Is web hosting really unlimited?
Today we are going to help you answer and understand the question “is my web host overselling”? Before we can answer that question, we must first understand what overselling actually means. By definition, overselling refers to a business practice where a company sells a volatile good or service in excess of actual capacity. Airlines and Hotels tend to do this (referred to as overbooking), so they can insure 100% of the available seats/rooms will be used (therefore maximizing their profits).
In web hosting, its quite the opposite. Companies overselling in web hosting are hoping 100% of the available resources are NOT going to be used (maximizing their profits by hosting more customers on the same server). Since many customers compare companies by the disk space/bandwidth being offered. Companies will often times use this knowledge to their advantage by inflating the disk space/bandwidth being advertised (giving you a false sense of security).
Now comes the real question, is overselling bad? Not necessarily, however just like “unlimited” web hosting, its important to understand overselling is just a marketing gimmick (your not actually getting what is advertised). Our suggestion, know what your website actually needs (in terms of server resources). Knowing what does and does not belong in a shared web hosting environment is half the battle.
Happy Hosting!