What is Unmetered vs Metered vs Unlimited Bandwidth?
When setting up a new server for your business or your next project, one of the first steps you’ll want to take is to determine your network and bandwidth requirements for the server. This is an important decision because choosing the wrong bandwidth plan may have costly consequences.
Unmetered and unlimited bandwidth are not the same thing when it comes to bandwidth usage. There is a lot of debate around this topic. So, what is unmetered bandwidth? Does unmetered bandwidth mean infinite bandwidth? Is there a difference?
The simple answer is yes, there is a difference, but it often also depends on the fine print of your web hosting plan. There are two common data allocation strategies that server hosting companies employ: those that allocate by traffic and/or those that allocate by bandwidth, also known as metered and unmetered plans, respectively.
Metered vs. Unmetered Bandwidth Plans – What’s the Difference?
Metered Bandwidth
At ServerMania, most of our metered dedicated servers come with a 1Gbps port and metered bandwidth options ranging from 20TB to 100TB a month. What this means is that your server will be capable of transferring information at a speed of 1Gbps until you reach your bandwidth limit of 20TB to 100 TB, depending on your metered package.
Need faster port speed? No problem, we have 10Gbps and 2x10Gbps port options as well. Book a free consultation and we’ll help you get exactly what you need for your business or next project.
Unmetered Bandwidth
With our unmetered dedicated servers you can choose between 10Gbps and 2x10Gbps port speeds and will not be hampered by bandwidth limits. This means you pay one monthly price for unlimited data transfer in and out at a speed of either 10Gbps or 2x10Gbps, depending on your package.
With unmetered servers, you are free to use as much bandwidth as the purchased server port can handle.
Read More: How Dedicated Server Hosting Works
Getting the Crux of Infinite Bandwidth Usage
In most cases, hosting companies offer plans that are limited by bandwidth speed and not by traffic — typically called unmetered hosting — and do not have an upper bandwidth limit on the amount of data they can transfer in a given period.
However, with these ‘unmetered’ packages there is still a physical limit on how much data you can consume in any given month. These packages, although marketed as unmetered, will be limited by the hardware capacity and speed of the port. For instance, a 1Gbps connection can really only transfer about 324TB in a month, running at full capacity.
Many hosting companies will leave these details in the fine print, whereas ServerMania will provide you with an expert consultant who will walk you through your bandwidth requirements and offer transparent advise to get you exactly what you need.
Bandwidth Capacity Worldwide
By 2023, the total global interconnection of bandwidth will increase from 4,991Tbps per second in 2020 to 27,762Tbps per second in 2023, and North America takes 41% (approximately 16,300Tbps) of that in bandwidth usage.
Without an unmetered hosting plan, clients can use up to their traffic allocation, putting a limit on website bandwidth and the amount of data they can consume. If they consume more bandwidth, they can expect additional costs at a set rate for each added gigabyte or terabyte.
Most business owners prefer consistency and plenty of runway for their business plans, and an unmetered hosting plan is often an attractive feature for their dedicated servers.
Standard ServerMania dedicated server plans range from 20TB to 100TB of traffic per month, with most packages including a 1Gbps port speed. That’s more than enough for most business websites, publishing sites, web hosting providers, and small eCommerce stores. But what happens when 100TB isn’t enough?
When Would an Unmetered Bandwidth Plan Be the Right Option?
For server hosting clients that frequently need to transfer huge amounts of data or frequently see spikes in traffic, unmetered plans can be more cost-effective and allow for predictable monthly billing. They can move as much data as they need to without worrying about incurring additional charges, fees, or penalties. The only limit is the bandwidth capability of their network connection and port speed.
Consider media businesses that serve videos or large game hosting providers that cater to a large subscriber base. With a metered plan, they would burn through 20TB of bandwidth very quickly and start racking up additional costs for the excess data they use. For businesses like these, unmetered bandwidth would be the way to go.
Metered connections may be the right choice for moderately sized e-commerce businesses, publishers, and web applications that may not have to scale but have requirements to store and process a set amount of data over the internet each month.
Bandwidth usage cannot be underestimated when it comes to hosting. To avoid poor site performance and visitor experience you may want to consider unmetered dedicated servers. This will allow your business to scale seamlessly and without interruption.
Most websites do not require unlimited bandwidth from the outset. However, an unmetered plan becomes beneficial as traffic to your website grows. With an unmetered dedicated server, you don’t have to worry about the unpredictable extra fees at the end of each month.
Consequences of NOT having unmetered bandwidth
Consider the implications of not having unmetered bandwidth as you get more customers:
- Website traffic congestion
- Overloaded servers
- Underutilized resources, like port speed
- Web pages are slow to load
Benefits of an unmetered bandwidth plan
Server hosting clients that may benefit from unmetered plans include:
- Game hosts that need to support lots of concurrent games with very low latency.
- Media businesses that stream video and audio to large audiences.
- News media sites, blogs, and e-commerce stores with a substantial amount of daily traffic.
- Businesses that use their servers to store and distribute large amounts of data.
Affordable Small Business Hosting Solutions
ServerMania’s small business hosting plans are designed to give our clients the most cost-effective infrastructure solutions, which is why we provide a range of metered and unmetered bandwidth options for our small business servers.
Countless companies count on us to process, store, and secure their data. Many of the largest industries require both high bandwidth and high connectivity speeds to process data and transactions in real time. Our dedicated servers come in a plethora of hosting and bandwidth options.
With data centers around the world, many industries have benefited from our reliable service, security, and customer support.
Conclusion
We know making decisions on servers, processors, applications, and bandwidth can be complex, often requiring an equally complex solution. Fortunately, ServerMania has a team of experts to guide you through every step of the process.
To learn more about our range of dedicated and hybrid hosting solutions, book a free consultation today to get started.
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