Wondering how much bandwidth I need for my websites

When I choose host, not sure which one best suits my site.

[jtmoney77]

Hi,
I currently maintain about 15 websites and I'm constantly designing new ones. I know some of my sites have low traffic (less than 50 visitors daily) and some are fairly high (not one of mine has over 35,000 unique visitors per month).

When I choose a host package, Im not sure which one to pick when it comes to what bandwidth to choose. If my site has 200 visitors daily, how much bandwidth do I need? Please let me know by GigaBytes. I dont want to get a package with 10GB transfer if I have little traffic.

Example question:
6,000 monthly visitors = approx.? GB
30,000 monthly visitors = approx.? GB

Thanks

[mcguffin]

How many pages does the average visitor view?

How much data do you need to send to deliver an average page (include images)? A website of all text will take much less bandwidth than a highly graphical site.

If you know your monthly visitors, average pageviews, and average page size, you should be able to make a good initial estimate of your average useage. Then, give yourself some headroom to allow for growth and months with over-average traffic.

[ergophobe]

Doesn't your current server/host report how much bandwidth your are currently using?

Most tracking software does this somewhere.

Most hosts provide this from the control panel.

Seems like you ought to be able to look up current usage and go from there.

Tom

[jtmoney77]

I didn't realize you have to take so much into consideration. I believe my average page views is usually around 2.0 pages per visitor. I try to not to add too many pictures to each page....some sites do contain flash though.

Say I have 200 unique visitors daily, 2.0 pages visited per visitor, and 25 pages with an average of 500 words text and 4 average size jpg. images. How many GB transfer would suit me?

Thanks,
Jeremy

[danieljean]

Jeremy- most people don't need very much bandwidth.

You should be able to answer that question yourself with a bit of math. 1 Gigabyte ~= 1000 Megabytes. 1MB ~= 1000 Kilobytes.

So, if your average page is 100kb (and it should be less than that), and visitors view ~ 2 pages, that's 200kb/visitor.

100kb *200 visitors = 40,000kb or 40Megs

40Mb *30 days = 1,200Mb or 1.2 Gigs

So 2 gigs should be quite sufficient. In any case, some hosts really gouge you on bandwidth, which is silly. Several dedicated servers offer you what effectively amounts to unlimited bandwidth for about $100/month (it would have to be constantly serving pages to get up to 500-700 gigs!).

Others will sell you extra bandwidth for $1-3, and you should be able to make enough money off that traffic to pay for the extra expense :)

[Llama]

1024 kb = 1024 mb = 1024 gb.

I'd shoot for something atleast a gigabyte more than what you're getting now. And even several more. At my current host, dr2, I use up only about 50 mb of bandwidth if I'm a) testing various programs, and therefore take up quite a bit on my own and b) get about 1500 people that month. I have 5 gb of bandwidth available to me for usage each month, and flexable bandwidth options. If I come up with an idea for a good site, and it brings an amount of traffic I didn't anticipate, I'm still ready for it and don't have to pay much for overages (though I can expand for 2 gb for each of those months spending only $10.00)