Are you wondering what is monthly bandwidth in web hosting? how much bandwidth do you need for your website? then you have come to the right page.
When you looking for a hosting plan that works best for your website, you need to consider some features including monthly bandwidth in web hosting plans.
Like uptime in web hosting, bandwidth makes or breaks your website. Let me explain.
If your website has more bandwidth than what you need, then more data of your website will be transferred to your visitors. In contrast, if your website bandwidth is lower or is reached limits, then your website will go down or encounter other problems during peak hours because it cannot handle heavy traffic spikes.
That’s why you need more bandwidth in web hosting that fulfills your website needs.
Let’s talk about what is monthly bandwidth in web hosting plans.
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What is Monthly Bandwidth in Web Hosting?
The bandwidth in web hosting is the amount of data that a website can deliver its customers within a specific time period. It’s usually calculated in GB/Second (Gigabytes per Second) but also assess in MB/Second (Megabytes per Second).
Think of bandwidth as the diameter (size) of the water pipe and data transfer as the amount of water that flows through the pipe. The wider the pipe diameter, the more water will flow. The higher bandwidth, the more data will be sent to visitors.
What is Website Bandwidth?
The website bandwidth is the measure of the maximum data of a website that can be sent to its users in a specific time frame.
To use another metaphor, website bandwidth is the road that you driving on. The wider the road, the more traffic it can handle simultaneously. The narrower the road, it cannot handle more traffic at the same time. The higher the website bandwidth, the more data will be delivered to visitors.
This means If the monthly bandwidth in web hosting plan is higher, then it can handle sudden traffic spikes. By contrast, the lower bandwidth cause traffic and other problems.
What Is Unlimited Bandwidth In Web Hosting Plans?
Some web hosts claim unlimited bandwidth for shared hosting plans. But it doesn’t mean that unlimited bandwidth is allocated to your account and there are no limits. You should keep in mind your website bandwidth is limited.
Unlimited bandwidth is the marketing term that is used by most web hosts. The hosting providers know that a website’s owner cannot use all the available bandwidth on a shared hosting server, that’s why they use the term unlimited bandwidth.
Every web host places limits on monthly bandwidth in web hosting plans.
Why Higher Monthly Bandwidth in Web Hosting Plans is So Important?
All hosting features are important in their own way but the bandwidth feature is one of the most important.
Here’s the list of TOP 3 reasons to get higher monthly bandwidth in web hosting plan.
#1. Handle Heavy Spikes in Traffic
The higher monthly bandwidth in web hosting assists you in the peak hours of your website. In the simple term, if your website has higher bandwidth and a number of simultaneous visitors come to your website. They’ll be experienced your website smoothly and faster.
Imagine, if your website bandwidth is lower, then it cannot handle hundreds of simultaneous visitors, then what will happen? – either your website will crash, the web host will charge you average fees, or the hosting provider will move your plan to the next powerful plan.
#2. Fast Speed
Monthly Bandwidth in web hosting is the data-carrying capacity, it is also one of the website speed factors.
As you know website speed is one of the most important factors of ranking in search results. Also, research shows that 40% of users leave a webpage when they wait for up to three seconds and customers want less than two seconds of loading time for eCommerce stores.
That’s why to improve your website’s speed, you should get the higher monthly bandwidth in web hosting package. Your website’s higher bandwidth loads your website speedily even if several concurrent users visit it.
#3. Developing Dynamic Content
The higher amount of bandwidth enables you to present dynamic, quality, and rich-media content to your visitors. The dynamic, quality, and rich-media content will build your website and that’s what every site’s owner wants.
How Much Bandwidth Do You Need for Your Website?
It depends on your website needs. You can manually calculate your estimated bandwidth needs.
If you just getting started on a new website, then the bandwidth that you get with the hosting package is enough.
But if you have huge traffic or an extensive site, then you have to calculate to estimate your bandwidth need.
You need to collect this information to calculate your estimated bandwidth needs for your website.
- Average Daily Visitors: To determine it, divide your monthly visitors by 30 (days in a month), so you’ll get the average daily visitors.
- Average Page Size: Use the Pingdom tool to find out your average page size. At the Pingdom tool, you just need to enter your website URL and run the test, then it will show your page size.
- Average Page Views/Visitor: Sometimes, a visitor views several pages on your website. To find out the average page views, divide the total page views by total visitors.
- Redundancy: This figure is added for sudden and unexpected spikes in traffic. It’s between 1.3 and 2.0.
Let’s say that you’ve got this info.
- Average page size: 3MB
- Average daily visitors: 130
- Average Page Views/Visitor: 4
- Redundancy: 1.4
You have to use this formula to determine your website estimated bandwidth needs.
Bandwidth Your Website Need = Average Page Size x Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views/Visitor x 30 (Days in a Month) x Redundancy
Now let’s put the above numbers that you’ve gotten.
Bandwidth Your Website Need = 3MB x 130 x 4 x 30 x 1.4 = 65,520MB
So the estimated bandwidth that you need for your website is 65,520MB or 65.52GB per month.
How to View Bandwidth You Have Used?
If you use cPanel, then login to your control panel. Look at the right sidebar where you can see some details (like bandwidth usage, and disk space usage). The bandwidth usage section shows you how much bandwidth you have used.
Maybe your monthly bandwidth in web hosting plan is reached its limits but if your budget doesn’t allow you to upgrade the plan, then you should reduce the bandwidth usage.
How to Reduce Your Website Bandwidth Usage?
Can I reduce my website bandwidth usage? YES
In case your monthly bandwidth in web hosting plan is close to reaching limits but you’re on a tight budget and cannot upgrade your package or maybe another reason, then reducing your bandwidth usage is the good solution.
You should apply these tips to reduce your bandwidth usage.
- Use a cache plugin to store copies of your website content on worldwide servers. Then, it will be sent your website’s cached version to your visitors which actually reduces the bandwidth usage and loading time.
- Host images, videos, downloads, etc on an external platform. Many websites’ owners upload the images and videos on Pinterest and then embed them on their websites.
- Reduce heavy files like images, downloads, videos, graphics, etc if you don’t intend to host them on an external platform.
- Enable a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to host your website content on worldwide servers.
- Monitor your website bandwidth usage when you add more functionalities and content to your website.
What is Bandwidth Limit in Web Hosting?
Your website consumes bandwidth when website data send to a user. Once your website has used all the bandwidth allocated to your account, it means your website bandwidth has reached the bandwidth limit.
So either you have to upgrade your plan or reduce the bandwidth usage.
I hope you’ve learned what is monthly bandwidth in web hosting. how much bandwidth do you need for your website? how to calculate your website bandwidth needs? so please share this helpful blog with your friends.
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