Web hosting guide
How much storage do I need for a website?
Updated on ยท 7 questions answered
Most new websites need 1 to 5 GB of storage. A site with text pages and a few hundred compressed images stays inside that. Stores with many product photos, sites that host video files and accounts that keep email on the server need more.
What uses storage on a hosting plan?
Five things share the space of one plan:
- The website's own files: the software, themes and plugins.
- Images, documents and other uploads.
- The database, which holds posts, pages, orders and settings.
- Email, when mailboxes are kept on the same plan.
- Backups, when they are saved inside the account.
How much storage do different websites use?
A text-based site uses the least and a media site the most. The ranges below are working estimates for planning, not measurements of your site.
| Website | What fills it | Working estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Personal site or blog | Software, a theme, a few hundred images | 1 to 3 GB |
| Small business site | Pages, photos, a few documents, email | 2 to 5 GB |
| Online store | Several photos for each product, order data | 5 to 20 GB |
| Site that hosts video or audio files | Media files | Depends on the files; one video can be larger than the whole site |
How do I measure the storage my site uses now?
- Log in to the hosting control panel.
- Open the disk usage or file manager page.
- Read the total for the website folder, the databases and the mailboxes.
- Add them, then double the result to leave room for growth and backups.
WordPress itself is small. The WordPress requirements page lists what the software needs from a hosting plan.
What do SSD and NVMe storage mean?
SSD and NVMe are types of drive, and both are faster than a hard disk. An SSD has no moving parts. NVMe is a faster way of connecting an SSD to the server. The type changes how quickly files are read. It does not change how many gigabytes you get.
How much storage do the plans we tested have?
The 7 Hostinger plans in our list show these figures on the pricing page:
| Plan | Hosting type | Storage | Websites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger Unlimited | Web hosting | 50 GB NVMe | Unlimited websites |
| Hostinger Cloud Startup | Cloud hosting | 100 GB NVMe | Unlimited websites |
| Hostinger KVM 4 | VPS hosting | 200 GB NVMe | Not listed |
| Hostinger KVM 1 | VPS hosting | 50 GB NVMe | Not listed |
| Hostinger KVM 8 | VPS hosting | 400 GB NVMe | Not listed |
| Hostinger KVM 2 | VPS hosting | 100 GB NVMe | Not listed |
| Hostinger Agency Startup | Agency hosting | 300 GB NVMe | 100 websites |
The Hostinger coupon code page has the tested discount on each of these plans.
What happens when the storage is full?
Uploads fail, email stops arriving and updates cannot be installed. The site stays online in most cases, but it cannot save anything new. Free space by deleting old backups and unused files, or move to a plan with more storage.
Is unlimited storage really unlimited?
No. A plan sold as unlimited or unmetered still has a limit on the number of files, and the company's terms forbid using the account as file storage. Read the file limit in the plan details.