Finding Hosts that don't Oversell

[dvduval]

After learning that hostgator was overselling (correct me if I'm wrong), I was very disappointed. It seems these days that hosts are overselling something that customers never end up using as a result of other limits.

I have turned back to a host I used in the past... hostdime.

Any other examples of hosts that are clearly not overselling?

[ldcdc]

You've posted the same thread on another forum, so I'll add my answer once again.

200GB Disk Space
2000 GB of Bandwidth
Host 10 Domains

$9.00 / Month

That's from Hostdime. They clearly oversell, and seemingly even more than Hostgator does.

If you want examples of hosts that don't oversell, or at least don't have to oversell in order to make a profit, then you should probably take a look at futurequest.net, unitedhosting.co.uk, cartikahosting.com and other such hosts.

Then again, customer support is oversold as well, it's not all about space and data transfer.

[dvduval]

Thanks for your reply. We are always looking for good hosts to recommend to phpLD users. So far, hostdime has done pretty well for us. I have someone that works for me that also works for hostdime, and he tells me they don't load up their servers, and I believe him, though I don't want to dispute your claim either.

[dvduval]

I wanted to add that I often send people over to wh reviews.

From your list of hosts, I highly recommend servint for vps.
I don't recommend Lunar Pages. A number of our users have not had satisfactory experiences.
I still recommend hostgator, but their obvious overselling scares me.

[bfarrell]

Overselling is what the hosting company makes of it. It is based upon a mix of customer usage. Managed correctly and done moderately, should never be an issue.

The scary ones though are out there. Huge packages for very cheap. Unlimited everything.

I need to find me an unlimited server. What brand is that? Wizard of Oz?

[HostAnd]

I think the majority of hosts oversell, they must in order to be able to survive in todays hosting market. The problem comes when they start to oversell by huge amounts that cannot be managed properly. If a host was to sell only what they had, you would end up paying $20 for a very small amount of resources. Be honest, if you went to a webhosts site and saw that they offered 100mb/10gb for $10 a month, and then you go to host B and they offer the same resources for $3 a month, and both hosts had great uptime and support, who are you going to choose?

[ldcdc]

Be honest, if you went to a webhosts site and saw that they offered 100mb/10gb for $10 a month, and then you go to host B and they offer the same resources for $3 a month, and both hosts had great uptime and support, who are you going to choose?

True, the first thing to look at would be the good, stable service. Should things look pretty much the same quality wise, price does become a factor, and in this particular case, it could be an important one.

[hostparlor]

Most hosts that oversell, will terminate the clients account for some kind of stupid reason if they start using up to many resources. You also have to look at it this way also. Alot of the hosts that offer 200 gigs of space for 10.00/month are able to get away with it because who actually uses 200 gigs of space? maybe youtube or a big site like that. The average customer only uses 1-3 gigs of space and maybe 10 - 20,000 megs of bandwidth.

[Gene Steinberg]

Overusing resources isn't silly or stupid. It's a real problem, when you consider that a server can handle only so much traffic before it overloads. That has nothing to do with overselling, but everything to do with the physical limitations of a server. Period.

Overselling is a silly red-herring that seldom has anything to do with the real world.

Unless, of course, the host abuses the system because of greed and packs servers past overload.

[TravisST]

Overselling can be bad, but not always. It drives prices down for the consumer, but the problem you can run into is if the web hosting company does a poor job of monitoring the servers. I think hostgator has pretty good support and monitoring, even if I am wanting to be a competitor to them. I've never heard of anyone having problems that are linked to overselling.

[FDCHost]

Some hosting companies oversell but have the equipment and backbone to actually handle the load if needed...Just most people won't use it...

So it depends on the company and what financial backings they have

[SimpleHelix]

Overselling can be great for Hosting companies but bad for consumers.
You would be amazed just how much hosting accounts are in one server.
Usually the case, a company like HostGator would have over 3,000 to 4,000 or more accounts in one server.

If you do search hard enough, there are very high quality hosting companies that do not oversell but offer at about the same price.

Try to find a hosting company who explicitly specializes hosting for high profile independent firms.

They are usually the best bet.

[ldcdc]

Usually the case, a company like HostGator would have over 3,000 to 4,000 or more accounts in one server.

Highly unlikely, with most hosts.

With regard to Hostgator, you'll have a hard time to find a server having that many websites, not to mention accounts. They only put a couple of hundred accounts per server. Unlike other hosts, I think they have long realized that more stable the server the less money it costs them in the long run.

[hostgator]

We put 200-300 accounts per server on our shared hosting. That number is usually at 300 in the beginning since we fill a box in a few days time all at once, and then within a few months of people not paying the number of accounts on the server drops closer to 200 which is what we keep it around.

The biggest problem with hosts that oversell has little to do with the plan itself.  It's trying to handle the amount of growth you receive as a result of the huge plans. When we did our last plan increase our sales shot up 50% overnight and it's still climbing. Hostgator was one of the last companies to do the latest round of overselling increases. The reason we held out as long as we did was to make sure we had enough support in place to handle the 50%  boost in sales. Had we done the boost when everyone else did we would have been overwhelmed. Everyone would have then blamed it on the plans when really it would have been the lack of manpower to handle the jump.

People need to stop thinking in terms of disk space and bandwidth when it comes to shared hosting. Hostgator's sweet spot is 200-300 accounts per server, and that's not going to change no matter how big the plans we offer are. If someone out of that 200-300 accounts is crashing the server and using more then everyone else combined as far as cpu and ram go then they aren't suitable for a shared plan.....

The more accounts per server a host does the more accounts they will need to kick in order to hit their sweet spot while maintaining a healthy server.

[1Host.com]

Honestly, the whole overselling thing is so overblown. I'd be much more concerned with a host that overloads his servers and doesn't balance the load and manage them properly. It's more of an issue I suppose if you're dealing with a host that has a single server. But any hosting company worth a dime will be able to effectively balance the load amongst their servers and keep them running smoothly. Focus your attention more on the company's servers, support response time, network etc.