Unlimited Bandwidth
Through the 90′s and early 2000′s, bandwidth was an expensive commodity. Most of us can remember the annoying signal of a modem dialing up through our phone line. Because transfer speeds were so much slower, website owners had to streamline their pages to the smallest size so long load times didn’t scare away visitors. Most web hosts only had a single provider which limited the amount of bandwidth they had to use for all the websites they hosted, therefore charging a premium for those who needed it.
Today it’s a much different tale with a majority of webhosts offering “Boundless Bandwidth” or “Boundless Data Transfer” in at least one of its hosting packages. Readily available high-speed data connections and efficient networking equipment have allowed web hosts to offer huge bandwidth limits.
Boundless does not equal Boundless
In truth, boundless bandwidth is a marketing gimmick to attract business. No web host has boundless bandwidth but it’s a fantastic marketing phrase to utilize because the vast majority of personal and small business websites will never use even a small part of their bandwidth. Rather than offer a limit, no matter how large, it is more effective to say “Boundless”. In reality, the host is saying that you will not need to worry in this area monitoring your bandwidth allowance. In some cases a webhost may require that you upgrade to a more expensive option if you do use a certain amount of bandwidth. Make sure to check the hosting company’s Terms and Conditions before registering.
Not all bandwidth is produced equal
Most web hosts that offer boundless bandwidth keep their costs down by hosting as many websites on the same server as possible. This means that your pages, pictures and media will be stored with hundreds or even thousands of additional websites on the same server. For most, this should not be an issue as it does not take a lot of system resources to run a website. Bandwidth though can be affected if the cumulative usage of all the sites on the server can adversely affect the transfer speeds of your site. Make sure to read the fine print. Some hosts make it a point to mention they limit the amount of sites per server, which is generally a excellent sign.
To limit or not to limit
For most, an boundless plot will be sufficient. Blogs, personal sites, family tree sites, and small business sites, are low resource-intensive sites with limited traffic. These sites are a exact fit for an inexpensive boundless plot. Note that many hosts may restrict audio or video on sites that have boundless bandwidth. Audio and video data transfer can quickly add up and they can relentlessly hamper the bandwidth available to all the sites on the web server.
If you foresee heavy traffic, providing downloadable content, offering streaming audio or video it may be wise to forgo the lure of an boundless plot. Web hosts monitor the bandwidth and server resources used by the sites they host very closely. You may be able to run the site for a month or two but the host could charge fees or even shut down your site. Read their Terms and Conditions thoroughly.
Bottom Line
Plot ahead. If you expect to grow your site in the future, you should target webhosts that offer multiple hosting plans. Some hosts offer a “one-size-fits-all” solution with no additional options. These plans are brilliant for blogs and personal sites but if you find yourself in need of a more robust server down the road, you would have to spend substantial time and money, and possibly downtime, moving your site to another host. Hosts with multiple plans nearly universally offer an simple upgrade option that will require small more than paying a few dollars more per month and avoiding the work of moving your website.
A instant equation to help calculate possible bandwidth desires. The average web page is 40-50kb, while the average pages visited per user on a website is 2-5. If you have a monthly data transfer limit of 50GB with your pages being 50kb on average that would equal roughly 1 million downloads. In terms of visitors, if they visit 5 pages per visit it would take over 200,000 visitors in a month to exceed your limit.
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