In today’s times, most websites endeavor to attract high volumes of traffic. After all, a high number of site visitors would mean a better chance of converting them into customers. However, in many hosting plans, the site owners are allotted a traffic bandwidth beyond which they are charged to allow more traffic to their website. This is where unmetered bandwidth steps in. In this article, we will talk about unmetered bandwidth and its advantages.
What Is Unmetered Bandwidth?
Before understanding unmetered bandwidth, let’s look at the definition of bandwidth.
Bandwidth, in simple terms, is the amount of data that your web server can transfer every second. It is usually measured in Mbps (megabits per second). Depending on the volume of traffic received by your site, the bandwidth required by you can vary. Lesser bandwidth can result in a slow performing website when the traffic increases. This can have a negative impact on your search engine rankings as well as brand reputation.
Most hosting providers offer different plans for bandwidth like unmetered bandwidth, unlimited bandwidth, etc.
In unmetered bandwidth, you pay based on the speed of transfer of data as opposed to the volume of traffic. Therefore, you are not charged for the volume of traffic that reaches your site. For example, the cloud hosting provider can offer a set bandwidth (like 10Gbps) which you can use as much as you want. It is a more cost-effective option as you are not charged extra even if your website transfers a lot of data.
Advantages of Unmetered Bandwidth
Here are some of the benefits of opting for unmetered bandwidth:
Flexibility
Unlike the metered bandwidth hosting plans, with unmetered bandwidth, you don’t need to worry about being charged for overusing the bandwidth. Hence, you can focus on creating content that you want to share without trying to limit your bandwidth usage. If you are on a metered bandwidth plan, then you will need to take bandwidth usage into consideration before sharing files or hosting apps on your website.
Better Site Performance
With metered plans, there are limitations on the bandwidth that you can use. This can invariably affect the performance of your website. Also, you need to think before optimizing your site as it might eat into your bandwidth. With an unmetered plan, you can deploy as many apps as you want for better site performance.
Better Security
This is an applied benefit. If you are using an unmetered plan, then you will not think twice before running security updates and installing the latest security add-ons. This ensures that you are always using the latest security tools keeping your website and data safe.
Cost-efficiency
If you are having a metered plan and experience a surge in traffic for a few days/weeks, then the excess bandwidth usage can result in a relatively large bill. With an unmetered plan, there is no such worry. This makes it a more cost-efficient option.
Summing up
Before choosing the bandwidth type, ensure that you assess the traffic on your website and think about your growth plans. If high-speed performance is a must and budget is not the problem, then you can opt for the unlimited metered plans. However, if you are looking at keeping costs under control and have relatively predictable site traffic, then the unmetered plans would work fine. Choose wisely. Good Luck!
