Is 2gb bandwidth sufficient for a website? When you’re getting started on your website journey or even if you’re more established figuring out how much bandwidth you need for your website can be tricky.
Get it wrong and it could cost you way more than it should or potentially run you into problems in terms of site performance and more importantly user exeperience.
Below we’ll take a look at how you can figure out how much bandwidth might be needed for your website.
What Is Bandwidth?
Bandwidth in terms of web hosting describes the rate at which data is transferred from your website and computer devices connected to it within a specific time frame.
Typically hosting packages will calculate bandwidth on a monthly basis and display in terms of Gigabytes (GB).
Think of bandwidth a bit like a straw; a small diameter straw means you can only get a small amount of your beverage through to your mouth whilst a large diameter straw allows lots of liquid to pass through at one time. Bandwidth works in the same way; a small amount of bandwidth means you are limited in how much data can be transferred whilst a large limit means you can get a lot more data transferred in any given time period.
Why Is Bandwidth Important?
Bandwidth determines how quickly your website can deliver data to your users. This can have a significant impact on your user experience and whether they’ll continue using your site or decide to go elsewhere.
What Is Unlimited Bandwidth?
“Unlimited bandwidth” doesn’t actually exist in the way the term suggests. Web host providers have to pay for the bandwidth they offer as such there’s no way they could truly offer unlimited bandwidth for all their users. What they effectively rely on is an assumption that the sites on a given server will never use up all of the available bandwidth.
Rather than get into the details about what bandwidth usage might actually look like from customer to customer, most web hosting companies will simply state “unlimited bandwidth” and know they can cater to the majority of small customers.
Although unlimited bandwidth sounds great in theory, always be aware that there are likely usage limits that you need to stay within. Be sure to look out for this when shopping around for a hosting package.
How Can I Find Out How Much Bandwidth My Website Uses?
If you have an existing website on Bluehost it’s quite easy to find out how much bandwidth your site uses.
Go to your Bluehost account home page and scroll down to advanced. Then under “Metrics”. click “Bandwidth”
You should then see a page that looks like this:
Even if you’re not on Bluehost, most web host providers provide similar information on their control panels – if you can’t find it just get in touch with your support team.
Is 2gb Bandwidth Sufficient For A Website?
Figuring out how much bandwidth is needed for your website is crucial. If you get too much in a lot of cases you’ll be overpaying whilst if you make it too low you could find your website taken offline.
The amount of bandwidth your website will need will depend on:
- The average size (KB) and number of your web pages
- The number of visitors you get
- The number of views each visitor has
So is 2gb bandwidth sufficient for a website? For a new website with not too many visitors 2gb of bandwidth should be sufficient. Just be sure to keep a close watch on how much bandwidth you are consuming each month, especially if you start to experience large traffic increases. If you do find the amount of bandwidth you have is insufficient you can simply adjust your hosting plan to cater to your needs.
If you’re site is brand new or it doesn’t have a lot of content or visitors then a basic package from a web host like Bluehost will be more than enough. Bluehost’s Basic package comes with unmetered bandwidth which with a new site should mean you have no concerns in this regard.
How Can I Calculate How Much Bandwidth My Site Needs?
Estimating how much bandwidth your website needs is pretty straightforward. Let’s show you how and then run an example.
To calculate bandwidth you need to do the following:
- Estimate the average page size for your website in Kilobytes (KB). If you don’t know this you can look it up on Pingdom and take the average page size of a few of your pages.
- Multiply the above (1) average page size by the average monthly number of visitors.
- Multiply the above (2) by the average number of page views per visitor.
Below is a table outlining how much bandwidth would be needed depending on the number of page views, assuming your average page size is 2MB:
| Average Page Size | Number of Pages | Number of Monthly Page Views | Bandwidth Needed |
| 2MB | 100 | 1000 | 2GB |
| 2MB | 500 | 3,000 | 6GB |
| 2MB | 1,000 | 10,000 | 20GB |
| 2MB | 5,000 | 15,000 | 30GB |
When calculating how much bandwidth you need from a web provider, remember to leave some room for traffic growth and spikes. A 50% contingency should give you enough head room in case you experience a sudden growth in traffic.
What If I Exceed My Bandwidth?
If you exceed your bandwidth allowance you’ll most likely be warned of it in the first instance. However, one of the following may occur thereafer:
- The host may suspend your website, though this will only likely come after some warnings
- You may be charged over-usage fees
- You may upgraded to the next plan up to deal with your additional bandwidth
It is worth checking the terms and conditions that your host offers if you’re worried about exceeding your bandwidth limit.
How Can I Reduce My Bandwidth?
If you want to try and reduce your bandwidth instead, you may be able to by reducing the amount of data on your website. Here are a few ways you may be able to do so:
- Compress images on your site
- Reduce the size of large videos/downloads (e.g. try embedding videos from YouTube rather than uploading the raw file)
- Consider using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to store your files separating for faster loading on your website
Conclusion: Is 2gb Bandwidth Sufficient For A Website?
So is 2gb bandwidth sufficient for a website? The answer as we have seen is that it depends on the size of your web pages (KB) as well as the number of views you get each month. How much bandwidth a website needs will vary from one to the next so make sure you know the specifics of your website before you go ahead and make a decision on what type of hosting plan to use.
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