How Much Bandwidth and Disk Space Do You Need?

Bandwidth and disk space are important considerations, because they play a huge role in the overall performance of your web site. Bandwidth and disk space are not the same thing. They are two different things, as follows:

Bandwidth: This is the measure of data transfer rate – how fast bits move from one location to another. In terms of web hosting, it describes how fast the information on your website can be displayed on the users screen. But this measures more than speed, it also measures amounts. If you exceed your amount of bandwidth, it can be very costly.

During product launches, servers are often turned off by a web hosting company if bandwidth is being exceeded. Bandwidth may also be exceeded if too many people are trying to access the same file at the same time on your server. Bandwidth is usually available on a ‘per month’ basis. This means that when the web hosting company states that the account has 6000 gigabytes of bandwidth, you have 6000 gigabytes of bandwidth for the month. Bandwidth is used each time someone visits your site, and it is even used when you are uploading files to your site.

Some companies offer unlimited bandwidth. In some cases, they really mean that, and in others they really don’t. Instead, the bandwidth limitation is so high that they simply don’t expect you to ever reach it.

So, if we are just talking about the transfer rate of bits of data, why are there limitations? Limitations are extremely important from the web hosts side of the fence – and it should be important to you as well. When bandwidth limits are set and divided among all of the sites on a server, it is essentially a measure of what the server itself can withstand before crashing.

So, how much do you need? A simple formula is:

1. Determine the average size of your pages in Kilobytes, as an example we will use 46KB.

2. Estimate how many visits each page of your site will get during the month. Multiply this number by the total number of pages you expect to have. For our example, we will say that you have ten pages, and you expect ten visitors per month, for a total of 100 views.

3. Multiply the KB by the Page views - 46KB x 100= 4600KB of bandwidth needed. To be on the safe side, always get more bandwidth than you actually need, even if it costs more!

Disk Space: Disk space refers to the amount of hard drive space that has been allocated to you with your web hosting package. In the case of dedicated servers, where the entire hard disk is allocated to you, it refers to the size of the disk. While bandwidth can be exceeded – usually at a monetary cost – disk space cannot be exceeded because the hardware won’t allow it.

The amount of disk space that you require can be determined by the sizes of files that you will have loaded on the server. This includes text and HTML pages, script sizes, cascading style sheets, image sizes, media sizes (audio and video), PDF file sizes, and other files, such as downloadable software packages. It all counts towards the amount of disk space that you need and use.

When you think of disk space and its affect on the performance of your site, consider your own personal computer. As you know, the more space that is filled on your hard drive, the slower your computer runs – the performance starts lacking. The same thing happens when the disk space on a server is filled – there is the possibility that the site starts running slower.

Obviously, the more bandwidth and disk space you require, the more your hosting package will cost. Your first instinct may be to get the most bandwidth and the most disk space available, but that may not be the smartest financial move. Remember that you pay for that disk space and bandwidth whether it is used or not – each month or year.

The smarter thing to do is to find a web hosting company that will allow you to upgrade later on if you need to, and to go with slightly more than what you need at this time. Some people play it extremely safe, determine how much disk space and bandwidth they actually need, and then double it – with the option of upgrading to even more disk space and bandwidth later on, for a higher price.

You definitely need to find out a web hosting company’s policy on exceeding bandwidth. Again, you cannot possibly exceed disk space without upgrading to a higher disk space account…but you can exceed bandwidth.

Some company’s will instantly (temporarily) shut down your site when you exceed bandwidth until they can get in touch with you so that you can upgrade. If you don’t upgrade, the site remains shut down (unavailable on the Internet) until the beginning of the monthly cycle, when you get to start your bandwidth count over.

Others will go ahead and let the site keep running, and the bandwidth to keep going over, and then bill you for the overage…which often means shockingly, unexpected – and often unaffordable - high bills. Make sure that you are exceedingly clear concerning the company’s policy on bandwidth overage so that you aren’t surprised by a shutdown – which can seriously affect your bottom line – or surprised by a high bill, which is also detrimental to your bottom line.