Cheap Web Hosting's Hidden Pitfall

It seems like not that many years ago the average cost of a web hosting service was $50.00 or more per month. Fortunately, over the years, as newer and more efficient technology emerged, and competition grew nearly as fast as the Internet itself, the cost of web hosting has plummeted. Now, even with the smallest of budgets, just about anyone can start an online business or just use the web for personal use.

Along with new technology and user-friendly tools, the need for technical expertise to build a website is no longer necessary, or at least for most people, a quality and attractive web site can be built with just the most basic knowledge of HTML.

When you select any web host, be sure that you will be provided with the tools that will best serve you. Make sure that you have adequate support available and do your best to see what other sites they host. You might even consider emailing other customers and politely request their opinions of the service.

But where are the dangers in cheap hosting? The danger comes because many people don't understand the very basics of hosting. The majority of people with limited technical knowledge will only look at the amount of space that they are provided with each account. Many "cheap hosts" provide large amounts of space. Plenty of room for graphics, music, streaming video and much more.

So what's the problem? A lot of space for your files sounds like a great deal. Theoretically it is a good deal. However, only considering storage space, when selecting a web host can cost you dearly. When looking at the web hosting offer the additional consideration you must consider is bandwidth normally referred to as "transfer" and usually misunderstood by many unsuspecting newcomers.

Simply stated, bandwidth, or transfer is the amount of data that is being transferred from your web hosting service through the network to your web site visitor. In other words, let's suppose that you have a movie on your web site that is 3 gigabytes. A visitor to your site downloads or streams the movie through the network. You just used 3 gigabytes of your monthly allotted bandwidth or transfer.

Now let's suppose that you have ten such movies on your web site and each movie is downloaded to a visitor ten times a day. Let's add the amount of bandwidth you'll use. Let's assume you have 10 movies of 3 gigabytes each for a total of 30 gigabytes. Each of your 10 visitors downloads all 10 of your movies. Each visitor will use 30 gigabytes of your monthly allotment. That would be a total of 300 gigabytes for that one day. In 5 days, that would be 1500 gigabytes of bandwidth.

Herein is the pitfall, the web host will in all likely-hood not shut down your site once you exceed your monthly allotment. In fact, most web hosts will present that feature as a positive.

However, they will charge you for each gigabyte used over and above your monthly allotment. If you have significant traffic to your site, and large files to be transferred, you could well find yourself with an enormous monthly hosting charge. Since the web hosting company will in all probability have your credit or debit card on file, as well as, fine print that allows them to charge addition transfer costs to your account without your prior approval, you may very well find out that your so-called cheap hosting company is anything but cheap.

The lesson to learn here is quite simple. Read the fine print in every transaction. A cheap web host may be the perfect solution for some. But for others it could be the difference between staying on line or having to shut down.