What is the difference between unmetered and unlimited bandwidth? Can you even get unlimited bandwidth, and if not, why do hosting providers advertise it as unlimited? This is a confusing topic for many people, and frequently, deliberately so.
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What is Bandwidth?
Bandwidth describes the volume of data transferred from a server to a visitor’s device, such as a phone. We usually measure bandwidth in megabits per second (Mbps) or gigabits per second (Gbps). When a website has adequate bandwidth, pages load swiftly, and the site can manage increased traffic gracefully. This helps sidestep issues like site crashes or charges for exceeding allocated data transfer limits depending on the hosting provider.
Understanding bandwidth, calculating it, and optimizing its use ensures that your website operates efficiently. This introduces the concepts of bandwidth limits such as “metered bandwidth,” “unlimited bandwidth,” and “unmetered bandwidth.” These terms are crucial in selecting hosting plans but often confuse them due to their nuanced differences.
Why is Bandwidth Important?
Like with most modern mobile phone plans, data is typically so abundant that you don’t think about it. However, it is still crucial to be able to use your phone to go online and view and download files. Several elements make bandwidth crucial:
- Site Load Times: Adequate bandwidth ensures that your website loads quickly. This is crucial since slow-loading sites frustrate users and may drive them away. This also directly impacts your SEO.
- Server Load: It affects the amount of strain on your server. Insufficient bandwidth means that your server struggles to handle the data. This can slow down your website or even lead to crashes during high-traffic periods.
- Data Backup: High bandwidth is necessary for efficiently backing up large volumes of data.
By ensuring you have sufficient bandwidth, you’re setting your business website up for success. It allows for smoother operation and a better user experience. Remember that your bandwidth needs may evolve as your website grows, so it’s something to monitor over time.
What is the difference between Unlimited and Unmetered Bandwidth?
For starters, it’s important to understand that unlimited bandwidth does not mean unlimited speed. There is always a speed limit to bandwidth. The word “unlimited” refers to “unlimited” data you can transfer. Consider bandwidth as a highway – the wider it is, the more traffic (data) can pass through simultaneously. This leads to faster travel times (loading speeds) for your visitors.
Metered bandwidth refers to the exact quantity of vehicles flowing through that highway over a period of time. In hosting terms, replace vehicles with data requests sent to your website visitors to view your pages, images, and videos. Unmetered bandwidth simply describes that this bandwidth isn’t being tracked or restricted. In other words, no gates limit the number of vehicles traveling down that highway in any given period. Nothing is being counted, and the maximum monthly limit is simply the maximum capacity of the highway to handle traffic.
In the context of hosting, unlimited bandwidth implies the same as unmetered, using more appealing language. This means you can send and receive as much data as needed without reaching data transfer limits. However, this is somewhat misleading. Going back to the theoretical highway, there is a limit to the highway’s capacity, similar to a bandwidth limit. This hard limit is shared between you and other customers, with high variance in second-to-second usage. The word unlimited is misleading because you won’t be able to use peak capacity bandwidth at all times.
Additionally, popular websites would run out of other resources and would need to upgrade to meet the demand. In short, unlimited bandwidth is a marketing gimmick term and should be avoided. Look for unmetered bandwidth whenever possible.
Conditional Unlimited Bandwidth
Certain hosting providers might add “conditions” to their unlimited bandwidth offering. The most common is a soft cap for regular speeds. Upon hitting it, your site gets throttled when exceeding that limit for the “unlimited” bandwidth to take effect. While this is better than paying overage charges, it isn’t ideal.
| Metered Bandwidth | Unmetered Bandwidth | Unlimited Bandwidth | |
| Data Limits | Yes | No | No* |
| Overage Charges | Yes | No | No |
| Speed Throttling | Yes | No | Sometimes |
| Usage | Light | Heavy | Heavy |
| Monthly Cost | Affordable to Expensive | Moderate | Moderate |
Conclusion: Why do you always want Unmetered Bandwidth?
This analysis highlights the differences between unmetered and unlimited bandwidth. While some hosting providers use the two interchangeably, others will use them for their financial benefit. Going with an unmetered bandwidth plan avoids any of these downsides. As always, examine the fine print of service offerings and choose a plan that matches and anticipates your bandwidth requirements. For continuous growth and sustained performance, avoid the pitfalls of suppressed resources or hidden fees.