VPS Hosting is one of the most popular hosting plans for the powerful features that it offers at competitive prices. It can almost match the hosting experience of a Dedicated Server with its virtual isolated hosting space. But even the best VPS Hosting requires sufficient bandwidth to be able to service user requests. While the amount of bandwidth depends mostly on web hosting plans, the quality of bandwidth may vary from one platform to another.
VPS Servers come bundled with plenty of bandwidth to ensure that your VPS Server Hosting doesn’t run out at crucial times. Linux VPS uses bandwidth optimally as it is lighter and more agile than most other hosting solutions. So how important is the bandwidth for the smooth functioning of your website and its hosting environment?
Let us understand what role does bandwidth play in VPS Hosting.
What is bandwidth?
Bandwidth is a fleet of trucks that carries data from your hosting server to your users through the Internet highway. In technical terms, it is the amount of data that your site is allowed to transfer to your users in a certain period of time, i.e. it is the ‘rate’ at which data is transferred from your hosting server to your users.
Typically, hosting providers sell bandwidth as a specific amount of data per month, along with their hosting plans. 5 GB is the standard amount offered by most providers, but it may vary from one provider to the other, and even between different plans of the same provider.
How does bandwidth work?
Let us consider the earlier example of trucks to see how bandwidth works. It carries your data to and from the server. This exchange of information takes place over the Internet. A bigger truck can carry a bigger load while a smaller one is restricted to lighter loads. In the same way, higher bandwidth can carry more data and can serve requests from more users. If you choose lower bandwidth for your website, it will also slow down the information exchange because of its low load-carrying capacity.
You can check out the following video to understand bandwidth usage for a website –
Why is bandwidth important?
It is the bandwidth that determines your website’s continued availability. Your site will remain unavailable to users when your bandwidth runs out, even if your hosting VPS uses the best hardware and software. Once your bandwidth quota for the month is over, your website goes offline, even if everything else continues functioning flawlessly. Linux VPS usually offers higher bandwidth with their hosting plans.
How to optimise bandwidth usage?
An unoptimised site will eat up bandwidth quicker than an optimised one. Let’s take a simple example of an image. If an image is not optimised for the web, it will have a larger file size. Now if you optimise the same image for online use, the file size can drop to kilobytes from megabytes. So, each time the image is sent to users, it will consume less bandwidth. A smaller package takes up less space, making space for more packages. Other ways to optimise bandwidth usage is to clean up your code, remove unwanted scripts and get rid of unused code snippets.
Summing Up
Now that you know how important bandwidth is, it is up to you to choose the right amount for your website. Alternatively, you can opt for VPS Hosting plans with unmetered bandwidth. Here the hosting provider does not measure or track the bandwidth usage, and you can easily manage any surges in your bandwidth requirements.
