Difference between Bandwidth and Data Transfer

When you’re about to start up a website, two of the web hosting features that you’re bound to consider the most are bandwidth and data transfer. These two features are extremely similar. So much so in fact, that sometimes even web hosts talk about them interchangeably as though they are one and the same. But in fact, there are small differences between the two that make them different from each other.

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred at one time. Or rather, how much information you have on your website that needs to be downloaded to the user’s computer. Data transfer on the other hand, is how much information is allowed to be downloaded.

Still sound like they’re the same thing?

Think about bandwidth and data transfer as a bridge. The bandwidth would be the number of cars and vehicles that can cross the bridge at one time; whereas data transfer would be the amount of people and vehicles that are allowed to cross at any given time, such as in one month.

How does this affect your website?

If your website doesn’t have enough bandwidth, it would be like a lot of cars trying to cross a very narrow bridge at the same time. Some people would simply have to sit and wait until others have crossed. The same thing is true with your website. If you don’t have enough bandwidth, multiple users may not be able to use it at the same time. This would only be a problem if a huge amount of people were trying to access your site at the same time; but a lot of people do just that with a lot of different websites. Without adequate bandwidth, some of those users are simply going to have to wait, or come back to the site later.

And do you think they will? Or will today’s impatient user simply move on to another site that will allow them access at the time they want it? Most likely, the user will simply move on; and this is why you need to make sure your website has enough bandwidth.

Not having enough data transfer on the other hand, is like having a very strict crossing guard at the entry of your bridge; and that guard will only let 50 cars across the bridge in one month’s time. In this instance, your web host is the guard at the bridge and they dictate how many people can visit your site in that amount of time. Of course, you can choose to allow more people on; you’ll just have to pay a little more in order to make sure that they can.

So why do even web hosts talk about bandwidth and data transfer as though they’re the same thing? It’s not because of a lack of knowledge, but rather the fact that typically an unlimited amount of bandwidth is given out with most packages. Web hosts will refer to “transfer” to indicate both the amount of data that’s being downloaded, and how often that information is being downloaded. If you want your site up and running all the time, and allow as many people in that will come, you’ll most likely need to upgrade your data transfer.