Choosing a bandwidth tier: metered vs. unmetered
Quick answer
Metered bandwidth gives you a monthly traffic allowance and is right for predictable, low-to-medium traffic workloads. Unmetered bandwidth removes the data cap and instead limits you to a fixed port speed, which suits high-traffic or unpredictable workloads like media delivery, backups, or CDN origin traffic. Bandwidth on Worldstream dedicated servers is offered in tiers, from a fixed monthly traffic allowance up to unmetered.
What "metered" actually means
A metered bandwidth tier gives you a fixed amount of data transfer included per month, an allowance. Traffic in and out of the server counts against that allowance, and going over it typically means either an additional cost or the connection being throttled, depending on how the tier is structured. Metered tiers suit workloads where total monthly traffic is predictable and comfortably below the allowance: internal tools, low-to-medium traffic websites, applications where the bulk of the work is computation or storage rather than moving large volumes of data in and out.
What "unmetered" actually means
Unmetered bandwidth removes the monthly data cap entirely. Instead, what limits your traffic is the port speed, the fixed maximum throughput of the network connection itself. You can transfer as much data as that port speed allows over the course of a month without hitting a separate cap or triggering overage charges. That makes unmetered the right fit for workloads that are either genuinely high-traffic or unpredictable in volume: you're not trying to forecast a monthly total and stay under it, you're working within a constant, known ceiling on throughput at any given moment instead.
Estimating your own usage
Before picking a tier, work out roughly what you actually need, and don't just look at a steady-state average. A reasonable starting estimate is your average daily data transfer multiplied by 30, but that alone underestimates real-world need, because traffic isn't flat. Add headroom for spikes: a marketing campaign, a viral post, a batch job, or a backup window can multiply your normal daily transfer for a period, and a tier sized only to your average will be exhausted or throttled exactly when it matters most. Look at your peak days over a representative period, not just the average, when sizing the allowance you actually need.
Workloads that benefit from unmetered vs. ones that don't
| Workload | Typical fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Backup targets receiving large, regular transfers | Unmetered | Transfer volume is large and driven by backup schedules, not by a steady, predictable daily average |
| Media streaming or file delivery origins | Unmetered | Outbound traffic scales directly with audience size, which is inherently variable |
| High-traffic public APIs | Unmetered | Request and response volume can spike sharply and unpredictably with demand |
| Internal tools and back-office systems | Metered | Traffic volume is small, predictable, and rarely close to a typical allowance |
| Low-traffic websites and brochure sites | Metered | Visitor volume and page weight keep monthly transfer well within a standard allowance |
| Development and staging environments | Metered | Traffic is generated by a small internal team, not the public, so volume stays low |
If you're genuinely unsure which side of that line a workload falls on, metered with headroom is the lower-risk starting point for anything internal or low-traffic, and unmetered is the safer starting point for anything customer-facing where traffic could grow quickly or spike without warning.
Where to find the figures: Traffic allowances and port speeds vary per server listing. Check the live server configurator on worldstream.com for the current figures on any specific listing before you order.