Hosting bandwidth is an important factor to consider when choosing a web hosting provider. Bandwidth quotas differ according to each website type and needs. If it is not enough, your website performance can be negatively impacted.
In this article, I will explain what hosting bandwidth is and help you estimate the amount required for your website needs.
What Is Hosting Bandwidth
Hosting bandwidth refers to the limit of data that a website can transfer to a visitor’s browser at a time. In hosting plans, it is measured in bits per month.
If a homepage’s size is 500kb and ten people visit the site, it requires a minimum of 5MB bandwidth. The bigger the website and the more visitors it has visitors, the more bandwidth is needed.
A better bandwidth quota can provide better site loading speed and better connection. In turn, if a website does not have enough to support its visitors, it may slow down or crash and risk losing valuable traffic.
Some companies provide unlimited bandwidth, like Hostinger hosting plans. Users don’t need to worry about hitting a limit as long as their usage is appropriate to the website size that the hosting plan supports.
Do You Need A Lot of Bandwidth?
You can answer this question with a few considerations. First, think of how many elements and what media such as images, videos, and animations you want to put on the website. The more elements placed on a site, the more bandwidth it will need to load.
Then, estimate the number of the website’s visitors in a month. The average for an active blog with 1000 visitors per day needs at least 8GB of bandwidth per month, so make sure to pick the suitable plan to avoid website crashes in case of traffic spikes.
Finally, consider the number of pages that your website will have. If you’re running a blog that posts content regularly, then you may need more bandwidth for your website to make sure that the visitors can access all of your pages at all times.
How to Calculate Bandwidth Needs?
For beginners or new bloggers who are expecting small audiences, I recommend hosting plans with unlimited bandwidth for smaller to medium-sized websites. You don’t need to worry about the numbers as it will be able to deliver your pages to the audience smoothly until your traffic grows.
However, it may be different for websites that are continuously growing. Especially if your hosting providers tell you that you’re close to hitting the limit, you might need to start calculating your needs and opt for a package that offers more bandwidth.
The formula to calculate bandwidth is simple– estimate the average page size of your website, multiply it by the number of estimated monthly visitors, then multiply the result by the average number of page views from the visitors. You can use Pingdom’s website speed test tool to get these numbers.
For example, a regular blog may have a 2MB average page size. Let’s say it has 1000 visitors per month, with each person opening at least two pages per visit. The minimum bandwidth needed will be:
2MB x1000 x 2 = 4000 MB or 4GB of minimum bandwidth per month.
This formula is useful to count the minimum bandwidth for a website. To know the perfect amount that a website needs, you have to leave room to anticipate traffic spikes.
This is easily done by multiplying the minimum bandwidth needed by a redundant factor. The value ranges from 1.3 to 1.8, and it will calculate the extra space you need to have. When applied to the regular blog’s case,
4GB x 1.3 =Â 5.2GB bandwidth per month.
Conclusion
Calculating bandwidth is essential to ensure an excellent website performance. However, you shouldn’t worry too much about it, as it is easy to change your hosting package according to your needs.
I have explained how to calculate bandwidth needs. I hope this article helps, if there is any question, make sure to leave a comment below.
