Unlimited Hosting: It's a Myth!
posted 31st July 2012 | by Xagga Hosting
A lot of customers ask why they can’t find our ‘unlimited’ hosting packages. Well, there’s actually no such thing as unlimited hosting. It’s a myth!
“But so-and-so sells unlimited hosting for £5!”
Have you ever seen a car that goes “unlimited mph”? Thought not! Cars have a maximum speed limited by the equipment under their bonnet, and that principle is the same for servers that power web hosting.
Unlimited servers?
High spec servers cost lots of money to buy and run, so when you purchase a web hosting package you’re purchasing a “share” of server resources. A single, powerful server is shared between multiple users for cost efficiency. However, every server in the world has a finite amount of capacity. No matter how much we pay the manufacturers, they still can’t deliver unlimited servers!
So how is it companies sell ‘unlimited’ web hosting?
You’ve exceeded your unlimited, sir
Web hosts can sell ‘unlimited’ packages because they subject customers to fair use policies. There’s no such thing as unlimited servers, so hosts need a way to limit the amount of resources their customers use. But exactly what share resources do you get with an ‘unlimited’ package?
We did some research...
There are some hosts whose fair use policies are as measly as 1GB web space and 5GB monthly bandwidth. In this day and age it’s easy for a small blog to exceed 5GB bandwidth, and considering there’s nothing higher than ‘unlimited’ how can you ever upgrade?
On the other hand, some ‘unlimited’ hosts aren’t so clear of their limits. For example, we found one host’s fair use policy such that if you “impede” server performance for other users, downloads from or access to your web site may be “limited”.
What if your web site is subject to either of the above policies, and then someone promotes your site and it suddenly becomes very popular… the more visitors the merrier, right? But would your web hosting account be limited – or worse, suspended – because you’re using too many server resources?
It’s not good practice to penalise a web site that’s doing well and being promoted, is it?
Why is ‘unlimited’ hosting sold?
Web hosts sell ‘unlimited’ hosting packages because it gives customers peace of mind. As customers, when we see the word unlimited used to market a product we automatically favour this over products with a hard-set limit. We get a sense of security: “there will be no extra costs and I’m using the best solution possible… what could possibly go wrong?”
Unfortunately you now know this is far from the truth. Have you realised the LIES that ‘unlimited’ hosting providers are telling, and that’s BEFORE you’ve even signed up! If they’re selling unlimited hosting that isn’t, what other secrets are they hiding?
Most ‘unlimited’ hosts sell a single hosting product for £2-3 per month. If a high spec server costs £400/mo and their plan is £2/mo, you’d be sharing a server with at least 200 customers before the host breaks even. Then that host has to pay their support staff, plus the everyday running of business costs – it’s easy to see how they could end up with 400+ customers per server.
There are exceptions?
There’s no exception to ‘unlimited’ hosting because nobody has an unlimited server. However, it is technically possible to implement a solution that incorporates/clusters many servers and storage arrays together in such a fashion that appears unlimited to the end user. Such solution could cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to implement and would be deployed bespoke to each requirement, thus out of the budget of typical £2 ‘unlimited’ web hosts.
So what’s the solution?
Pick a web host that is clear from the outset on its resource limits. All of our packages have clear, concise resources perfectly tailored for personal and small business use. If you’re unsure what you need, feel free to get in touch with our friendly team via phone, e-mail or live chat where we’ll give you honest advice on the best solution for you.
