Thread: So do you really need 1000TB of disk space and 10000TB of bandwidth?

OK so I've been in the hosting industry a very long time now and I have noticed that overselling has got more and more crazy over time.

• 7 years ago, 2GB of disk and 10GB bandwidth was considered overselling.
• Today, its common to see offers at 1000GB/1000TB.

So my question, to all you looking for web hosting, do you really think you will need all that space and bandwidth?

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. (Some might hate me for this!) Out of all my customers, 99% use less than 1GB disk and 5GB transfer.

Every hosting provider out there knows this, and will tack on a bunch of 0s to their offer to make it look more enticing . The thing is, if you aren't using the space, you aren't getting any extra value. If you come even close to the amount they offer, I am willing to bet you will be suspended faster than you can blink. This advertising tactic is very misleading and a lot of newcomers base their decision off the meaningless numbers they see. Here is an article that covers web host overselling a little more.

Bloggers - Think again if you believe you need anything more than 1GB of space. You could type blog posts until you are blue in the face before you come close to using 1GB(unless you incorporate a lot of videos and images)

Forum owners - Considering most forums are text based, forums use hardly any bandwidth. If you run a highly active forum, eventually you will start consuming decent amounts of disk space. However, there is no way that a shared host would allow such a forum to exist on the servers. You will be shut down before you use even a fraction of that 100gb/1000tb.

What should you consider than? If you see a host offering such impossible amounts of resources for an even more impossible price, look elsewhere. If you want a decent service, look to spend $5-10/m for a reasonable amount of disk space and bandwidth.

Im pretty sure that I use around 10GB a month for 1 of my networking phpfox sites and with 3 of the things, I need as much juice as I can get.

Originally Posted by Rhiannon

Im pretty sure that I use around 10GB a month for 1 of my networking phpfox sites and with 3 of the things, I need as much juice as I can get.

Yea 10GB, thats still nothing close to 100GB, or 1000TB.

If the overselling hosts actually did allow that much space/bw to be used, they would be closed within days.

I browse WebHostingTalk.com quite a bit and there are threads just like this nearly every day. Overselling has gotten mad crazy but you just have to be smart and do the appropriate research when you are choosing a new host.

Don't go for the biggest package for the smallest price or you're bound to get lousy service. Generally "You get what you pay for" but this doesn't necessarily mean just because they charge a lot that they provide excellent service.

Best of luck.

Thats very true Mike, In my experience, usually the more pricier companies offer a better service, but then I have seen some that charge a fortune and have 30% Downtime. You really do need to choose your hosting carefully.

Most companies that oversell don't seem to stay around for too long..

Now trying to sell 1000TB of disk space and 10000TB of bandwidth no one is going to need that much space or bandwidth unless you are some warez upload site or something..

Well one time i did use dreamhost and just to be an ass to test if i could download the limit I put large 1GB files on the server, and downloaded a bunch at a time.

I made it 15 days doing that pretty much non stop, didnt get any where near the limit, but didnt get shut down either. I'd imagine its more about the resource usage that comes with being able to use the limits rather then the limit itself.

Originally Posted by seovb

Well one time i did use dreamhost and just to be an ass to test if i could download the limit I put large 1GB files on the server, and downloaded a bunch at a time.

I made it 15 days doing that pretty much non stop, didnt get any where near the limit, but didnt get shut down either. I'd imagine its more about the resource usage that comes with being able to use the limits rather then the limit itself.

DreamHost has a reputation for letting you use a huge amount of disk space/transfer but it's not so much disk space/transfer that is the issue with most companies that oversell. The issue is the amount of cpu/memory your dynamic site is bound to be using if you get anywhere near the "limits" of disk space and transfer.

Overselling has become out of control. Some hosts actually say that they put a limit on how many accounts they will put on one server, which is good. Sometimes huge or unlimited plans are false advertising. I have heard from people on forums that some hosts suspend or cancel their account for coming even near the disk space or bandwidth usage. Someone also mentioned CPU load, thats true especially if the sites on the server use a lot of things like CGI and MySQL.

Overselling by the big companies, makes it hard for us little guys trying to make it in the hosting arena.

I don't know it's sort of a nice safety net It's nice to know I have a terabyte of bandwidth with Dream Host even if I don't use it all. From time to time I'll host large files and it's nice to know that I never have to worry about overage charges.

On the other hand if you're moving that much traffic you almost have to be making some serious cash. You'd be pretty stupid to put all your eggs in one basket with a shared hosting company and would be much better served by a dedicated server or possibly load balanced DSs.

Originally Posted by LeenkzMike

Overselling by the big companies, makes it hard for us little guys trying to make it in the hosting arena.

This is why any new hosting company, or "little guys", should not be trying to target the same market as the "big boys" as it were.

If you go into hosting to target the same customers as the 10tb/100tb big hosts then you're not going to live very long. It's very important for smaller hosts to find a niche in the market that is not as saturated as the web hosting market is in general and to really market to that niche.

It's almost impossible to make it as a web host just by tossing up a nice looking site and setting bargain prices on huge packages. The customers can almost always go somewhere else and get more for less (or so they think).

Best of luck!

Hey Mike! It seems that we post in the same forums . If you start with over-selling right from the start unless you have a good budget you will not survive. There are always better hosts that offer more for less. Did you know that dreamhost offers Unlimited + 50 GB Thats something new.

- Daniel

Getting into the TB, you should be offering a dedicated server and definitely not a shared hosting environment. I know that when we get forum owners wanting to host with us, we tell them in advance that if their forum gets bigger then they will need to upgrade to a VPS or a dedicated server as a shared hosting environment is not the place for them.

Unlimited is a joke but I believe in ''unmetered'' and telling our clients that ''unmetered'' does not mean unlimited at all ... it just means we don't necessarily watch your limit however we do inform them that they should upgrade to VPS/Dedicated if need be.

I don't think the big companies necessarily hold us little guys back, I mean its just up to us to work hard to gain clients and attract more is all. I don't about everyone else, but thats how I see it. I always feel better after my hard work so it makes it worth it

Just thought id post here. The tile says 1000GB Space and 10 TB Bandwidth

This is exactly the size and bandwidth of the server I just bought. lol space for me yippie !

yeah, unless you host warez.