Hosting Disk space and Bandwidth
Previous: Web site hosting services overview
One average website takes 3 to 5 MB of the disk space but very often it could be even less than 1 MB. It depends on how many web pages are published, how many images and linked files for download are involved. For example the site www.mbmproject.com uses approximately 5 MB of disk size while this one (www.topwebsite.info) uses less than 1MB. However, when considering the disk space offered by different hosting providers, note that in some cases this space is shared between the web site files, website data bases (if any) and the space taken by your e-mail boxes. Some hosting providers offer different space limit for e-mal boxes and some put limitation on the size of the data base. In other words, if it is not clearly specified in the hosting plan offer, send a message to the support address and ask them to clarify whether the disk space is shared and whether there is any additional limitations. This is also useful for checking how quick they handle the customers questions.
The bandwidth usage depends on how many visits your web site receives and whether there are any big files available for reading online or for download. This is the amount of data transferred between your site and other computers. Most of the web sites use less than 1GB per month.
Number of web sites hosted
Most hosting providers allows only one web site (domain) to be hosted per hosting plan. Considering that most of the hosting plans offer much more resources then one average web site requires, for those who has more then one web site, it would be money saving to host all web sites in one hosting plan. As a rule, all web site designers who offer web design and hosting to their customers, also use this option. This hosting feature is the most different one comparing the different hosting providers plans. Some of them offer 3, 5, 6 , 10, 50 or unlimited number of domains to be hosted in one hosting plan. Most of the hosting providers also offer reseller hosting services.
Be careful also about the number of subdomains that is allowed in one hosting plan. For most web sites it is not required, but some make use of it.
Databases
The number and the size of databases as well as their type (mySQL, Microsoft SQL, Access, etc.) will be important for most of the sites that have dynamic contents, forums, articles, catalogs, etc.
Programming / scripting languages
These are important and if you have your web site ready and it uses some scripting language, you should look for hosting provider who supports it.
E-mail accounts
Three important features to look for:
- the number of POP3 boxes
- the maximum size of one e-mail box
- is there nay web mail interface to access you e-mail
Top