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Regardless of the industry, satisfying our “what’s in it for me?” generation of consumers has never been more vital to the success of a business. So imagine if you will the “unlimited” potential that using the word unlimited has for a web hosting company.  The issue however is that these companies aren’t describing their services, they’re selling them. And now customers in the market for a hosting company become sold on a word, and not a service. Other industries like automotive or travel would legally never get away with making such a claim. So why in the world of web hosting can unlimited be used so liberally?

Ultimately, what “unlimited” fails to imply is an explanation that most unlimited hosting plans are provided by shared hosting providers. So the validity of “unlimited” becomes lofty; unlimited for whom? Everyone? How can everyone have infinite capacity to one shared web hosting service? And if that is the case, does some kind of hidden policy regulate the amount of bandwidth or disk space a user consumes within a given time period?  Now although this may be possible, where is the explanation?

There are quite a few examples of how unlimited hosting plans are actually limited. You don’t have to search to far to find out that unlimited space often has limitations on what the disk space is used for. Even more alarming is that these limitations are never outlined in the service catalog, but instead hidden in the Terms of Service agreement. One example is that your web hosting storage space cannot be used for anything other than your website’s content. So an off site backup of your home or office computer is completely off limits.

Quite often unlimited is the promise, but rarely is it a guarantee.  You may even find references to such policies in the support forums of unlimited hosting companies. One recent post by a web hosting client brought up concern regarding limitations on the number of files being enforced on their website’s unlimited package. The website was intended to be an educational forum for students, however due to the volume of files being used, restrictions had been set. The client was facing termination, despite the fact that the web hosting plan offered unlimited storage. The only solution presented was to eliminate unnecessary files and to remember that although the world was a big place, their company was not. “Unlimited” in this case and in many like it, is only viable so long as the client has no intention of ever utilizing its supposed potential.

At myhosting.com, we offer a slightly different perspective on the business of web hosting.  What we have is package and price flexibility, accessible and knowledgeable customer support at the forefront of our service.  The alternative that we’re providing is a series of hosting plans and services with realistic limits.

So if you’re in the market for a web hosting service, don’t just agree to the first unlimited package you come across, do your research and know what’s available to you. Examine all your options and be confident that you’re getting into something you understand, or else you might be wasting time and money, which most likely isn’t unlimited.

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