Before you go ahead and launch a new website, the first thing you will have to do is make critical decisions on things like site content and design. But before long, an unavoidable issue starts to loom on the horizon in the form of things like site speed or bandwidth limitations.
You may not be looking for bandwidth right away. But the bandwidth of your website is extremely important because it can determine the speed at which your website functions.
It’s a good idea to understand the basics of how your website works. This way, when things go wrong, you’ll have a better idea of how to fix them.
Most people will be able to safely browse the internet without worrying about it, but if you have important information on your website, you’ll want to make sure your bandwidth is able to handle it.
If you’re looking for a simple, affordable way to fix your bandwidth, you can have a better idea of the issue by learning the basics of your server and fixes for it.
Primarily there are three types of bandwidth, and here they are mentioned below:-
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- Metered Bandwidth
- Unlimited Bandwidth
But, today, we will mainly discuss the two bandwidths:-
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- Unlimited Bandwidth
And that’s why there is still debate over the difference between these two types of bandwidth across the web. However, a variety of sources provide differing perspectives, and none seem to reach a consensus.
There are many those who argue that the discussion about the unmetered vs. unlimited bandwidth is meaningless because they’re the same, but there are some who say they’re completely different from each other. But, before jumping into that, let’s know about the bandwidth.
What is Bandwidth?
What exactly is bandwidth? Bandwidth is the amount of information that a system can send through a network connection in a certain amount of time, usually a second.
If a network connection has a speed of 10 megabits per second and has no traffic, that connection can send 10 megabits per second. If there is data being transferred on the network at the same time, the maximum amount of data it can send is less than 10 megabits per second, depending on the speed of the network connection.
The first step in determining how many megabytes you need is to look at your bandwidth usage. The bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred over a specific period of time.
It is measured in MB/s (megabytes per second), and the most common unit of measurement is the average number of bits per second transmitted by your web server.
It is generally easier to determine the amount of bandwidth used per month and to find this amount, and you need to know the number of page views and the time people spent on those pages.
Bandwidth in Web Hosting
Bandwidth is what enables your visitors to access data from your website. When your visitors access your website, whether it’s to look at a simple picture you uploaded or to get a list of all the services you offer, they’re asking the server to send a particular piece of data requested by the visitor’s browser.
Bandwidth is the speed at which your server can send data to the browser, and it is expressed in kilobits per second (kbps). The higher the bandwidth, the faster your website will load and the more visitors you can handle.
Getting a high amount of bandwidth ensures that your visitors can access all of your data as quickly as they want while also preventing your server from slowing down and crashing.
One of the most common misconceptions occurs when bandwidth is confused with speed. In technical terms, speed refers to the rate at which that data can be transferred, while bandwidth refers to the volume of data that can be sent.
Unmetered Bandwidth
As you can see, unmetered hosting plans mean that there is no limit to the amount of data transferred while using your chosen plan.
There are no limitations to the amount of traffic you put back and forth from your server, so you can feel confident in knowing that you will not be charged for going over the allotted amount of data for each of your hosting accounts.
If you have a website where you are hosting a large amount of data, the amount of data you transfer from your website is not going to be a problem.
Understanding what type of business you own is an important aspect of choosing a plan. If you own a business that does not see much traffic, then in that the metered bandwidth may be the best option for you.
However, if you own a business or website that deals with massive amounts of traffic, then we recommend you consider the unmetered bandwidth. When you choose unmetered bandwidth, you don’t just anticipate growth for your website, but you’re also saving money on it.
Here we have mentioned the types of businesses that will work best on unmetered bandwidth:-
- E-commerce sites
- News and media sites
- Online gaming sites
- Personal blog with heavy traffic
Unlimited Bandwidth
When you go with an unlimited bandwidth plan, there is always a limit to how much you can use. Unlimited bandwidth means there is no cap on how much you can use, but the speed is limited to whatever plan you choose. That’s why in some cases, the term unlimited can be deceptive.
But, there are some unlimited plans with higher speeds and lower prices, but if you want the best experience, unlimited with no cap, then pay for the best one.
Since the feature of unlimited disk space, storage, and bandwidth is often offered by shared web hosting companies.
There are many hosting companies that offer unlimited packages, but the fine print often says that these packages are limited to a certain amount of bandwidth.
If the amount of bandwidth your site uses in a month surpasses this limit, you have to pay the extra cost to the hosting company. However, most websites never consume that amount of bandwidth, so the amount of bandwidth that you can use is actually unlimited.
While this is not a huge issue, it is nevertheless important to be aware of it so you can take proper precautions to make sure your site doesn’t go over your bandwidth limit.
Conclusion
There is no such dramatic difference between Unmetered and Unlimited Bandwidth, but, to make it more distinct below, we have mentioned some differentiating points:-
- Unmetered bandwidth does not monitor the overall bandwidth consumption.
- In an unlimited bandwidth plan, there is no upper limit on usage, but the usage is tracked.
- It is impossible to exhaust the data since there is no upper limit in Unmetered bandwidth.
- In unlimited bandwidth, they usually have a high ceiling, so technically, there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth.
- In unmetered bandwidth, the price for a flat rate is based only on speed, which is generally more expensive than a metered bandwidth.
- There is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth; in short, it’s more expensive than metered plans but much cheaper than the unmetered ones.