A couple of days ago I have talked here about whether or not unlimited hosting was possible. I think, that many of you agree with me, that nothing can be unlimited as long as it is limited by hardware limits like HDD size, network throughput etc. And today I would like to move on to a very similar marketing tactic and it’ offering “unmetered” hosting.
Is there really a difference?
You could ask: “Aren’t they both the same?”. Well, my answer would be NO, but I would still think somewhere deep in myself, that these two are the same, but unmetered just sounds more real!
The difference I see between unlimited and unmetered is, that while by offering an unlimited plan you state you are giving your customer something, that does not exist. You are stating, that each customer can use unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth and unlimited everything, but you are not able to offer it as you do not have an unlimited connection or server space. You, as a hosting company, are limited by the resources you have available!
Unmetered, as I understand it, is just better and sounds better. You are not giving your customer anything unlimited. You are just stating, that you do not count anything. You don’t precisely count how much space they use, or how much bandwidth they have already consumed. And this just sounds more right to me and more trustworthy. It’s not like with unlimited where you really can’t offer unlimited things. With unmetered you state you do not count the resources a customer is using.
Well, many would not agree with me and I do not agree with myself as well. It’s because in real world the two terms “unlimited and unmetered” are used as equivalent. Many hosting companies do not make any differences between them and thus people and experienced customers regard them as equivalent. Experienced users will always advice you to not go the unlimited or unmetered route as there is nothing unlimited. I would say unlimited does not exist, but unmetered can exist. It only depends on the company who promotes these plans how they implement them and what’s their policy on over-usage!
What to consider before signing up with unmetered hosting?
Just as I told you in my “Is unlimited hosting really possible?” article there are some very important things to understand and know before signing up. Over-usage of the resources you get at your disposal might get punished by the hosting company and it’s Terms of Use of Fair Usage Policy. And thus always read any legal document the hosting company tells you to read and agree to before signing up!!!
Possible threats after using too many resources:
- Your account gets’ suspended
- Your web site gets suspended and inaccessible
- Your data will get erased and your account suspended
- You will have to pay for the data used over the limit
- You will have to pay for your account restoration after being suspended
What steps to take to make this less painful?
- Never count on your hosts site back-ups
- Always make your own back-ups!
- Perform daily or weekly site back-ups
- Back-up your email and all data that’s of any value to you!!! It’s your data and thus the host does not need to care!
Hopefully this article helped you a little on your way to find the right hosting offer 
Have a nice day and good luck!
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