What Is Unlimited Web Hosting?

Both individuals and resellers are now being offered unlimited web hosting packages with one or more aspects listed as "unlimited." You can find:

• unlimited disk space
• unlimited bandwidth
• unlimited MySQL databases
• unlimited blogs
• unlimited domain hosting
• unlimited email accounts

But some questions arise: Are these web hosting services really unlimited? How could a web hosting provider afford to offer unlimited services for a set price? If the web hosting services really aren't unlimited, what are the limits and how do you find out what they are?

What "Unlimited Web Hosting" Services Really Mean

Unlimited in this context means something like, "enough so that you'll never bump the edges and feel the limitation." Such web hosting services are calculated to be at least a bit more than a customer choosing the web hosting plan offering the service would actually use.

Web Hosting services are, in fact, not really unlimited, and the precise meaning of the term (i.e., the actual limitations) are often indicated by a marker signaling a footnote or pop-up window definition of "unlimited" or included in the Terms of Service.

Definitions of Unlimited Web Hosting

GoDaddy offers several unlimited web hosting services in various hosting plans, including disk space, bandwidth and MySQL databases. That there are qualifiers on bandwidth are indicated by a + after the phrase unlimited bandwidth, and the + is defined in a pop-up window, which says:

"Plan provides unlimited storage subject to availability of space on a single clustered server and subject to the Terms of Service in your Hosting Service Agreement. Limitations apply to other plan features."

However, the Terms of Service do not directly address or define unlimited.

BlueHost also offers unlimited services, but it includes its explanation in its terms of service:

"Bluehost.com does not set an arbitrary limit or cap on the amount of resources a single Subscriber can use. In good faith and subject to these Terms, Bluehost.com makes every commercially reasonable effort to provide its Subscribers with all the storage and bandwidth resources needed to power their web sites successfully, as long as the Subscriber's use of the service complies with these Terms. By not setting limits on key resources, we are able to provide simple, consistent pricing to our Subscribers as they grow their websites."

In short, a well-constructed "unlimited web hosting" plan may serve your needs, but you need to know exactly what "unlimited" means before signing up. It is especially important to know whether there are any penalties for exceeding a certain usage amount, and if this should happen, whether there are plans available that can meet your web hosting needs.