What is Unlimited Bandwidth?

Websites need two things if they are to exist at all:

  1. Enough disk space to hold all the files, images, code and text that make the site up;
  2. Enough bandwidth to allow outside visitors to temporarily download and therefore view all those files.

These two things are the backbone of the internet, and without them web pages wouldn't exist at all. Many sites now say they offer 'unlimited bandwidth' - meaning that there's no limit on how many people can view your website at once before it slows down and/or crashes - but what does that really mean?

The Problem Of "Unlimited"

All websites are stored on a server. When someone visits a site, they download something from that server. There's a hard limit to how many people can do that at once - the capacity of the wires connecting to it. It's not possible to get an infinitely large wire.

Unlimited bandwidth doesn't exist; it's an impossibility. What web hosts mean when they say it is "a lot of bandwidth", and they instigate rules to ensure that people don't overwhelm it - banning you from offering video on your site, for example, as people watching video uses a lot of bandwidth.

Unlimited Bandwidth Benefits

There is one definite benefit to getting an unlimited bandwidth account, though: should a previously quiet site suddenly become popular, it won't have service halted or be taken down. That's a pretty big boon. If you don't go for this and you exceed your bandwidth cap on a set-bandwidth plan, one of two things will happen should you experience a sudden viral surge in hits: either your hosts will start charging you an extortionate amount for the extra bandwidth - far more than you'd pay to get that much in a plan, and often leading to terrifyingly massive bills, or your site will be taken down entirely till you pay up for a larger plan.

The Bottom Line

If you're running a relatively simple website with no video streaming or anything similar that you're hoping might become a viral sensation one day, unlimited bandwidth could be a very good thing indeed - especially if you keep a close enough eye that you know when you're popular enough to need a new plan.

If, on the other hand, you think you've got a shot at popularity right away - or if you're trying to do something pretty bandwidth-heavy, like run a site offering lots of streaming and downloads - you're much better off trying to calculate how much bandwidth you'll actually need (there are calculators to estimate this online) and purchasing a plan accordingly. It might seem more expensive to begin with, but you're very likely to save yourself both money and hassle in the long run.

Not all web hosts have the same rules about what you can and can't do with an unlimited bandwidth site, so it's important that you look carefully at all the small print before you make a decision. You need to know that the one you've chosen is right for you, rather than simply opting for the first or cheapest plan you find.