Do web hosts really mean 'Unlimited'?

Question

I'm developing a webapp where my users can save a lot of images,videos and audios on my site.So I need a hosting service which offers large disk space.Many hosting services say 'Unlimited',so do they really offer disk space in GBs and TBs?

Answer 1

Hosts that advertise an "unlimited" service normally limit the service in their terms and conditions. For example, this passage from Hostgator's terms limits bandwidth usage:

You are allocated a monthly bandwidth allowance. This allowance varies depending on the hosting package you purchase. Should your account pass the allocated amount we reserve the right to suspend the account until the start of the next allocation, suspend the account until more bandwidth is purchased at an additional fee, suspend the account until you upgrade to a higher level of package, terminate the account and/or charge you an additional fee for the overages. Unused transfer in one month cannot be carried over to the next month.

They don't tell you exactly what the "allowance" is in terms of GB/month; just that there is an unpublished allowance that may cause them to suspend your account. (Their services advertise "unlimited bandwidth".) In the same terms of service, Hostgator impose a limit not on disk space (which is "unlimited") but on the number of files ("inodes") created:

The use of more than 250,000 inodes on any shared account may potentially result in a warning first, and if no action is taken future suspension. Accounts found to be exceeding the 100,000 inode limit will automatically be removed from our backup system to avoid over-usage, however databases will still be backed up. Every file (a webpage, image file, email, etc) on your account uses up 1 inode. Sites that slightly exceed our inode limits are unlikely to be suspended; however, accounts that constantly create and delete large numbers of files on a regular basis, have hundreds of thousands of files, or cause file system damage may be flagged for review and/or suspension.

As you can see, there are limits on the service even though it's advertised as "unlimited".

It's usually safe to read "unlimited" as "generous", but it's a mistake to assume that unlimited means infinite resources. Read the terms of service of the web host you're considering, and follow up with their support people if it's not clear.

Answer 2

If you want truly unlimited storage, you'll need to look into cloud file storage like Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud Files, etc.

They are truly unlimited, but you will have to pay for what your users utilize.

Answer 3

As a disclaimer, I am in the middle of relaunching my hosting business as WebHost.io which is trying to push site owners away from shared hosting and towards dedicated AWS instances.

Unlimited makes for great marketing. Typically storage and bandwidth are advertised as such. Services that advertise this way are almost always shared hosting which is done based on averages. The reality is the average website that is on shared hosting uses less than 100MB of storage. Bandwidth is a tad more, but the vast majority of sites use only a few GB's at best. Any site that will exceed these levels by any large margin wouldn't be caught dead hosting on a shared platform and will have long since migrated away in search of more CPU, Memory, IOPS. These 3 elements are things the shared hosting providers never discuss, and yet, I would much rather have better of these than more storage or bandwidth.

Answer 4

Try To Use Any Virtual Private Server Or Any Dedicated Server.They Will Provide you exact amount of data. Like 100GB,50GB !. Etc !,

I personally Use Single Hop !.

Answer 5

They are unlimited as long as you don't cause any problem to their server. Most of the time, their server is only good for small to medium websites. They don't put a specific limit onto you, but if your website is too busy and causing problems to their server, they'll ask you to upgrade, which I find that pretty reasonable. Because if your site is too big, you shouldn't be on a shared hosting plan in the first place. I am currently using smarterasp.net, so far so good for my medium size sites.