Web hosting FAQs - Explaining the myth and reality in unlimited hosting plans

The following are questions website owners frequently ask when looking for a hosting plan. We hope these answers offer you insight into hosting plan offerings and offer you guidelines for choosing the perfect hosting plan for you.

Is there such a thing as unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth?

The simple answer is no. The idea that there is such a thing as unlimited disk space or bandwidth is a myth. The following will explain why, and why hosting companies make such claims.

As you probably experienced at some point when you purchased a computer or connected your high-speed internet, disk space and bandwidth cost money. And while hosting companies get wholesale prices, they too must buy their disk space and bandwidth. The more they buy, the higher their cost. Surely, they cannot buy "unlimited" disk space or bandwidth. For one, there is no such thing physically as unlimited disk space or unlimited bandwidth. And if there was, they need infinite money to buy it. Fact is, hosting company cannot afford a single customer using unlimited disk space or unlimited bandwidth, not to mention thousands or millions of customers.

So, how come many hosting plans offer it? It is because website owners fall for this hosting plans deceptive marketing scheme. When a hosting company sells unlimited disk space or unlimited bandwidth, they actually mean you do not get any disk space or bandwidth allocated to you; instead you must abide by "policies" hidden deep in their terms. Unfortunately, customers who choose to buy "unlimited" plans because they actually need a lot of disk space and bandwidth often have their accounts shut down without notice, only to find out later that the fine print says they can use unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth as long as they do not exceed a small percentage of the server resources or affect other customers using the same shared server. Simply, hosting companies offer "unlimited" plans on the hope that after they attract you as a customer, you actually will never use a lot of disk space or bandwidth. And if you end up using a lot of disk space or bandwidth, they will be glad to shut you down and lose you as a customer! From a pure money-making perspective, they believe this is a way to maximize profits.

At PowerOne Software, we reject deceptive offerings. When you purchase one of our plans, we reserve for you exclusively all the actual disk space and bandwidth you buy. This is why our web hosting plans state we offer real disk space and real bandwidth.

Is there such a thing as unlimited sub domains, unlimited email accounts, or unlimited databases?

Yes, there is, as long as you do not exceed the disk space or bandwidth allocations your plan offers. The number of sub domains, FTP accounts, databases, email accounts, and most other features have no cost associated with them other than the disk space and bandwidth they use. Such features can be, and indeed, should be unlimited. Unfortunately, some hosting companies artificially limit such features in their low-end plans in order to push customers into higher cost plans.

At PowerOne Software, if a feature can be offered "unlimited", we simply make it available on all our web hosting plans, and offer to you unlimited and free of charge.