The web is filled with UNLIMITED bandwidth and space hosting offers and so many think these are the best plans. Many would rather go with a “fishy” hosting firm that offers this than get a smaller accout on an established hosting company. Why? Because UNLIMITED is what they’re attracted to. It this unlimited thing real? Should we really care about this that much? We’ll see in this article.

I know this image is beautiful. Look .. we even have many colours. And as humans we are so interested in the infinite things. We dream of living endlessly, of loving forever .. if we care so much about no-limits in our lives, why can’t we have this online too? Why cannot we have UNLIMITED resources in our hosting plans?

Because we can’t

Did you ever think about the servers that host your site? They are not some super NASA servers. Many are normal computers. Some are excellent pieces of equipment, kept in nice data centers, with controlled humidity and temperature, in huge raks, kept under continuous surveilance.

In a way they are just like you nice PC at home. Or my laptop. We have RAM, GB in our HDD, a processor we like to brag about. Just like your PC at home (maybe one you have kept for 5 years already) or the latest one on the market, THEY HAVE LIMITS. I am sure you might have even 2 GB of RAM memory. This is so cool .. but .. it’s far from being infinite, isn’t it?

Even if those super-servers are having some excellent specifications they are limited. The Internet provider is limited too … How then can you think about UNLIMITED hosting resources?

Ah … it’s UNMETERED in fact …

Well, this is more like it.

So .. you’re not getting a super-duper hosting account with unlimited specs, you’re getting an account they brag it’s unmetered. Really? Let’s try to see what can go wrong in this nice picture …

1. most of the times beginners in hosting offer this.

What’s wrong with this? I think nothing. I also started giving hosting accounts to my clients and to some of my members. And it’s working nicely. I am not a beginner anymore, but hosting is not priority.

Why do some firms offer this? Because they have nothing to use as a selling phrase. What can they tell you? That many are not even firms? That they’re having a dedicated server their parents pay for (some are even minors). That they cannot guarantee support and good uptime? That they just don’t know how to sell hosting and they think this “unlimited” mambo-jambo is what would help them sell 2 hosting accounts?

I mean no harm to fellow internet businessmen, but we know it’s crap. Sorry, for the strong word, but yes, it is. I cannot give you unlimited resources. Because I don’t have them. I can offer you a decent plan (I have 3 separate plans) and we can even discuss something custom for you. I can give you cPanel and as many MySQL databases you need. And this is what most of the established hosting firms do.

How many of the huge hosting firms do you know who give “unlimited” resources plans? Do you think they couldn’t afford this? Well, they could. But they also know that once you promise this you have to keep your promise. And they know they cannot keep their promise without breaking their part of the deal. And they don’t want to have issues. The bigger hosting firms CARE about customer support. And they know any bad mistakes might mean losing clients. For they it’s a serious business, it’s not just impressing teen webmasters who want 4000 GB space for their php-nuke fan site.

No, big firms don’t neet this trick. They sell because they offer quality and STABILITY. They won’t come and offer “unlimited” hosting and then vanish in 4 months because they couldn’t pay the dedicated server.

2. YOU REALLY DON’T NEED THIS

Don’t know how many times I said this. I get a sore throat for telling my friends this and my fingers go numb for writing the same thing. YOU DON’T NEED “UNLIMITED” resources. A 100-200 MB space and 5GB badwidth is awesome for a good traffic site. We’re using less in here. And if you need more, you can always upgrade.

Why get an “unlimited” account when you can get a reseller account for instance, if you have more sites to host and you want to cut back some of the expenses? You can even host some sites for other people and have the account paid by your “clients”.

Instead of this “unlimited” thing, you can actually get an excellent reseller account, cPanel, WHM and all you need.

3. You ain’t gonna get it!

What? How come? This “cool” host promised me unlimited hosting plan. What do you mean I won’t get it?

Well … sorry to break the news, but you won’t get this unlimited thing. Why? Because your host knows what I already told you at “point 2″ .. that you don’t need this. Wanna try it? Put some files for download for instance. A film made by you. It needs to be OK so that you won’t get suspended for putting warez. Let’s assume you made a movie from your vacation and want to share it. And promote it well.

What do you think will happen when you start consuming more resources? You’ll be nicely approached by your “unlimited” hosting provider who’s gonna tell you to stop consuming so many resources or you’ll get suspended. Or .. you might have your account suspended even before getting any warning.

WHY DO THEY SUSPEND IT? Don’t know. They shouldn’t. They promised “unlimited” resources, why do they attack you? Because they made a false claim and offer and cannot honour it anymore. You’re indeed using the hosting as you knew you can (no one told you that you’re not supposed to eat 300 GB bandwidth a month .. when you think UNLIMITED you think indeed that you’re not having any limits to care about). Still there are some limits.

The same “selling slogan” they used to get you as a client is now used to limit you. Of course it’s not OK. If you’re telling me to come to your host and use resources without worrying about them, I don’t think it’s OK to come now and warn me for using too much of your “unlimited” resources.

And now we get to the fact many amateurs in hosting “offer” these plans. I won’t offer you this, just because I know that you’d kill my servers and I couldn’t let you use all these resources without having to spend more money to cover my “unlimited” stupid claim. I know you could even sue me for suspending your account for instance. And this is what other serious companies know. They have a business plan that’s made for many years. such a service (”unlimited” hosting) won’t make it lucrative for them.

And if we go down, your site will too.

What happens if others on the server “abuse” the hosting? The server will go down often, will have a lot of lags. That means your sites will load slower, might not load at all for many hours. You lose visitors and business.

Our conclusion?

Stop chasing dreams. Look for a plan that’s suitable for your REAL NEEDS. And pay for it. As you develop you’ll require more resources and you’ll be accomodated with no worries. Stay out of “unlimited” hosting. And then check back their sites after few months. See how many of them survive.

Filed under: Internet by ramona