Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : My Opinion on OverSelling & Unlimited

[SamBarrow]

I've noticed a lot of people are against overselling.

First off, overselling is not an issue unless you make it one. Hosts who pack thousands upon thousands of accounts on one server cause issues. But this has nothing to do with overselling. Let's say you have a server with 1tb disk. You can put 2000x 500mb accounts on this server, or 10,000x 100mb accounts. You won't technically be "overselling" but you will cause the exact same issues nonetheless.

If you think about it, technically EVERYONE oversells. Because in my experience the CPU is the bottleneck, NOT disk space or bandwidth. And very very few hosts put a strict limit on cpu usage. Most don't even monitor it unless you use a huge amount of cpu. Then they suspend you. Isn't that the definition of overselling? Basing your pricing/plans on estimated usage and eliminating those who exceed your estimates?

I believe the issue of overselling is strictly an issue of trying to overuse a server and has nothing to do with offering accounts with 10mb or unlimited mb of space.

On a side note, I see absolutely no difference between offering a 10gb plan and an unlimited plan. 99% of people will use no more than 100mb regardless of plan. So you can oversell (responsibly of course) or let the majority of your server power be wasted because you've allocated X amount of space.

Feel free to attack now. I just had to get that out.

[MikeTrike]

Seems to make sense, mismanagement is the bigger problem. HostGator is a MEGA over seller and they don't have the problems that a boatload of other providers have. They are a prime example of a properly managed environment.

[SamBarrow]

Many of the biggest and most successful companies oversell. Not even just web hosting. What about unlimited cell phone plans? It's the exact same thing.

[wijtec]

Originally Posted by samb0057

If you think about it, technically EVERYONE oversells. Because in my experience the CPU is the bottleneck, NOT disk space or bandwidth.

Although I see your point, I hardly ever see on our own servers or any of the many we maintain CPU ever being the bottleneck.

What a lot of hosters forget when they pack their servers with (multiple-) quadcores is that disk i/o is currentdays bottleneck, the size of the disks have expanded a lot but the speed of the disks didn't grow with it in the same pace.

[SamBarrow]

That is actually true especially using SATA instead of SAS.
That does just add another point to what I'm saying though, the intangible bottlenecks (cpu, disk io, ram - not storage/bandwidth) usually cause the issues.

[wijtec]

Originally Posted by samb0057

That is actually true especially using SATA instead of SAS.
That does just add another point to what I'm saying though, the intangible bottlenecks (cpu, disk io, ram - not storage/bandwidth) usually cause the issues.

SAS isn't the magic fixer....

[SamBarrow]

I never said it was...

[qtriangle]

Originally Posted by samb0057

99% of people will use no more than 100mb regardless of plan.

I do not agree with you. If people are given choice of 100 mb vs 500 mb vs 10 gb disk space with different costs, and they are ready to pay maximum money for 10 GB plan, they most probably have a website which would definitely need that much space.

[SenseiSteve]

Originally Posted by qtriangle

I do not agree with you. If people are given choice of 100 mb vs 500 mb vs 10 gb disk space with different costs, and they are ready to pay maximum money for 10 GB plan, they most probably have a website which would definitely need that much space.

I disagree - of course there are clients that use large amounts of space, but they're the exception and not the rule. The term Unlimited appeals to even the smallest of static websites - it's a perception of value (whether it's real or not). I personally hate the term because it misrepresents what you're realistically being offered.

[SamBarrow]

I have about 3,500 unlimited clients with my free hosting company on an unlimited plan. 90% use under 100mb, 5% use 100-300mb, and the vast majority of the remainder are clients who attempt to use ridiculous amounts of space to host videos and pirated software. We have maybe 3 clients out of 3,500 (literally) who are actually using more than 500mb for a legitimate site.

I personally don't like the term "unlimited" because i like to know exactly what I'm getting. But most of the providers who offer 5gb or 10gb are also overselling in the exact way the unlimited companies are. I think for personal or smaller business sites "unlimited" is fine. Anything more than that, it's hard to find a shared host that will accommodate you since they're all geared towards the vast majority of the market, which are people who have sites in the 100mb range.

[hardwareguysinc]

We have offered unlimited since 1999, for the most part we have never had any problems. Like most of you said, most people don't and wont abuse the service, meaning not use the space for software etc. We have a few larger customers who do ringtons, so besides that its never been a problem

[SevenL_Will]

It really depends how you manage your services and your customers. We have not experience many problems in the past. If you are offering way too much than it is needed, then there is a problem.

[SamBarrow]

I think most agree it depends on how you manage your servers. It's just that "unlimited" seems to be an evil word to many, but it really just comes down to how well run the company is.

I could start two identical web hosting business, one with a 1gb plan and the other with an unlimited plan, and cause an equal amount of damage with each one if I didn't know what I was doing.

[Communism]

Blaming "abusers" is hilarious, its passing the buck from yourself to the person you sold the "unlimited" package to.
Unlimited in hosting is pure fraud, plain and simple.

[SamBarrow]

What about hosts that offer say 10gb, 20gb, 50gb for the same price that a host like hostgator charges? In my opinion that's the same thing.