Many cheap hosting companies offer what appear to be huge quantities of bandwidth for a low price. Before you leap on the deal, consider carefully how that bandwidth will be used. Does the hosting provider also offer unlimited domains with the plan? And if so, how many web sites do you intend to set up on your account? Let's do some simple calculations to see if that cheap hosting deal is really as sweet as it appears to be.
First of all read the offer carefully. Some cheap hosting providers display the bandwidth offered in MB or megabytes to make the amount seem much larger than you actually receive. One megabyte (1MB) equals one MILLION bytes. One gigabyte (1GB) equals one BILLION bytes; make certain you use the correct quantity of bytes in your calculations.
An average web site contains a mix of text and images throughout its pages. Some sites offer files for download while others do not. Traffic can vary substantially depending upon many factors, however an average web site usually receives anywhere from 50 to 500 visitors per day. If your site falls within these guidelines, then a hosting plan with anywhere from 3-5 gigabytes (GB) of data transfer per month should be sufficient for your needs. Now let's say you get more than 500 visitors per day, or that you offer numerous large files for your visitors to download, then you should consider a hosting plan with 50 gigabytes of data transfer per month or more. Tally the amount of bandwidth each domain you intend to add to your hosting account will need to determine if your bandwidth allowance will support your multiple web sites.
How can you tell in advance what your data transfer needs are going to be? Actually, all it requires is some simple math. For instance, if your website consists of four web pages, and each page is 5,000 bytes in size, and you have twenty images on your site that are 50,000 bytes in size. Multiply the number of pages (4) times the byte per page (5000), and you get 20,000 bytes. Now multiply the number of images (20) by the number of byte per image (50,000)and you get 1,000,000 bytes. Add the bytes together and your entire web site totals 1,020,000 bytes.
If your typical visitor looks at half the pages on your site, then simply divide the total by 2 and your visitor uses 510,000 bytes per visit. There are 1,000,000,000 bytes in each gigabyte. So multiply the number of gigabytes your hosting plan offers per month by 1,000,000,000 bytes For this example let's say you get 4 gb of bandwidth per month which would be 4,000,000,000 bytes. Now divide the 4,000,000,000 bytes by the typical visitors usage 510,000 and you can receive 7,843 visits per month before you exceed your bandwidth. Let's also assume that when a a typical visitor comes to your site, they look at half of your pages and half of your images. That works out to 10,000 plus 500,000 equals 510,000 bytes per visit.
Now let's assume that you have 10 similar web sites hosted on the same account and each site receive 500 visitors per month, multiply 510,000 bytes per visitor by 500 and your bandwidth usage just skyrocketed to 25,500,000 per day. Multiply that times 30 days and you would need 255,000,000 bytes 0r 3.92 GB of band width per month to avoid paying a surcharge. If your sites should exceed these quotas, then you are going to be hit with a surcharge for the excess usage.
Naturally if your web site has fewer images or content then your visitors will use a lower quantity of bandwidth. Simply apply the above formula to your actual web site to determine how much bandwidth you actually require to accommodate your visitors.
Before purchasing your hosting plan, take time to shop around. Watch out for cheap hosting companies that offer huge amounts of bandwidth but require you to pay up to three years in advance to get their cheapest rate. First of all, do the math, make sure you need that much bandwidth because, if you want the cheapest rates they offer you're going to have to pay up to three years in advance to get it.
Do a search for reviews of the hosting providers service before you buy. If you can't find a review, that's actually a good indicator that the company provides good service. You see, very few people will take the time to post a complimentary review online, but those that have experienced frustration with a companies support system or unfair treatment will definitely take a moment or two out of their busy day to warn you about that company.
Another thing to watch out for is cheap hosting companies that provide templates for your website. Read the fine print before you spend a lot of time creating a web site with their templates. Most providers only "loan" the templates to you while you host your site with them. If you decide to move your site to another host later on, you will have to rebuild your site from scratch or pay a designer to create one for you.
Invest a little time to find a cheap hosting provider that:
- offers free templates with no strings attached
- that offers free web building software you can download and keep regardless of whether you remain a customer
- that gives you the cheapest rate on a monthly payment plan instead of a long term contract
- that offers 24/7 support
You will be amazed at how much time and money you can save in the long run, if you simply take time to find the right cheap hosting plan for your business needs.
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