Advantages and Disadvantages of Overselling Web Hosting
Advantages and Disadvantages of Oversold Website Hosting
Overselling is something that is becoming common practice within the web hosting industry, and is the term that is applied to a web host that is selling web hosting packages with resources that are impossible to provide customers with and at the same time retaining a profit; this is because most overselling web hosts provide packages that claim enable users to have hundreds of gigabytes of both storage and bandwidth which they can fill up all they want, and some even go as far as selling web hosting plans with both unlimited storage and bandwidth - both scenarios would be impossible to meet since the cost of providing so many users with so much storage and bandwidth would make even a large company go bust, and in reality unlimited server resources such as disk space and bandwidth don’t even exist.
Overselling web hosting is perfect for those who want to use up a large amount of disk space and bandwidth, but are unable to afford the higher costs of VPS server or dedicated server hosting, since the amount of disk space and bandwidth assigned to the average oversold web hosting package is much higher than that which is assigned even the most advanced VPS server or dedicated server; the large resources that you get for your money with overselling web hosting also draw people in, since many think that they are getting much more value for money that they would be with standard shared hosting packages, or even VPS servers or dedicated server without even consider the level of support that they would be able to receive from their overselling web hosting company.
Overselling is a new form of web hosting, which many hosts have started to provide since they have seen the number of people that it draws in, expecting value for money; the one thing which many people don’t consider with overselling web hosting is that if you reach a certain point on the amount of server resources that you have used, your hosting account will most likely be suspended for ‘over usage’ of resources - this is a common thing within the industry, and is done in most cases because the user or account concerned has used up too much of a certain resource, whether their account be unlimited or not, meaning that in line with the web host’s terms of service, they have the power to suspend the web hosting account concerned.
With unlimited, or near unlimited disk space and bandwidth, you can use your overselling website hosting account to host resource intensive websites such as image heavy websites without the threat of them going offline because you have run out of bandwidth, or finding that you are unable to host them within your hosting account because you don’t have enough disk space in order to host all the images for your website that are needed to ensure that it is able to run smoothly without any problems; this also means that you could host websites that receive a large number of visitors, and you are unable to host the website on a standard shared hosting package because of the amount of bandwidth that is used, and are unable to afford the high costs of either a VPS server or even a dedicated server that is able to meet your needs in both terms of bandwidth and disk space.
In most cases, you are only able to host one website in your oversold website hosting account, since overselling web hosts like to keep the number of websites that are actually hosted so that they are able to keep the uptime of the server high, even though frequent downtime will still occur because of the nature of the type of website hosting that is being used; for example, you can’t expect the greatest of reliability from oversold website hosting since in most cases you will notice downtime quite frequently since most of the websites hosted on the same server as you are probably resource intensive themselves, and have been on an oversold website hosting account because they can’t be hosted on shared hosting because they are resource intensive, and their webmasters are unable to afford either a VPS or dedicated server. If you have a business website, or run a website that is important to you in terms of revenue or just because you use it to interact with others, you should not consider oversold web hosting for your needs since you will suffer frequent downtime that is able to impact on both your website, and if you are selling products or services through it, the amount of revenue that you are able to pull in from your website as well.
Advantages of Overselling Web Hosting
For some, oversold website hosting plans might just be what they need for their resource intensive or busy website that they are unable to host on standard shared website hosting, but are unable to afford the high costs of both VPS server hosting and dedicated server hosting, meaning that oversold website hosting is the only other alternative that is able to fit their needs. For example, if you run a photography website that contains many images then oversold website hosting might be the right kind of website hosting for you, since the amount of disk space and bandwidth that is supplied with the average oversold website hosting account should be more than suitable for your needs; for example, you will require a large amount of disk space to host all the images for your website, and you will require a large amount of bandwidth so that visitors to your website are able to see any images that you might have on their with ease. In the case that you are only hosting a small website on an oversold website hosting account, you should consider purchasing a small shared website hosting account, since this would probably suit your web hosting needs more than an oversold website hosting account does; you should also notice greater reliability on a standard shared website hosting account.
Amount of Disk Space
One of the main advantages of oversold website hosting is the amount of disk space that you have assigned to your oversold website hosting account, and how much you are able to use when compared to other forms of website hosting such as shared website hosting as well as reseller, VPS and dedicated server website hosting; in most cases, you are assigned either an unlimited amount of disk space, or hundreds of gigabytes of disk space, meaning that you have more than enough room in order to your website and any other files related to your website such as images - you can also use your disk space to just backup files from your desktop PC, so that you have copies of your desktop files that you can download if you were to lose them for any reason.
Overselling web hosts never expect anyone who has taken out an oversold website hosting plan with them to ever use up all their disk space, since there is just so much of it, meaning that you yourself will probably never use up all your disk space on your oversold website hosting account unless you are using it to host a large amount of images, or other multimedia content such as music and videos, for example; however, there is normally something in the TOS of your overselling web host stating that once you’ve reached a certain point on how much storage you have used, you will not be able to use anymore disk space - this is because you web host will most likely suspend your oversold web hosting account for resource over usage, meaning that you will no longer be able to use your hosting account anymore - however, this only normally happens in the most serious of situations when someone has used up a serious amount of disk space within their web hosting account.
In most cases, you will probably find that the amount of disk space that you have assigned to your oversold website hosting account is into the hundreds of gigabytes, terrabytes or even in some cases unlimited - although this might seem like you are getting value for money when compared to other forms of website hosting, the resources assigned are in most cases unable to even be met in reality without your website hosting business; this is because the cost of it would just be too great, and in some cases its even impossible to get the amounts assigned, for example it’s impossible to get an unlimited amount of disk space in any situation. If you run a website which relies on many images, such as a photography website would, then you should consider taking out an oversold website hosting plan, but with a reputable company that has many good reviews, so that you are able to ensure that both you and your website are in safe hands; although you will have a large amount of storage assigned to your hosting account, you will most likely not need to use it all up to ensure that you have all the images that are related to your website hosted within your oversold website hosting account.
Amount of Bandwidth
The amount of bandwidth that you have assigned to your oversold website hosting account dictates how much data can be transferred between your website and your website’s visitors, meaning that the amount of bandwidth that you have assigned limits the number of visitors that are able to pass through your website in a certain period of time, in most cases a month.
With most oversold website hosting accounts, you will find that you have hundreds of gigabytes, terabytes or even an unlimited amount of bandwidth assigned to your account that you are able to use to ensure that visitors are able to come and visit your website at any time of the day, and with high amounts of bandwidth, you are also able to make your website more image heavy since you have more bandwidth that will allow you to do this; this means if for example, you are running a website that contains many images, you should consider oversold website hosting for your needs since it is one type of hosting that will provide you with the amount of bandwidth that you will need in order to ensure that your website will run smoothly without any problems.
However, most overselling web hosts take the same stance on bandwidth as they do with disk space, since like disk space, bandwidth is a limited resource that will eventually run out meaning that in reality you are limited as to what amount of bandwidth you are able to use with your oversold website hosting account; for example, if you pass a certain amount of bandwidth usage your overselling web host will most likely suspend your account and website for over usage which would mean that you would have to find another web host at which you could host your bandwidth intensive website or application.
The amount of bandwidth that you do have assigned to your oversold web hosting account will probably much more than you would find on your standard shared website hosting plan, VPS hosting package or even dedicated server hosting plan, meaning that the large amounts of bandwidth available on oversold website hosting packages is one factor that attracts many people to the world of oversold website hosting, since they think they are getting more value for money than they would with other types of website hosting with other hosts, but in fact they are not when they consider other factors such as customer service as well as system reliability; this means that after a certain amount of time, when somebody realizes that they aren’t getting value for money, they will most likely move to another website hosting provider and take out an account which isn’t oversold.
If you have a website hosing account that claims to have an unlimited amount of bandwidth, then you are most likely hosted on an oversold website hosting account, since like most server resources, bandwidth is a valuable resource which is in no way unlimited meaning that you have to purchase it in gigabytes in most cases.
Disadvantages of Overselling Website Hosting
Although oversold website hosting might appear to have advantages for some, for many it will prove to be a disadvantage when compared to other forms of website hosting, especially when people take into account that it is important for unlimited resources to be assigned to a website hosting account, since unlimited server resources don’t even exist; this means that if you have an oversold website hosting account, you should move to a standard shared website hosting account since you will probably get better value for money when you take into account the support and reliability of other types of website hosting when compared to oversold website hosting. One of the main disadvantages of oversold website hosting is the reliability of it, since in most cases there are so many users on one server, the server itself crashes regularly; it is because of this that if you are running an important mission critical website, you should stick with standard website hosting.
Reliability
In most cases, you will find that there are many users on one oversold website hosting server, meaning that the reliability of the server concerned is incredibly slow and that the server itself will often crash because it is unable to cope with the number websites and accounts that it is hosting; with the case of a slow server, you will notice that your website will probably time out when you try and load pages that you have hosted within your oversold website hosting account, and that you will be unable to access certain services like mail at times when the server is slow.
For people who are hosting important business websites, or websites that need to be accessed constantly, oversold web hosting is not the right type of hosting for them since the reliability of it will not be as good as that which is provided by other forms of web hosting such as shared website hosting as well as VPS hosting and dedicated server hosting, meaning that if you are selling products through your online shop that you have hosted within an oversold hosting environment, you might notice a drop in trade if your website becomes unavailable for a length of time; it is because of this that the reliability of hosting is important, and if any downtime is experiences by anyone whether it be on oversold hosting or shared website hosting, it might damage their business for the short term since people might not return to purchase goods from their website. In the case that you are experiencing reliability problems with your oversold website hosting account, you should consider moving to another website host as to ensure that the reliability problems don’t have any negative impact on your website or business.
Support
One factor which turns many away from oversold website hosting is the lack of support which is rarely available for any oversold website hosting account, since most web hosts think that since you aren’t paying much for your oversold website hosting account, you shouldn’t be eligible to receive an acceptable level of support along with your website hosting account; this means that if you experience any sort of problem with your oversold website hosting account, the chances of you being able to receive an acceptable level of support to ensure that the problem is sorted out as soon as possible to keep disruption of a minimum are almost nil.
The fact that support for oversold website hosting accounts isn’t all that good means that many people are put off by oversold website hosting, since at the end of the day all most people want is value for money, and if they aren’t receiving an acceptable level of support then most would say that they aren’t receiving value for money and would move on to another web host and take out a standard shared website hosting package for the same price that their oversold website hosting account cost them to ensure that they are receiving value for money this time around.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you are running a website that requires both a large amount of disk space and bandwidth but you are unable to afford the high costs of both VPS hosting and dedicated server hosting, oversold website hosting might be the right type of website hosting for you just as long as you are able to put up with an unacceptable level of support in most cases as well as low reliability meaning that your website won’t always be accessible.
If you run a busy website that receives many visitors, and is unable to be hosted on a standard shared website hosting package because of the amount of bandwidth it uses but you are unable to afford either a VPS or dedicated server, then oversold website hosting might be the right type of web hosting for you; this is because the amount of bandwidth that you have assigned to your oversold website hosting package is normally unlimited - although this one requirement is one which any web host would be unable to meet because bandwidth is a very limited resource, the amount that you are actually able to use is probably greater than what you would be able to on a standard shared website hosting package, meaning that in some cases you might be getting value for money when it comes to the amount of bandwidth that you are able to use.
If you run a website which is image heavy, and you want to host a lot of images within your web space and require more disk space than can be found on the average shared website hosting package but are unable to afford either a VPS server or dedicated server, then oversold website hosting might also be for you; this is because the amount of disk space that you have assigned to your oversold website hosting account is also normally unlimited, meaning that the amount that you are able to use is normally greater than that which you are able to use with standard shared website hosting, meaning that if you want to host an image heavy website or a large number of images under your hosting account, you are able to do so without any limits that you might face with standard website hosting.
