“Unlimited” Bandwidth on Shared Hosting

First off, let’s go over what bandwidth means. It’s a term that’s often thrown around in the arena of the Internet but isn’t necessarily described for those who are less familiar. Bandwidth can be defined as a measure of the level of traffic, and the amount of data, that can be transferred between your website, the users, and the Internet. It’s measured in bits per second (bps) or in GB. The more the bandwidth, the higher the speed of activities going on the website. That should give you a good marker for what I’m going to talk about next, and that’s the concept of “Unlimited” bandwidth.

Does Unlimited Bandwidth Actually Exist?

In truth, I don’t see how people can believe the tag “Unlimited” bandwidth. If it was possible, why wouldn’t Google and Facebook use an “Unlimited” $3.99/month plan from a conventional host instead of building out their massive and costly infrastructures?
With shared hosting and “Bandwidth Unlimited” in the product description, there are always going to be some limitations to the bandwidth. Often it’s a % of the server’s resources, as you’re sharing it with other tenants. What it’s really about is the kind of bandwidth you, or your company, will actually need. There are likely plenty of packages out there that will more than cover your needs for internet traffic, but you should do your research. If you want to be sure of exactly what your needs are, here’s a basic equation for figuring out your bandwidth needs:

1. Find the size of your average page in kilobytes.
2. Multiply the value of that average by the number of visitors per month.
3. Then multiply your value by the number of pages viewed by each person.
4. If you also offer downloads from your site, then you’ll need to have an idea of the number of downloads per day. Additionally, you will need the size of the files being downloaded.

This will give you a good marker to follow when discerning your website’s bandwidth needs. You’ll have to research the different hosts that might be able to host your website and make sure the package you decide on will cover all of your needs. Please don’t blindly believe the text proclaiming “Unlimited Bandwidth”, because you’ll quickly be asked to upgrade to a bigger plan if your usage exceeds some basic threshold. With most hosting companies, you will be able to access reports on the amount of bandwidth you are using, and the speeds a company is delivering, and read reviews from their other clients. Come in knowing what your website needs, and you will be able to control the dialogue of bandwidth which will shape the efficacy of your online business.

Unmetered Bandwidth Plans at MojoHost

MojoHost offers generous bandwidth allowances and low overage rates. Starting in May 2022, all servers that do not require custom networking include 1 Gbit of unmetered, guaranteed bandwidth by default. VPSs will include 250 mbit or 500 mbit depending on size. Yes, you read that right: no more bandwidth overages. 

The entry-level MojoHost VPS plans – even the $10/month one – include an astonishing 5TB per month, and mid-range plans all come with double that amount – 10TB/month. Larger plans include 15TB of outbound bandwidth per month – more than many hosts offer with dedicated servers.

All dedicated servers come with 25TB of outbound bandwidth by default, and the allowance can be expanded to 50, 100, 200TB, and even switched to capacity-based 1, 2, or 10 gigabit plans limited only by the width of your connection. That is called Unmetered uplinks, or throughput capacity plans, but not “Unlimited”. At some point, the capacity of your uplinks would be exceeded, and more robust multi-server solutions would need to be implemented.

If you’re in a shared hosting plan and are exceeding the limits of its “unlimited” plans, please feel free to reach out or read on about our Virtual Private Servers.  You can find them in our cart: SSD VPSs and HDD VPSs.