A hosting plan's spec sheet looks like a list of numbers: gigabytes, cores, processes, addresses. Some are hard limits, others are maximums you only reach now and then, and “unlimited” almost always comes with a condition. Here's how to read each line, with examples from NBT Host plans.
In short
- Unlimited traffic means visits and transferred data aren't counted; the real limits are the account's resources and the usage rules.
- “Up to” RAM and vCPU are ceilings, not reserved resources.
- Concurrent PHP processes tell you how many dynamic requests can run at the same time on a website.
- Disk space is shared between the website, the databases and email.
- Emails sent per hour are capped, so the server doesn't end up on spam lists.
“Unlimited” traffic
No server has infinite bandwidth. Put accurately, “unlimited traffic” means the provider doesn't count your visitors or the gigabytes transferred, and doesn't charge you based on them. At NBT Host, traffic isn't metered; what limits an account is the disk space, the plan's resources and the usage rules in the terms.
In practice, a business website comes nowhere near any traffic limit. What can slow it down during a spike in visits is resources: memory, processor and PHP processes.
Memory and processor: “up to”
On shared hosting, memory (RAM) and processor cores (vCPU) are maximum limits for the account. When the website needs them, it can use them up to the ceiling; when it doesn't, they stay available to others. That's why it says “up to”: the Starter plan has up to 1 GB RAM and 1 vCPU, Store up to 3 GB and 2 vCPU, Multi-site up to 6 GB and 4 vCPU.
If you need resources reserved just for you, that's a VPS server — and even there, the cores are shared at the level of the host machine.
Concurrent PHP processes
Every dynamic page (WordPress, a shopping cart, a search) is generated by a PHP process. The number of concurrent processes tells you how many such requests can run at the same time. If more arrive at once, the rest wait in line for a few fractions of a second.
On the web hosting plans, each website has 5 concurrent PHP processes; on cloud hosting, 10, 15 or 20. A good cache greatly reduces the need for processes, because pages that are already generated no longer go through PHP.
Disk space, shared with email
The plan's space (10, 30 or 75 GB on the web plans) is shared by the website files, the databases, the mailboxes and any backups you make yourself in the account. Email is the part that grows without you noticing: a mailbox with a few years of attachments can take up more space than the website. To see what is using space, read the guide how much space you're using.
The number of websites, addresses and databases
Each plan includes a set number of websites: 1 on Starter, 3 on Store, 15 on Multi-site. A second domain with its own website takes up one website slot; subdomains (10 on Starter, unlimited from Store up) and aliases are counted separately — details in the guide on subdomains and additional domains. You get 10 email addresses on Starter and unlimited on the other plans, and 5 MySQL databases on Starter and unlimited on the rest.
How many emails you can send per hour
Every serious email server has a sending limit: if an address is hacked and starts sending spam, the limit stops the damage before the server ends up on blacklists. At NBT Host, each email address can send at most 200 messages per hour, and separately each website can also send 200 per hour from its code (forms, order emails).
For a company's correspondence, that's plenty. For newsletters to large lists, it isn't: for those you use a dedicated email marketing service, which also has the required unsubscribe and reporting tools.
What the table doesn't say, but matters
- Access: on shared hosting you don't have SSH; you work from the panel, over FTPS and from the WordPress manager.
- Availability: check whether the company commits to an availability level by contract (SLA). NBT Host doesn't have a contractual SLA; we've written about what uptime percentages mean in uptime and monitoring.
- Renewal price: at NBT Host it's the same, for the same period.
All the figures above are on the web hosting and cloud hosting pages.