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Cheap Web Hosting

Everyone today is looking for cheap web hosting. At the same time you see hosting providers giving the world for $5. So why not go with the cheapest hosting provider offering the most resources?

1. How much does it cost?

Web hosting providers also have to pay for bandwidth and equipment. Servers aren’t cheap, ranging from just shy of $1,000 all the way to $20,000 for the cream of the crop. Even those $20,000 have a space limit, especially since hard drives are tough to find over 1TB in size. Bandwidth isn’t free as well, and a single server can only put out about 30,000GB per month on a standard 100 mbit network connection. So lets say a host sells 100GB of disk space and 1000GB of bandwidth on each hosting plan. Theoretically the host should only offer 30 plans on a single server, and at $5 a piece it roughly comes out to $150/mo. So how can a host cover server and bandwidth costs and keep staff available 24/7 for support?

2. The Magic of Overselling

To be able to afford the costs and still make a profit hosts start overselling. Overselling is basically selling more than what you can provide. In this case instead of putting 30 customers on a server, they put 300 customers. This is done based on the assumption that no user will use all of their allotted space and bandwidth. Does it work? Absolutely, even the electric company does it, based on the assumption that everyone won’t turn all their electronics on at once. This can only be taken to a certain extent before it starts becoming a problem, and the server starts getting overloaded. So what happens if everyone actually used all their bandwidth and disk space? Nothing, because the Terms of Service and Acceptable Usage Policy don’t allow it. If you read these two pieces you will find that every host has a clause that mentions CPU and Memory Usage. You will most likely hit these limits far before you hit the space and bandwidth limits.

3. Get what you for!

Unfortunately when it comes to web hosting you truly get what you pay for. By throwing in an extra few dollars a month you will receive a higher quality hosting experience. Your sites will load faster, and essentially you’ll have happy browsers. This will also allow the host to purchase more expensive, and faster hardware, and hire knowledgable professionals. It all comes back to you.