Understanding disk space and bandwidth and how much you need for your WordPress website is essential when choosing a hosting package or predicting how much you might need in the future.
In this post, I will discuss how much disk space WordPress websites need, how much space they typically use, what you need to know about web hosting packages and the storage space they offer, and how much bandwidth depending on traffic will you need. Also, I will mention some tips to run your site efficiently to save space, bandwidth and keep costs down.
Disk space refers to the amount of storage space a web host allocates to a website and all associated files on a server. It’s the same as disk space on your computer’s hard drive.
Web hosts list how much disk space they offer along with details of their plans and pricing. You might see it referred to as “disk,” “local storage,” and even “web space.”
But don’t confuse disk space with monthly visits (i.e., traffic) or bandwidth (the amount of data that can be transferred).
Many hosting companies promise unlimited disk space and bandwidth. But really, do you need that much storage space? How much disk space you think you need might be very different from how much space you need.
How much storage space your website needs depends on various aspects. It depends on WordPress core, plugins, and themes, database and media files, site backups and email hosting. If email is included in your hosting package, this will be included in your disk space.
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How Much Disk Space WordPress Website Needs?
Different types of websites have different storage needs. A simple blog will have different needs compared to a WooCommerce site selling various products. Blogs and personal sites typically consist of posts, photos and sometimes video files and generally don’t require much space.
Portfolio, agency, app, and business websites with dynamic content, including images, videos, audio, and scripts, might need more space.
WooCommerce sites with many product pages and with high-quality product images can quickly fill up disk space. Music, video, and gaming websites that are media-heavy will have huge disk space requirements.
What is The Average Disk Space WordPress Site Usage?
Kinsta has published data on average disk space usage, taken from WordPress sites that have been hosted on their servers for over four years.
- WordPress core: 8.9 MB (4.9.5+)
- Average plugins directory: 100 MB
- Average theme directory: 25 MB
- Average uploads directory: 825 MB
- Average MySQL database: 85 MB
On average, Kinsta has found that the typical client uses approximately 1GB of data for a single WordPress installation. For example, my six sites hosted on InMotion hosting server take about 4 GB of space usage and they have many posts, images, and other media files.
How Much Disk Space Your WordPress Site Needs?
If you’re interested to know how much disk space your existing website is using, there are a few different ways to find out. The easiest way is to install My Simple Space plugin which is free and adds a simple widget to the WordPress dashboard that displays details about your site
Those details include the entire size of your site, the size of your database, and a breakdown of each of the primary folders in your WordPress installation.
Alternatively, if you’re using cPanel (see cPanel pros & cons), you can see a quick overview of your total disk usage in the sidebar, as well as your database disk usage.
When you click on “Disk Usage,” it will take you to a page offering a breakdown of your storage usage, including how much space each of the folders in your WordPress installation is consuming.
How Much Bandwidth WordPress Website Needs?
Bandwidth is a term to quantify the rate of traffic and data allowed to flow between users and your site usually measured in seconds.
The more bandwidth a data connection has, the more data it can send and receive at one time. Bandwidth can be compared to the amount of water that can flow through a water pipe.
The bigger the pipe, the more water can flow through it at one time. Bandwidth works on the same principle. So, the higher the capacity of the communication link, or pipe, the more data can flow through it per second.
How Much Bandwidth Does Your Website Need?
Bandwidth is all about the number of visitors (traffic) you have to your site. You may be wondering if 100 or 200 GB of bandwidth is enough for your website.
But in reality, 90% of websites currently use no more than 5 GB of bandwidth a month. Only sites with millions of views and a significant number of visitors per month will require a more substantial rate of monthly bandwidth.
Those are usually image-driven or video streaming websites. So don’t fall for those Unlimited bandwidth offers. All hosting providers have to pay for their bandwidth, so to provide an unlimited service is just crazy talk.
By unlimited, they mean that for the average user it is unlimited since they will never reach the limit. And don’t be wowed over by providers offering large rates of bandwidth, more doesn’t necessarily mean better.
How to Calculate the Bandwidth You Need?
Here’s how to calculate your required bandwidth:
- Estimate the average page size of your site in kilobytes (KB).*
- Multiply that average page size (in KB) by the monthly average number of visitors.
- Multiply the result from step 2 by the average number of page views per visitor.
* If you don’t know, use Pingdom’s Load Time test on a few pages and take the average of those tested pages for your base testing number.
Do remember that these calculations should be inclusive of every site that is hosted on the server. For example, if five domains are run on the same account, add them to calculation too.
If you don’t have website/s but plan on having and don’t know which hosting package to pick based on bandwidth needs, then you are good at picking 3-5 GB of bandwidth.
You can always upgrade when things start to grow. For example, I use no more than 10 GB on bandwidth for my six WordPress websites on one InMotion hosting server.
Web Hosting Comparison
- NAME
- SSD INCLUDEDSolid state drives provides increased performance and reliability over mechanical hard drives.
- FREE DOMAIN
- DISK SPACE
- BANDWIDTH
- EMAIL SPAM FILTERING
- SUPPORT
- FREE WEBSITE TRANSFERDoes hosting company provide free site migration from another hosting provider
- FREE BACKUPS
- MONEY BACK GURANTEE
- ADVERTISING CREDITS
- FREE WEBSITE BUILDER
- WEBSITES SUPPORTEDHow many websites can you have
- PHP 7 SUPPORTED
- SSH ACCESS
- PARKED DOMAINS
- SUB DOMAINS
- FTP ACCOUNTS
- MALWARE PROTECTION
- FREE SSL
- LETS ENCRYPT INTEGRATION
- CLOUDFLARE INTEGRATION
- CPANEL
- HTTP/2 ENABLED SERVERS
- PRICE
- INMOTION SHARED WORDPRESS HOSTING LAUNCH PLANLaunch plan
- If you already have a domain, you will geta credit that can be used to transfer your existing domain from another registrar.
- UNLIMITEDCertain restrictions apply
- UNLIMITEDCertain restrictions apply
- PHONE,TICKET,LIVE CHAT
- Applies to accounts consisting of 3 or fewer databases and/or websites. Accounts wishing to transfer more than 3 items will be charged $10 per additional item to be transferred.
- 90 DAYS
- $100 of Google Adwords credits, $75 of Bing advertising credits and $75 of Yahoo advertising credits and a free Yellow Pages business listing
- 2
- 6
- 25
- You will need to install it manually
- $4.89/MONTH
- BLUEHOST SHARED HOSTING BASIC PLANBasic plan
- 50
- UNLIMITED
- PHONE,TICKET,LIVE CHAT
- They charge $149.99
- 30 DAYS
- 1
- 5
- 25
- You will need to install it manually from 3rd party
- You will need to install it manually
- $3.95/MONTH
- SITEGROUND WORDPRESS SHARED HOSTING STARTUP PLANStartup plan
- 10
- UNLIMITED
- PHONE,TICKET,LIVE CHAT
- For 1 website
- 1 copy
- 30 DAYS
- 1
- UNLIMITED
- UNLIMITED
- $4.65/MONTH
- NAMECHEAP SHARED HOSTING VALUE PLANValue plan
- Free .website domain and free WhoisGuard
- 20
- UNLIMITED
- TICKET,LIVE CHAT
- Twice a week
- 14 DAYS
- 3
- UNLIMITED
- 50
- 50 users
- You can manually add Lets Encrypt free certificate
- You need to manually add
- Not out of the box
- $0.82/MONTH
- NAME
- SSD INCLUDEDSolid state drives provides increased performance and reliability over mechanical hard drives.
- FREE DOMAIN
- DISK SPACE
- BANDWIDTH
- EMAIL SPAM FILTERING
- SUPPORT
- FREE WEBSITE TRANSFERDoes hosting company provide free site migration from another hosting provider
- FREE BACKUPS
- MONEY BACK GURANTEE
- ADVERTISING CREDITS
- FREE WEBSITE BUILDER
- WEBSITES SUPPORTEDHow many websites can you have
- PHP 7 SUPPORTED
- SSH ACCESS
- PARKED DOMAINS
- SUB DOMAINS
- FTP ACCOUNTS
- MALWARE PROTECTION
- FREE SSL
- LETS ENCRYPT INTEGRATION
- CLOUDFLARE INTEGRATION
- CPANEL
- HTTP/2 ENABLED SERVERS
- PRICE
- GREENGEEKS MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING
- If you already have a domain, you will geta credit that can be used to transfer your existing domain from another registrar.
- UNLIMITEDCertain restrictions apply
- UNLIMITEDCertain restrictions apply
- PHONE,TICKET,LIVE CHAT
- That includes 1 free site or cPanel transfer, so if you have a few sites in a single cPanel account they could move them all over for free
- 30 DAYS
- Free SEO and Marketing tools and $20 BidVertiser ad credit as well as coupon for Google AdWords for $75 in credit when you spend $25
- UNLIMITED
- UNLIMITED
- UNLIMITED
- You can manually add Lets Encrypt free certificate
- You can manually add Lets Encrypt free certificate
- $3.95/MONTH
- IPAGE SHARED WORDPRESS HOSTING WP STARTER PLANWP Starter
- UNLIMITED
- UNLIMITED
- PHONE,TICKET,LIVE CHAT
- 30 DAYS
- Google AdWords offer ($100 value) when you spend $25, Bing search credit ($100 value, Yellowpages.com listing, One toll-free phone number (US only)
- UNLIMITED
- UNLIMITED
- UNLIMITED
- THEY USE VDECK PANEL
- $3.75/MONTH
- A2HOSTING SHARED LITE PLANLite plan
- UNLIMITED
- UNLIMITED
- PHONE,TICKET,LIVE CHAT
- 30 DAYS
- Free Bing/Yahoo Ad Credits, iContact Email Marketing Trial
- 1
- 25
- 5
- $4/MONTH
- NAMECHEAP SHARED HOSTING VALUE PLANValue plan
- Free .website domain and free WhoisGuard
- 20
- UNLIMITED
- TICKET,LIVE CHAT
- Twice a week
- 14 DAYS
- 3
- UNLIMITED
- 50
- 50 users
- You can manually add Lets Encrypt free certificate
- You need to manually add
- Not out of the box
- $0.82/MONTH
- NAME
- SSD INCLUDEDSolid state drives provides increased performance and reliability over mechanical hard drives.
- FREE DOMAIN
- DISK SPACE
- BANDWIDTH
- EMAIL SPAM FILTERING
- SUPPORT
- FREE WEBSITE TRANSFERDoes hosting company provide free site migration from another hosting provider
- FREE BACKUPS
- MONEY BACK GURANTEE
- ADVERTISING CREDITS
- FREE WEBSITE BUILDER
- WEBSITES SUPPORTEDHow many websites can you have
- PHP 7 SUPPORTED
- SSH ACCESS
- PARKED DOMAINS
- SUB DOMAINS
- FTP ACCOUNTS
- MALWARE PROTECTION
- FREE SSL
- LETS ENCRYPT INTEGRATION
- CLOUDFLARE INTEGRATION
- CPANEL
- HTTP/2 ENABLED SERVERS
- PRICE
- NAMECHEAP MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING EASYWP PLANEasyWP plan
- 5
- UNLIMITED
- TICKET,LIVE CHAT
- 14 DAYS
- 1
- $0.74/MONTH
Choosing right WordPress hosting is not easy, especiall if you are beginner. Many will want to go with free route and get free WordPress hosting. But there are many affordable WordPress hosting providers so I suggest you take a look at InMotion hosting, GreenGeeks (see GreenGeeks pros & cons), Cloudways (see Cloudways review), Siteground or 10Web (check 10Web review).
Taking Into Account Future Grow of Your Website
If you are in the process of launching a new website, chances are you won’t need a vast amount of space or bandwidth. But as your online presence grows, and your website with it, you will want to upgrade or purchase a better hosting plan in the future.
If you’re anticipating your website will remain small, it makes sense to stick with your current hosting and disk space allocation.
But if you are planning to expand your site in the not-too-distant future and you’re on shared hosting, you might want to look into other more reliable hosting options that provide greater disk space, such as VPS, managed, or cloud hosting.
Whatever your plans are, don’t put off thinking about scaling until it sneaks up on you. It’s best to plan for the future and know your options.
How to Save Disk Space and Bandwidth?
Take the time to review your images and remove any that you don’t need. Also, compress them with an image optimization tool or plugin. This will shrink the size of your images, remove unnecessary file information, and help your images load faster.
Having too many plugins installed can slow down website. Delete plugins and themes you are no longer using. This is recommended as best practice for WordPress maintenance and security.
Delete old backups. You might not realize it, but you could have old backups on your server. Log in to your site via FTP or cPanel or whatever method you prefer and check through all your folders.
Make sure any future backups are stored off-site using AWS, Dropbox, or Google Drive to save space, and for added security.
Optimize your database. With WP Rocket, you can quickly clean up your database and delete post revisions, spam and trashed comments, expired transients, as well as schedule automatic clean up. For more information and WP Rocket features, check my WP Rocket review.
Whether you’re trying to decide on a new hosting package or planning for your site’s future storage needs, it’s important to understand how much space your site needs versus how much you think it needs.
Knowing how much you’re currently using, or estimating how much you expect to use if you’re launching a new site, will ensure you purchase hosting that’s appropriate for your needs.
Once your site is set up, don’t forget to keep an eye on your page weight to ensure pages load fast. And you’ll also want to clean up your database regularly, so it’s always clean as a whistle.
DISCLOSURE: Posts may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of those links, I might get a small commission, without any extra cost to you. Read more about it here.