When choosing a hosting plan or considering a server upgrade, there will be many factors to consider. Essential among these factors is bandwidth. But what is bandwidth? Why is it important? And how do you know how much you need?
What is bandwidth?
Bandwidth can be visualized as a series of tubes that carry water, where water is the data being transferred from location to location. The size of the tubes (the bandwidth) determines the amount of water (the maximum capacity of the data per second) that can be transferred. In a hosting plan, bandwidth generally indicates the maximum amount of data that can move between the server and the visitor per second. Typically, bandwidth will be listed in MB/s or GB/s, telling you the quantitative capacity of the data transfer for the server.
Bandwidth is not indicative of website speed, as that will be influenced by the processing power and storage of a server rather than the bandwidth. However, the bandwidth is important in understanding the capacity of data transfer. The server can only accommodate an amount of data transfer up to its capacity, as indicated by the bandwidth. Therefore, a higher bandwidth indicates a larger capacity for transferring larger amounts of data between two points.
How much bandwidth do I need?
Bandwidth needs are primarily influenced by traffic to your website. If your site has very high traffic or sometimes experiences very high traffic, you will need greater capacity for data transfer, meaning you will need higher bandwidth.
To determine how much bandwidth you need, consider three factors: your monthly visitors, the number of page views per viewer, and your site size. For example, if many viewers are accessing just one page of your site, you may need less bandwidth than if many viewers were visiting on average 2-3 pages on your site. Additionally, you may not have many visitors, but if your site is very large, more data has to be transferred per visitor, meaning you will need more bandwidth.
If you already have a hosting plan, you can check how much bandwidth your site uses through the cPanel under monthly bandwidth transfer. A good rule of thumb is to get a plan that gives you 50% more bandwidth than you currently need in case of website growth or traffic spikes.
Why is bandwidth important?
Bandwidth guarantees that all the data on your site can be quickly delivered to a visitor. Having ample bandwidth is essential if you want to increase traffic to your website. Additionally, higher bandwidth allows you to build out more complex features and applications on your site. This is because more dynamic features will require more data to be transferred, meaning more bandwidth is needed.
If you plan to grow and develop your online presence and get it seen by more viewers, it is crucial to consider your future and present bandwidth needs. Take a look at Hotwire Networks hosting plans and see which one offers the amount of bandwidth you need and prepare your website for growth!
