When choosing a web host you may need to evaluate if that unlimited hosting plan you're thinking of buying will really fit your needs. If you are planing to host multiple websites you might run out of database storage. If any of your sites experience large spikes in traffic you could exceed your CPU allocation and your site could become temporarily unavailable at the worst time. And if you think you still have a lot storage space despite the realities of unlimited hosting, think again. Some hosts won't allow you to use the disk space as general file storage and will shut down your account if they feel you are violating their terms of service. On some hosts staying within storage terms but hosting a lot of files may negatively impact the overall performance of your account.
If you're just starting out with a new site then you'll probably be okay with unlimited hosting plans. But if you have a popular site, or one that is process intensive, an unlimited plan just might limit the growth of your business.
For an explanation of inodes and more information on unlmited web hosting read the chapter "Does Unlimited Really Mean Unlimited?" in our guide to choosing a web host, available as a free download in both PDF and ePub formats.
