Every hosting account has a certain allotment of disk space. The disk space is used to hold all the files which make up the web site – HTML files, graphics, scripts, and multi-media content. Usually the more expensive the hosting packages the more disk space and the more bandwidth you receive.

The Internet is home to millions of websites that vary in size. With the introduction of advanced designing tools, the size and number of pages have grown exponentially over the last decade. This requires servers to have greater disk space to work efficiently.

Most small sites take only a space of about 10 to 20 MB, and hence are easily manageable for the host. Depending on the quality and content of each page, such a space can stack up to 500 pages. Earlier, a single hosting account was meant to hold a single website. However, improvements in technology and new marketing strategies have introduced an array of options that vary from a limited to unlimited number of websites that can be operated. Small business can look forward to packages that offer 15 to 50 GB of web space. Medium size businesses can avail of offers ranging from 100 to 3000 GB. Still larger firms can make use of plans that offer even unlimited amount of disk space.

Going for plans that offer large web space, brings along with it, features such as front page server extensions, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), CGI (Common Gateway Interface), ASP (Active Server Pages), MySQL databases and so on. It enables upload and download of photographs and video clips.

A basic web site with just a few pages requires less than 1 MB of disk space. As one adds more content and things like downloadable files, pictures, music, and video are included, one requires more disk space. Email also takes up disk space. If one has an account with a small disk allotment, one may find that unsolicited SPAM may be eating away at the disk allotment. It’s always a good idea to go through the inbox from time to time to delete unnecessary emails.

What will happen if one uses too much disk space? Each web host has their own policy about this but it’s safe to say that one will be charged for the extra space. Often this penalty is much higher than regular rates for disk space so it’s important to keep an eye on how much space one is using and if one is approaching the limit, more space should be purchased or some files should be deleted.

How can one tell how much space one is using? Most hosting packages have a control panel for making adjustments to almost every aspect of one’s account. These control panels usually tells how much disk space is being used and may also rate it against one’s allotment so one can see at a glance if one is approaching the limit. If the hosting account does not have this feature one can judge the amount of space by downloading one’s entire site to a folder on one’s personal computer in order to check how much space it takes.

As a rough guide, an average web page (3 graphics and 2 screen lengths of text) takes about 20 KB (to be generous). At this rate, a hosting package with 10 MB can have about 500 pages. Since most small sites are less than 50 pages 10 MB should be plenty to get started.

If one places music or video files on the website one needs disk space (and bandwidth) to take off. A typical 3 minute MP3 file takes about 2.5 to 3 MB of disk space. A short video (very poor quality) can take 1 MB. A good rule of thumb for those wishing to host multimedia is to estimate the total size of the files and get an account with double that space. This will allow for future expansion. It should always be checked with the web host, though, before any sound or video files are placed on the website.