Any website, big or small, is successful only when it manages to attract an increasing number of users. As a website’s incoming traffic grows, so does its popularity. But at the backend, the site’s resource consumption also increases so that the hosting server can handle the increased footfall. This is true for all hosting platforms, whether it’s Shared Website Hosting, VPS Hosting or Dedicated Server Hosting.
Bandwidth is one such resource. It is among the most important ones as it has a direct effect on your website’s incoming traffic. Bandwidth is a limited resource that gets renewed with every billing cycle. If your bandwidth runs out before its reset date, your website will remain inaccessible to your users. You will not only lose your credibility but will also lose your website users.
What is Bandwidth?
Bandwidth is the amount of data that is allowed to pass to and from your website. It is like a highway that guides users to your website. When your allotted bandwidth runs out, this highway shuts down. Consequently, your site goes offline, and your users are left stranded. All hosting plans from different hosting providers include a certain amount of bandwidth. Even the Shared Web Hosting service that you choose will offer some bandwidth.
In most cases, the default included bandwidth is enough to handle a new website’s traffic. But as your website grows and the incoming traffic increases, you will need more bandwidth to keep the traffic flowing smoothly. When this happens, you can either choose to wait until your monthly quota resets or buy additional bandwidth. But buying bandwidth in runtime is an expensive proposition. Instead, you can choose unmetered bandwidth to alleviate the problem.
What is Unmetered Bandwidth?
Generally, your hosting provider will calculate your bandwidth usage on the volume of traffic that passes through your hosting server. Every Shared Web Hosting plan gets a set amount of traffic volume per billing cycle. Once that limit is reached, access to your site gets cut off. On the other hand, with unmetered bandwidth, your provider charges you for the data speed rather than volume. The amount of traffic doesn’t matter.
What matters is the speed of the website. Here, you are paying for the speed. If you want a higher speed, you have to pay more. And if you do not want to pay more, you can make do it with a slower data speed. It means that your website is in no danger of running out of bandwidth unexpectedly.
The benefits of Unmetered Bandwidth in Shared Hosting
Those who choose Shared Hosting mostly do so to enjoy the lower hosting costs. Buying additional is an extra expense and costly if you have to do it every month. Unmetered bandwidth plans are only slightly costlier than regular ones. When you choose unmetered bandwidth for your Linux hosting with cPanel, you not only save on any unnecessary additional expenses but are also assured of your website’s continued availability. You can benefit tremendously from unmetered bandwidth if you run a high-traffic blog or news website.
Now that you know the advantages of unmetered bandwidth for your Shared Hosting, will you choose it over metered bandwidth?