Most Excellent Article

Jack · #1

Unlimited hosts. Liars? Thieves? Scammers? One of the biggest debates that has gripped the hosting industry for years.

Unlimited web hosting companies exist to generate that quick dollar sale. They suck the clueless in to the dream world that we can use whatever we want and whenever we want for low cost. But why do people chose unlimited hosts?

One of the biggest unlimited hosts out there is HostGator, its servers hold over 1.3million domains from clients across the world. It’s $7.95 per month package allows you to have an all you can eat buffet on domains, space and bandwidth – where’s the catch? Just about everything has a limit in this world, and you frankly don’t get everything for free.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/featured-articles/584407-you-being-scammed-unlimited-host-debate.html

Imagine your phone company offering an unlimited calls and SMS plan for only $40/mo, while another company only offers 1000 calls and 250 SMS for $40/mo. Which one are you going to chose? I know that I would have chosen the unlimited phone company because I feel like I am getting the most out of my money. But realistically, am I? Coming back down to Earth, what is the quality of that phone companies services going to be like, it is highly likely that it will be down a few times a month and/ or have poor coverage so you can’t actually use those ‘unlimited’ calls when you really want to use them.

So, why do people still choose unlimited hosts?

Consumers are unaware of the limitations of web hosting, as with the unlimited phone package it feels you get more for your money as well as being an attractive offer due to the lack of effort that the consumer feels they have to go to track they are not using their resources and/ or fear of overcharges.

The hosting market is saturated and very competitive, the ‘unlimited’ plans are just a marketing trick in order to get large amounts of money in one go, but not necessarily dishonestly. These hosting businesses oversell resources; they expect people to use less than allocated which means that they can resell the resources again to someone else in order to gain profit. This is a risk for the hosting businesses so they combat by suspending users with “pathetic excuses” before the servers run out of their limited resources.

However, unlimited hosts do deserve a fair representation. Some long term unlimited hosts, like HostGator, provide a very good quality of service and support. Hosting from HostGator is ideal for people that know their websites will use a very small amount of resources as it is highly unlikely you will be suspended. If your website is extremely popular and uses a lot of bandwidth and resources then I suggest contacting a premium web hosting and consider premium shared hosting or maybe even a VPS or Dedicated server.

dag · 05-20-2009, 09:57 AM

You don't really offer much here in the way of substantiated issues with "unlimited" hosting. As it stands, this sounds very much like a means of talking people into using a "not-unlimited" hosting provider such as, oh, the one that just happens to be in your signature. "Liars," "thieves," "scammers"? Really, you must have a lot of evidence for that, right?

Might be more meaningful if you chose not to have your sig show up for this post...

SeanPreston · 05-20-2009, 12:33 PM

lol, I must agree though, Unlimited hosts are at the end of the day scamming, its like selling a black mobile phone on eBay and sending out a pink one, isen't that scamming?

Sean

Jack · 05-20-2009, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by dag

You don't really offer much here in the way of substantiated issues with "unlimited" hosting. As it stands, this sounds very much like a means of talking people into using a "not-unlimited" hosting provider such as, oh, the one that just happens to be in your signature. "Liars," "thieves," "scammers"? Really, you must have a lot of evidence for that, right?
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=584407

Might be more meaningful if you chose not to have your sig show up for this post...

Quote:

"Liars," "thieves," "scammers"? Really, you must have a lot of evidence for that, right?

Dramatic article title. If I titled it "Heyyy sign up to a better hosting service because my opinion is that unlimited hosts are bad" then it would be pretty lame.

Yes, I own a host. This article was written for a business blog that I did where my company was not represented. It just happens to be like that. It is a shame you feel that way and would rather comment on me as the poster rather than continue the age old debate of unlimited hosts which is what it's all about. Edit: And far more exciting!

dag · 05-20-2009, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by Jack

It is a shame you feel that way and would rather comment on me as the poster rather than continue the age old debate of unlimited hosts which is what it's all about. Edit: And far more exciting!

Well, I started out commenting on the article not having much substance, and then pointed out that because it doesn't it ends up looking more like an ad for you.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=584407

Give us some good substantiated evidence to debate about, if that's what you want.

EGS · 05-24-2009, 03:05 PM

This is a most excellent-written article. I read it while my account was closed here and wanted to be the first one to say so. I really enjoyed hearing it as I read it; it really made a better impact and I'm sure it would for everyone else reading it.

Your company will go a long way if you keep posting content like this - consumer awareness is an excellent form of marketing that really does convert visitors into customers.

I wish you the best of success in your company and its venture. Let me know if we can work something out in terms of a strategic partnership, because I'd love to resell your web hosting one day as we've discussed in the live chat room.

testingyou · 05-24-2009, 06:45 PM

Originally Posted by dag

Well, I started out commenting on the article not having much substance, and then pointed out that because it doesn't it ends up looking more like an ad for you.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=584407

Give us some good substantiated evidence to debate about, if that's what you want.

Dag, I would rather say, show us some evidence to how hosting companies can provide UNLIMITED disk and bandwidth? How is that possible?

I am sure NASA and USA Gov. would be interested if such thing as UNLIMITED DISK existed. What I dont understand is, if hosting companies have invented UNLIMITED disk, then why are they wasting their time with the hosting business? They could make money $$$chachiiing$$$ from the invention. But instead they are offering UNLIMITED disk and bandwidt for $4.95??? lol thats too funny.

And I would rather have that Jack openly showes about his business association then hiding it.

And yes I host my sites with Fusedhosting.net but has no other relation with them. Just so you know.

dag · 05-24-2009, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by testingyou

Dag, I would rather say, show us some evidence to how hosting companies can provide UNLIMITED disk and bandwidth? How is that possible?

I think anyone using "unlimited" hosting knows perfectly well that it's not "infinite" hosting. But the idea is of course that the average user is not going to need anywhere near as much as a major corporate Web site and will never approach a point where the host will feel the need to shut them down.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=584407

I use "unlimited" hosting at GoDaddy and have never had a single issue with it. So do I think it's a scam? Naturally, no. And it's nice to know I can throw up as many sites as I can develop without worrying about space. And I think that while there are in fact be lousy hosts offering unlimited hosting, there are also many lousy hosts offering limited hosting packages. It's due to the host, not the "limited" or "unlimited" part of the equation.

-REECE- · 05-24-2009, 07:33 PM

I agree with you but I still wish hosts that offer "unlimited" would tell you the actual number before harassing you. I have opted to go with much more expensive non-unlimited hosts for my websites because when they say I get 500GB of bandwidth, I know they mean that.

Originally Posted by dag

I think anyone using "unlimited" hosting knows perfectly well that it's not "infinite" hosting. But the idea is of course that the average user is not going to need anywhere near as much as a major corporate Web site and will never approach a point where the host will feel the need to shut them down.

I use "unlimited" hosting at GoDaddy and have never had a single issue with it. So do I think it's a scam? Naturally, no. And it's nice to know I can throw up as many sites as I can develop without worrying about space. And I think that while there are in fact be lousy hosts offering unlimited hosting, there are also many lousy hosts offering limited hosting packages. It's due to the host, not the "limited" or "unlimited" part of the equation.

Jack · 05-25-2009, 05:06 AM

Originally Posted by dag

I think anyone using "unlimited" hosting knows perfectly well that it's not "infinite" hosting. But the idea is of course that the average user is not going to need anywhere near as much as a major corporate Web site and will never approach a point where the host will feel the need to shut them down.

I disagree. Not everyone that uses unlimited hosting understands the actual limitations in front of them. I have seen and spoken to many general users who have faced issues with developing their websites and facing the limits - particularly mysql related. Although in some cases it is not the unlimited hosts fault, as some users don't read the terms of service and sign up and expect to use the account as a mirror/file hosting site etc.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=584407

Thank you EGS :-)

testingyou - It just isn't possible. That is the message I am trying to get across. Surely isn't it misleading that a hosting company offers something that is impossible? To use another example, you win free chocolate for a year in a competition. But there are limits to that because otherwise the company would be broke from giving out as much chocolate as they can, they draw the line somewhere - that line would be to minimise loss and that line is not necessarily shared with the winner. It just isn't possible, but not everybody knows that.

I completely agree -Reece-. Many people are in that exact situation as you. They chose to go with limited hosting after being made aware of the potential problems that occur to some people. If you are developing sites for a customer or a business project of your own, what would you do if that host decided that you had reached the 'limits' that have not been shared with you. Your way, you get what you pay for and you can avoid having to tell your client that their site has been lost (or an old backup).

EGS · 05-25-2009, 08:34 AM

To be honest with you Jack, I was with a hosting company (ActiveWebHosting.com) that offers unlimited everything for $10 a month. At one point I asked them about it and how they could provide such statements.

They told me that in the event that I used as much as the server handled, they would add on another server to accommodate the needs of the customer. This is the only company that I know of that would actually provide what they advertise as "unlimited" - they would be willing to add on space and bandwidth by adding servers to their shared hosting environment to accommodate the needs of the customer and really provide them unlimited space and storage, which in sense, really is unlimited since they will always expand the service as you need it without additional charges.

From my experience, they provided excellent service and really provided me "as advertised" for a while until I decided to upgrade to a dedicated server later in my venture. I experienced little to no downtime with their service as well. So, it's actually kind of cool to know a company will actually provide their "unlimited" promise by constantly expanding - this is the only way I have ever seen "unlimited" coming into a reality, which they really did.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=584407

They use their own coding and platforms for server management within their shared hosting environment to allow them to do this. Quite honestly, I was impressed.

Of course, other hosts that oversell or advertise "unlimited" never provided the answer like the one I just mentioned did. Although it is not really "unlimited" in definition, it is in the sense that the host will constantly expand your available resources by adding on other servers as you need them to provide as much as space and bandwidth as you need, which I guess could be another definition for unlimited.

05-24-2009, 03:05 PM	#6 (permalink)
EGS NamePros Regular Location: New Jersey Posts: 989	Most Excellent Article This is a most excellent-written article. I read it while my account was closed here and wanted to be the first one to say so. I really enjoyed hearing it as I read it; it really made a better impact and I'm sure it would for everyone else reading it. Your company will go a long way if you keep posting content like this - consumer awareness is an excellent form of marketing that really does convert visitors into customers. I wish you the best of success in your company and its venture. Let me know if we can work something out in terms of a strategic partnership, because I'd love to resell your web hosting one day as we've discussed in the live chat room.

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05-20-2009, 09:57 AM	#2 (permalink)
dag Senior Member Location: Omm Nom Nom Nom Posts: 3,108	You don't really offer much here in the way of substantiated issues with "unlimited" hosting. As it stands, this sounds very much like a means of talking people into using a "not-unlimited" hosting provider such as, oh, the one that just happens to be in your signature. "Liars," "thieves," "scammers"? Really, you must have a lot of evidence for that, right? Might be more meaningful if you chose not to have your sig show up for this post...

05-20-2009, 12:33 PM	#3 (permalink)
SeanPreston Senior Member Location: UK Posts: 1,280	lol, I must agree though, Unlimited hosts are at the end of the day scamming, its like selling a black mobile phone on eBay and sending out a pink one, isen't that scamming? Sean

05-25-2009, 08:34 AM	#11 (permalink)
EGS NamePros Regular Location: New Jersey Posts: 989	To be honest with you Jack, I was with a hosting company (ActiveWebHosting.com) that offers unlimited everything for $10 a month. At one point I asked them about it and how they could provide such statements. They told me that in the event that I used as much as the server handled, they would add on another server to accommodate the needs of the customer. This is the only company that I know of that would actually provide what they advertise as "unlimited" - they would be willing to add on space and bandwidth by adding servers to their shared hosting environment to accommodate the needs of the customer and really provide them unlimited space and storage, which in sense, really is unlimited since they will always expand the service as you need it without additional charges. From my experience, they provided excellent service and really provided me "as advertised" for a while until I decided to upgrade to a dedicated server later in my venture. I experienced little to no downtime with their service as well. So, it's actually kind of cool to know a company will actually provide their "unlimited" promise by constantly expanding - this is the only way I have ever seen "unlimited" coming into a reality, which they really did. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=584407 They use their own coding and platforms for server management within their shared hosting environment to allow them to do this. Quite honestly, I was impressed. Of course, other hosts that oversell or advertise "unlimited" never provided the answer like the one I just mentioned did. Although it is not really "unlimited" in definition, it is in the sense that the host will constantly expand your available resources by adding on other servers as you need them to provide as much as space and bandwidth as you need, which I guess could be another definition for unlimited.

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Most Excellent Article