instance, 1000 people are downloading or watching videos on it. This type of activities can very quickly add up the bandwidth. Ideally, the Unlimited Web Hosting would prevent any sluggishness. But 1000 isn’t that big of a number. What if it was 1 million? Do you think an Unlimited Web Hosting plan can truly handle such loads, especially when you’re not their only customer?
Let’s take a look at the realistic feature-set of an average Unlimited Web Hosting plan.
Data Transfer
Data Transfer is capped in normal plans, but with Unlimited Web Hosting, you can forget about such constraints. This plays out best in cases where the website hosts multimedia files or is used as a download hub by users.
CPU
This is where things get real. Unlimited Web Hosting should generally allow consumption of CPU resources on an as-needed basis. Most service providers, especially those who offer Unlimited Hosting on too-good-to-be-true rates have an upper limit on the CPU usage. For instance, some service providers only allow the CPU usage to be increased to a certain extent after which they turn the meter on. Be sure to read the Service Terms in detail when signing up.
Storage
Don’t be fooled by a $7/month hosting plan that offers unlimited storage. The number of files that can be stored on the server are often limited even if the storage is uncapped. This is called the “inode Limit”. Many hosts limit an account to 25000 files, and this isn’t realized until the limit is exceeded.
Number of Users
The load on the servers on which your website is hosted increases with the number of users. Some web hosting companies would have a problem with that since this can lead to congestion, effecting other hosted clients. There would therefore be a limit on the number of http connections that can be established. Sure, the limit would be an exhaustive one and would take considerable time and effort to max out, but still, there would be a limit
Control Panel
This is one of the perks of Unlimited Web Hosting, something that’s used by service providers as a consolation prize. A Control Panel may be offered free of charge to users buying the Unlimited plan. Through it, clients would be able to manage, edit, modify the website or tweak with other tools such as PHPmyadmin, MySQL, etc. This may be seen as the bonus when it comes Unlimited Web Hosting.
Does this mean Unlimited Web Hosting is a hoax?
No, Unlimited Web Hosting isn’t a hoax. While it’s true that such a plan does bring greater flexibility to the table, it must be understood that there’s a limit to everything.
But Unlimited Web Hosting does come in handy if you have a website that grows gradually in size. This way you can let it expand until its too big for the Service Provider to handle, when you can switch to dedicated hosting or a bigger service provider.
The important thing is doing ample research and making a calculated decision. There are thousands of Web Service Providers, all of whom want to grab as many customers as possible. Some of them may try to rip you off, while others may offer deals that are too good to be true.
It is always best to carry out thorough research on the web hosting your website needs, decide whether Unlimited is the way to go, and then opt for a Service Provider that has global repute.
Wrapping It Up
Since these are such value packed options for new website builders. I have rounded up some of the best WordPress hosting NZ picks so you can start your very own website within minutes. Best of all is that these providers are tailored for Kiwis which will give you a great performing website without breaking the bank.
While there might be some devious marketing tricks at play by the web hosting providers. I still find unlimited web hosting plans to be of great value to the consumer. Personally I have several of these plans with websites that get in excess of 80,000 visits per month and these plans can handle this with ease.