What do you mean by “unlimited”?

With HostM, legitimate web hosting clients don’t have to worry about service disruption caused by the potential overusage of hosting resources.

One common complaint concerning other hosting providers is that typically, there are multiple packages to choose from, each with its own set of limits.

Customers have no idea if they might reach those limits, which could in turn cause their websites and email to be disrupted. When this happens, they’re then often advised to pay for an upgraded package with higher limits!

Thankfully, HostM offers a single full-featured hosting package and does not apply the following limits, to ensure that our clients don’t have to worry about whether or not they might exceed these resources:

  • Unlimited Domain Hosting

    You may host as many domain names as you wish per hosting account. Domain name registrations can be purchased via the Client Lounge or any domain registration provider.

  • Unlimited SSL Hosting

    You may have as many SSL certificates installed as you wish per hosting account. We offer free SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt.

    You may also purchase SSL certificates from any reputable SSL provider if desired, but please be aware that doing so does not provide you with any additional security benefits, since the free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates offer the same level of security.

  • Unlimited Web Space

    You may use as much web space as you wish for legitimate websites hosted within your account, including accompanying embedded web-optimized media assets such as images and video.

    Account misuse, such as setting up a file downloads website that deliberately offers items that aren’t web-optimized, is disallowed.

    Media assets and other items that are not properly web-optimized, abnormally large in comparison to typical web-optimized files of the same types, or not directly utilized by websites hosted within your account are not allowed.

    For instance, web-optimized images are typically saved in JPEG (.jpg) format, and are usually between 1 KB and 300 KB in file size each.

    A JPEG file larger than 300 KB in size may not be properly web-optimized and will take longer to load on the page, which can cause visitors to abandon your site, and search engines to apply ranking penalties.

    HostM offers a web hosting service, not a cloud storage service, so the space provided cannot be used for non-web hosting purposes such as archiving, online storage and backups.

    For example, a WordPress plugin that performs site backups and that then retains said backups within your hosting account is disallowed on our servers. If, however, it is configured to then immediately transfer the backup to a remote location and delete the backup that’s within your hosting account, then that is acceptable.

    Note that our built-in web app installer comes with a backup function that you may utilize for on-demand per-site backups, which are automatically deleted after 7 days. Your entire hosting account is also backed up on a daily basis, with the latest copy retained on our servers.

    Another example of disallowed activity is the use of cloud apps such as ownCloud or Nextcloud on the server for the purpose of cloud storage of files, photos, videos, and other media.

    Temporary data including caches and logs should be cleared periodically, after first being copied to an appropriate external destination should archived copies be desired.

  • Unlimited Web Traffic

    Your hosted websites can have as many real visitors as our powerful systems can handle, to the point where you don’t have to worry about exceeding web traffic limits.

    Account misuse, such as hosting a website on a different service while hotlinking to assets placed on our servers, deliberately downloading the same files over and over again, or using fake visitors such as bots or “hired” visitors, is disallowed.

  • Unlimited Email Accounts

    You may create as many email accounts as you wish, each with their own passwords, per domain.

    This means organizations don’t have to worry about having to upgrade their hosting accounts just to accommodate an increase in the number of employees, etc.

    Account misuse, such as deliberately setting up a service that offers email accounts, or using email accounts as a way to store large amounts of data in order to avoid using web space for that purpose, is disallowed.

  • Unlimited Email Forwarders

    You may create as many email forwarders as you wish for domains hosted within your account.

    Account misuse, such as deliberately setting up a service that offers email redirection, is disallowed.

  • Unlimited MariaDB/MySQL Databases

    You may create as many MariaDB/MySQL databases as you wish. This is to ensure that you don’t have to worry about whether the number of web apps (such as WordPress) you can install is unnecessarily limited.

    Account misuse, such as using MariaDB/MySQL databases as a way to store large amounts of data in order to avoid using web space for that purpose, is disallowed.

  • Unlimited Sending of Legitimate Email

    Under normal circumstances, we do not limit the number of messages that each domain can send out, since there are many legitimate mailing lists with large numbers of subscribers, as well as domains whose email users are involved with a large amount of legitimate email correspondence.

    Since our account opening process is automated to allow for instant signups, new accounts initially have a relatively small email sending limit. This prevent spammers from signing up using fraudulent card transactions and sending out spam (unsolicited email).

    After a period of time, the new account sending limit is lifted for legitimate accounts. If you need this to be lifted earlier, simply send in a request via the Client Care ticket system.

    Since the sending of spam (unsolicited email) is illegal in many countries, email sending limits might be imposed on a domain or account if we receive spam complaints from email recipients or destination mail providers until the issue is resolved by the account holder.

  • Unlimited Number of Files and Folders (Inodes)

    Some hosting providers claim to offer unlimited web space, but then limit the number of files and folders (inodes)! Some even limit both web space and inodes. HostM does not place limits on either of those.

    Account misuse, such as deliberately generating a large number of files or folders for the sake of mischief, is disallowed.

As you can see, for a normal, sane person wanting problem-free web hosting, these resources are indeed essentially unlimited in practice.

The only people who need to worry about their resources or services being limited or revoked are those who misuse their accounts or who violate our terms of service or acceptable use policy. Also see disallowed content and activity.

If you have any questions about our unlimited features, feel free to contact us via the Client Lounge if you’re an existing client, or the visitor contact form.