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Originally Posted by HastyHost

Over the years, the web hosting industry has taken several changes. One of these changes includes the introduction of unlimited space and/or bandwidth. These changes are a way for hosting companies to deceive it's customers, as a way to bring in more income. The sad truth is, you do not always get what you pay for, but these companies hope that you are unaware of this type of trickery.

So what exactly are the dangers of overselling Unlimited Space & Bandwidth?

"Overselling is a term used in the web hosting industry to describe a situation in which a company provides hosting plans that are unsustainable if every one of its customers uses the full extent of services advertised. The term is usually referred to the web space and bandwidth transfer allowance (source)."

That basically means, a web hosting company will sell you a service that it really cannot offer. This can be called false advertising, however, not one person has been able to prove a web hosting wrong because of three main factors:

The first reason why no one has successfully revealed a web host wrong that offers unlimited disk space is because the web host will suspend that individuals account as soon as it appears to be using more than the allocated space (usually 1GB) that web host may have set that you as a customer do not know about.


Secondly, all web host that provide unlimited space and bandwidth will have in their terms of service many restrictions that most customers simply bypass without paying any attention to. These restrictions usually include all types of websites that use up a large amount of space such as the following:


Backup websites
Warez or Illegal Content websites
Streaming videos or music
Downloading software, movies, music etc websites
Sites that offer free resources to the public
and the elongated list goes on...

Lastly, when it comes unlimited bandwidth you have to be careful about that as well. "Bandwidth refers to the amount of data that website visitors can download from a website (source)." Most unlimited bandwidth provides will claim they have unmetered bandwidth which can be true, but, the tricky part is, if your website consumes too many CPU resources your account will be suspended. Most host give your individual web hosting account a 10% CPU resource limit, but if you go over that limit your account will be suspended. Most customers have no idea how to prevent this from happening, and lack the knowledge of rather or not their type of website is suitable for such an shared environment.

As you know, you are sharing the server you are placed on with other individuals just like you. If one person uses too many CPU resources or creates a high server load at any given time, that effects your website as well, which causes downtime or slow response time to your website. Many web host that provide unlimited bandwidth will eventually face this horrible factor.
Andy Anderson, an individual currently involved in the web hosting market had this to say about overselling disk space and bandwidth:

"How much room do you actually need for a site? Looking through my server logs most people use 500MB (megabytes) of disk space and about 5GB (gigabytes) of bandwidth. That is plenty of room for the average person with only 1GB of disk space. But most people will not ever look at how much space they are using. They only look at storage space when they are looking for a host. The hosting market these days are very competitive. Web Hosts bank on your lack of knowledge and promise you TB (terabytes) of space and bandwidth. If you look at burst.net they have a terabyte hard drive for $400.00 a month per host. So think for a minute, how can a host offer you a $1.95 month web hosting plan for a terabyte of space? Mathematically they cannot possibly do it, and yet, they know about it and lie to your face that they can. They also hide behind their TOS (terms of service) saying you must have active sites ect. Do you think Google.com would pay for 1,000’s of servers if they could host at DreamHost, who oversells web space, for $7.95?"

The bottom line is, if you are serious about the future of your website, it is best to do your own research and actually pay for what you receive. If the offer looks too good to be true, more than likely it is.

Copyright : Robert Smith (CEO of HastyHost)

<mod note> I have permission to reproduce this article as I myself has contributed to this article.Copyright Robert Smith (CEO of HastyHost)

Unlimited is not such thing, there is always an X-amount

Very well put.

I believe that is quite known among existing customers and providers, but at the same time that is big problem for the new customers.

Thats a well-written article.
There is no such thing as unlimited, everything got a limit

That is an informative article on unlimited gimmicks. It will be helpful for the newbies who are prone to catch these fancy things.

Thanks for the positive feedback. I'm working on another informative article on review websites.

Yes, really good post.

In this world nothing are unlimited.

Originally Posted by UnderHost

Yes, really good post.

In this world nothing are unlimited.

What about the volume of potential customers calling you "stupid" for not providing "unlimited" plans. Oh, the irony.

Man yhost say unlimited ... thay are giveing maximum features but not physically unlimikted... keeping some hidden limit and once cross just telling soem reson and kicking out....

I suppose they are tricks for the newbies first of all, because people which know what web hosting is will never believe in it

Originally Posted by SiberForum

I suppose they are tricks for the newbies first of all, because people which know what web hosting is will never believe in it

Not really true I've had many customers very well educated on php html css ect but not understand the unlimmitd concept.

Most unlimited is also defined as unmetered.

Originally Posted by dWhite

Most unlimited is also defined as unmetered.

They are two different terms. Unmetered could simply mean they limit your account by other means.

Originally Posted by andrei155

They are two different terms. Unmetered could simply mean they limit your account by other means.

Unlimited also limits the account in other ways also, so in terms they are alike.

While this is true, web hosting is not the only industry using these tactics. Take cell phone providers. Most now offer unlimited plans. But there are times when you cannot make calls do to load on there network. The same thing with ISPs they offer unlimited but it has been found out that some companies would slow your connection if you use it to much. Verizon is a prime example of that, using there wireless card for PCs.

Just because these other industries do does not make it right. What it does do is set an example for customers. If you have one company offering a limited service and another offering the same server for the same price but is unlimited most will choose the unlimited one. The unlimited plans now offered by hosting companies is no worse than these companies offering 15000GB of bandwidth to each customer. Overselling is what makes most industries that provide these types of services profitable.

Overselling doesn't have to be bad. I mean, if you sell 10 cookies, and 5 people don't show up and eat your cookies, then it would make sense to attempt another sale of the remaining 5.

It just grows into a problem when you have 10 cookies, you sell it to 15 people, and everyone wants their cookie.

Every unlimited hosting is NO unlimited. The dedicated server bandwith is 1TB or 2TB for a month .

Originally Posted by andrei155

Overselling doesn't have to be bad. I mean, if you sell 10 cookies, and 5 people don't show up and eat your cookies, then it would make sense to attempt another sale of the remaining 5.

It just grows into a problem when you have 10 cookies, you sell it to 15 people, and everyone wants their cookie.

That is very true, and it is also true that most companies that oversell anything do it more than they should. Dollars have a way of doing that.

Nice example with cokies here. But that is not for the web hosting. In case with cookie people know what they are buying and how will use that. In case with web hosting most (MOST) of the people will never use what they offer