Compare Unlimited Web Hosting

If you are looking for a UK web hosting provider that offers unlimited websites, bandwidth or webspace, then the following plans provide these services.

Unlimited Hosting Explained

Unlimited hosting has received a significant amount of bad press over the years. Some users complained about kicked off servers for using too many resources. Others, commenting on the usage of the term unlimited or unmetered.

A Brief History of Shared Hosting

In the late 90s and early 2000s, web hosting providers were springing up all over the place. Bandwidth and storage were expensive. So all companies placed limits on the amount of space and storage you received. 

The first-ever web hosting provider that I signed up with was a company called pair.com you received 25mb storage (yes MB not GB!) 300mb of bandwidth.

As we approached the mid-2000s, we hosting providers were beginning their arms race to provide more storage and bandwidth to their customers. Megabytes became gigabytes, and then tens became hundreds. These significant increases were enabled by the reduction in bandwidth and disk space costs. 

Companies then soon started offering unlimited services, so by the later part of the 2000s, most companies started offering unlimited services of some sort. This was where most of the bad press came from around unlimited services.

The reality is unlimited does not mean ‘use as much as you want without repercussions’. There will always be limits based around acceptable usage. If you run a massive website with lots of traffic and visitors, then a shared web hosting provider, even one that offers unlimited bandwidth is not going to be right for you. Consider VPS Hosting if this is you.

Everyone else should be fine opting for an unlimited hosting plan.

Acceptable Use Policy

We talked briefly about acceptable usage policies. So what exactly is acceptable usage?

While every web hosting provider will have differing restrictions on what they define as acceptable usage. Web hosting companies will include an acceptable usage policy within their terms and conditions of service. This will often include limits on the about of CPU processing the site can use or number of INODES (a limit on the number of individual files that can be stored). it is crucial to read all the terms thoroughly before signing up.

What is Unlimited Domain Web Hosting? 

Unlimited domain hosting allows you to set up an unlimited number of unique websites, and each website individual domain name, email accounts and SSL certificates. You can set up 1, 10, 50 or 100 other websites in the single web hosting account, as long as you remain within any restrictions set against your account.

Unlimited Web Space

This feature allows you to use as much web storage space for your website files storage. If your website requires 1GB to run, that will be the amount that you get to use. There is no limit set in disk space usage. 

However, remember there are always rules, so check out the TOS when choosing a shared web hosting plan that includes unlimited disk space usage. 

If you are planning on hosting a lot of videos, some unlimited web hosting plans limit the file size. For example, if you are running a video sharing website and require hundreds of gigabytes of space, unlimited shared web hosting won’t be appropriate for your case. 

Unlimited web storage space is only valid for storing website files and files required by your website to operate. When you have a particular case or consideration to make, always check through the web host’s TOS in detail and make sure your website is not violating the Terms and Condition of use.

Unlimited Bandwidth

Unlimited bandwidth or unmetered transfer, is referring to the same thing. This is the number of visitors or files you can serve to your users. 

Every upload download process requires a server process thread, and web host often limiting the server process time and CPU percentage that you are allowed to use. 

If your website is too busy with file upload and download, shared web hosting will quickly run out of resource for you and trigger the alert. Some web host will suspend or terminate an account if you are hosting a heavy traffic site. 

This is why shared hosting not recommended for these types of downloading site, its recommended to upgrade to VPS hosting or dedicated server as the more appropriate web hosting choice.

Unlimited Addon Domains

For most people looking at unlimited hosting, this is the most important feature to them. It allows you to host multiple websites each with their own unique domain names, email accounts etc. Therefore you can have five or ten or one hundred sites, each running on their own. 

Unlimited domain hosting is not the same as a subdomain. Its a full feature multi-website hosting plan. Each website can have its own domain name, web files, database, and configuration. Therefore, each domain name runs independently on its own. Most web hosts that advertise themselves as unlimited domain hosting plan allows up to 9999 domains hosting.

Unlimited email accounts

This is referring to unlimited email account creation. There is no limit on the number of accounts that you can create for your user while some web hosts allow a few thousand email accounts. 

The unlimited email account limit is different from a restriction on email sending limits; having unlimited emails account doesn’t mean you can send or receive email without limit. 

Shared web hosting, generally only allows a few hundred emails to be sent per day. So if you require a service that needs to send a large number of daily emails, it is worth checking the company terms before signing up or asking the sales team.

Unlimited MySQL database

If you are creating several websites, Unlimited MySQL databases are another useful feature to have. 

While you don’t need to have a unique database for each website, it makes it easier if you choose to migrate your website to a new service or provider not to have to transfer one large database which includes all the tables for your website. 

Conclusion

You should hopefully have a better understanding of what to look for when choosing an unlimited web hosting provider. Remember all the services that we include on this page cater for the UK web hosting market. So use this as a starting point in your web hosting comparison.