There are more and more web hosting companies that are going the way of over selling there services. You will see many places that offer lots of space and bandwidth for a very small fee. I have even started seeing once reputable hosts offering unlimited space and bandwidth.
These hosts are lying.
Plain and simple these hosts are lying in their marketing and then covering up that lie by limiting your usage of that account in their Terms of Service.
So what?
There are a few reasons you should care…
- People looking for a large volume of space and bandwidth usually plan to use it.
- If they are going to lie to you to get you as a customer what does that say about their ethics?
- If you ever try to use that space or bandwidth your account will be cancelled.
How do I know my host is overselling?
This is easier then you think. Most hard drives today come with 500 GB of space. If you want to see if your host is overselling simply ask them how many users are on the shared server.
So for example, if your host is providing you with 300 GB of space and they have 300 or so users on that server they would need to have hard drive that would hold 90000 GB or 88 TB. You can not find a hard drive with that much space on it at this time. You can put together lots of little hard drives to make that much space but they would loose money hand over fist if they did so.
What is overselling and why should I hate it?
When I was younger I went to go see Batman at the movie theater. The movie owner not only sold every ticket but sold more the the seats that were available in the theater. My friends and I showed up 15 minutes before the movie started and upon entering the theater had no where to sit. This angered me, I had paid for something that I was not able to receive. Why did it anger me? I had built up an excitement that I was going to see the Batman movie and was seriously let down when I was not able to see it.
A similar story happened when I was traveling on a business trip. The plane I was on was overbooked. Again they had sold more seats then the plane had. I was mad having to wait 3 hours for the next plane when this happened.
Both of these are example of overselling that I have seen outside of the hosting industry.
Does BlueFur oversell?
No. We have all had bad experiences with overselling and we will not be overselling our servers. That model is a recipe for short term success and long term failure. We value our customers and communiy built around our services.
Think it is okay to oversell hosting? Explain in the comments.
Nick
June 23, 2008 6:28 pm
Do i think its right if they oversell…
I dont think its very wrong as long as they got it under control. I have heard of cases such as air line flights where they oversell and have problems.
Which space and bandwidth , i think as long as there are no problems , like lets say you have 10 customers on one server with 500 Gb , they each signed up for 100 GB of space , after a month each customer is only taking about 30 GB , which still leaves you space.
But then if someone starts using they entire space then you might have problems , and then you will having complaining. I understand it saves on operating costs , but in the long term it may ruin your companies ego.
Its something someone has to decide …. save a few hundred here , or risk being shot down in the future.
I’m glad to hear bluefur doesn’t oversell. I’m just trying to look at it at both perspectives.
blogadmin
June 23, 2008 8:22 pm
The problem is that with your example the amount that most of these hosts are charging they need at least 100 or more clients on a server to pay for it.
So now your looking at 100 GB x 100 customers. To me that is overselling and lying.
Imagine if I were to sell you a Car and you were to get it and then find out that I only sold you that car with the front seats and everything behind the front seats is gone, because I think your not going to use it.
Would you be okay with that?
Nick
June 24, 2008 12:22 pm
Charge less so they can get more customers , thats what cheap hosting is.
Of Coarse it is overselling ,overselling is overselling.
Some people might be alright with that. If they dont need it then whats the point, except for looks and functionality.
I have seen some really cheap hosting , where it would only cost like 5$ a month and you have like 100GB of space and 100Gb of bandwidth , i can understand how anyone could afford that.