What's your opinion on "unlimited" hosting?

Diana · August 18th 2003, 09:12 PM

What are everyone's views on "unlimited" web space? I've read the TOS of many hosts claiming unlimited web space and I really find it hard to believe they can claim this...Things one host does not allow:

"- Portals : Includes any size of portals for any purpose .
- Streaming Media : we dont allow any kind of streaming media (legal or illegal) including real audio, real video, QuickTime,"

"When a website is found to be monopolizing the resources available [companyname] reserves the right to suspend that site immediately. "

"[companyname] will automatically re-bill your credit card within 7 days before renewal date, Renewal fees are completely non-refundable."

All these things would turn me away in a heartbeat. Just claiming that my site could be shut down without my knowledge that this was coming. You don't eve know what the limit is, they just...shut you down without so much as a warning.

What do you guys think, as web hosts? How about as customers? How do you go about competing with companies that claim to offer unlimited space and bandwidth?

Administrator · August 19th 2003, 11:21 AM

Lots of companies offer unlimited bandwidth, but there are usually get out clauses in the terms and conditions you agree when signing up for such a service.

If there were hosts offering unlimited bandwidth for just a few dollars per month, don't you think that yahoo would use them?

Common get out clauses are,

Unlimited bandwidth ( as long as the several websites sharing the server do not use so much bandwidth as to slow down or crash the server ).
Not allowing certain files to be uploaded, like php, certain graphics, graphics which are a certain size ( basically by doing this, they know your never go over the bandwidth because you are virtually forced to use text only web pages ).
Only allowing you to upload to the server in a given time ( one a day , or even one a week or month).
Strict regulation rules that are almost impossible to break ( once your bandwidth gets fairly high, they just close down your account and tell you the reason is you broke rule 12b.. ).

However this does not mean that all hosts offering unlimited bandwidth are bad. Some just find it a better marketing advertisment and give you a fair amount of bandwith. Most new sites wont go over 3 gigs a month. And if you use too much bandwidth the good companies will email you and tell you to upgrade your account without closes down your website.

On the other hand... most terms of service agreements have lots of get out clauses... this is just the legal way to write such terms.

My advice is to search the forums and ask others advice on popular hosts. It is slow and will take a while to gain knowledge but eventually your find a decent host you can trust. Search other websites as well as this.

Thats the whole point of hosting directories and hosting forums, to help you make the best decision possible when choosing your host.

Good Luck

Diana · August 19th 2003, 11:47 AM

As a web host, I personally don't find much use in web hosting directories. It's really about money. The person who pays the most gets a 'visible' position. You're lucky to get 10 clicks a month unless you pay, just like you would pay to advertise on search engines. In directories, there are still the visible few on the main page, which pay large amounts for those positions. Some directories I've seen, you can't even find the "free" listings.

I've found if you don't "claim" to offer unlimited bandwidth, new sign ups are less than if you do. People don't read terms of service when signing up unless they understand the concept of bandwidth usage, and that seems to be few and far between.

Just an opinion of course.

Administrator · August 19th 2003, 04:52 PM

If a host is able to pay for advertising, it does atleast tell you that the host is serious about their business and that they are big enough to pay for advertising.
You won't have to worry about the host going bankrupt and closing down all their hosting accounts over night.

Word of mouth has always been the best form of advertising for any business, sadly on the net many rival companies set out to destroy the reputations of other companies so that they can themselves obtain more business.

Just because you heard a host is bad does not make it true. Hosting directories are good because they give you a point of investigation. It is up to your own logic to weed through the not so good companies and good companies.

Remember that people always talk about the bad experiences they have, so logically the bigger hosts always have lots of complains about them, just because they have a large client base.

People don't normally talk about a good host unless they have had so many bad experiences they feel compelled to. Even then, many are just too busy running their websites and businesses to tell everyone how wonderful their hosting has been.

People who have had a bad experience, make it their mission to let everyone know about it until the end of time. Well maybe not that bad, but you get the ideal.

Yes your right, its unlikely your get too many clicks on a hosting directory when they have a few thousand companies also listed unless you pay for more prominent exposure on them. But you will gain extra pagerank from the link back - which may increase your search engine postions.

If its free after all... then you got a good deal. If you have a few clicks free from each hosting directory out there, then you have a lot of extra free clicks each month, that you would not have had.

You have to expect hosting directorys to charge for more prominent placement - do you realise the amount of work that goes into setting up a hosting directory and gaining good search engine positions.

Running a hosting directory costs a lot of time and money, so they deserve to get something out of it. Iv'e been working over 3 years on this site and have not made a penny yet. But its cost me a lot of money and time.

I dont see myself getting rich off any advertisments either - id be happy to get the money back that its cost me to get this far.

Diana · August 20th 2003, 02:08 AM

My point isn't that you shouldn't have to pay, I have people investing in advertising for my company so as my business grows, this is not a concern of mine. Afterall, new businesses normally remain in the red for the first two years. My point also wasn't that there are huge costs to starting a business or that directoryies are useless. The original point was that companies are advertising things they don't really offer, and nobody reads the fine print. In fact in all my experience, there is only one hosting company I would strongly advise against. I really have no arguments that the customers of these companies are unhappy, I just object to the way they bring in customers.

...

andrews_john · December 2nd 2003, 01:30 AM

As a customer: i don't believe that there can be anything unlimited... You'll get what you pay for...

Diana · December 2nd 2003, 07:24 AM

I love it when people registering for hosting are smart about it. Thank you!

fyrewire · December 22nd 2003, 05:33 PM

Unlimited hosting claims should always be viewed with caution. Firstly because they very rarely hold true. You pay $10 a month for a unlimited account and you think they'd be happy if you used 80Gigs of space 300Gig Bandwidth as you started a mirror site for Tucows.

There is also the matter of more people will be signing up to them so their servers will probably be overcrowded and slow anyway.

Before I started a hosting company I always chose the ones which I knew had limits and said what their limits are, and I progressed this to my hosting company.

Adam
---------------
Fyrewire Web Hosting
http://www.fyrewire.com

thebyp2 · April 6th 2004, 04:02 PM

everything is finite and that applies to hosting as well. so no i don't believe in unlimited hosting or bandwidth.

hurga · May 18th 2004, 02:11 PM

"Unlimited" is just an advertising term to trick the customers, imo.

Non of the upstream providers (the providers that offer web hosting company the bandwidth) don't guarantee anything "unlimited", how can a web hosting company promise their customers something that they don't have?

As a consumer, I even get turned away whenever i see a hosting company advertise that, but I guess plenty people still buy into "unlimited". They forgot that there is nothing really free!

Maikeru · May 18th 2004, 05:59 PM

Meh, I think it's all hocus pocus. No such thing, but someday there might be

HostSpecs · May 19th 2004, 06:27 PM

It's virtually impossible to have unlimited diskspace and it would put a hosting company out of business as soon as some person hogs it all.

Mike_FWT · August 13th 2004, 01:24 PM

Quote:

It's virtually impossible to have unlimited diskspace and it would put a hosting company out of business as soon as some person hogs it all.

I agree with that comment and most I've seen on this thread. Free hosting is a relative term and should be treated as such. Any company who offers free hosting HAS to be doing something to collect revenue. Whether it's advertising, promoting pay-for services (as an upgrade to free services), trying to get a lot of users to test a new service, or whatever...

Take note that consumers/users MUST review the TOS/AUP documents for their respective hosting providers (free or otherwise). This protects both of you in the long run - you understand the groundrules up-front - they can more easily manage their relationship with you by not having to slap (or cut off) your wrist when you break their rules.

It's all in expectation management. Some hosts do a better job of this than others. I'd like to read additional suggestions on how to best explain what is reasonable use and what is not... and how to get that communication effectively across to prospective/new customers.

BTW, just as an example (not an ad or spam), our company claims "no hard bandwidth limits" instead of "Unlimited". I think that's a fair distinction, IMO. Anyone agree/disagree?

Mike_FWT
__________________
Mike_FWT
FreeWebTown.com Community
http://www.freewebtown.com
Extending the power of communities online.

admin@real-marketing · August 17th 2004, 02:24 PM

There is a good thread running over at WHT on this very same subject.

Check it out

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...hreadid=309993

doni49 · December 20th 2004, 01:52 PM

My ISP (Comcast) provides 70 MB and 7 POP3 accounts--but doesn't even track the bandwidth usage. If THEY can do it, why can't the hosting companies?

I've been with Comcast for about 4 years now.

It's only been recently that I've been looking for a hosting company--and only because I want to use SQL, PHP and/or CGI.