How Much Disk Space Does Your Website Need?

Starting a website is a great way to gain exposure and more business, whether launching an online portfolio to highlight your work or setting up an e-commerce site with products and services. You’ll determine the amount of disk space (storage space for content) your website needs. You pay your host for the disk space — like hard drive storage for your phone or computer — that stores all the content on your website.

Cloud storage scales easier than it does on your personal device. You won’t have to swap out a hard drive to get more space — it’s still important to ensure that you have enough disk space available to host your site.

Key takeaways:

• Learn how much storage is enough for your WordPress website
• Find out how to calculate how much disk space you need
• Learn why you should consider disk space when choosing your web hosting provider

How Much Storage Is Enough for My WordPress Website?

When setting up a website, you’ll have to decide exactly what kind of site you are planning to operate and have a good idea of the type of content you are planning to host. This information is not just key to building a successful strategy for your business, but it’s also essential for understanding how much storage will be enough for your website.

Here is what you will need disk space for:

• Code: As you build your website, either on your own or with a website builder, you will start to amass the framework of your site in code. HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), and Javascript all take up space, and your disk space will host it.
• Content: Arguably, the most important part of your site, and the part that is likely to require the most disk space, is the actual content. Your content includes pages that have text, photos, videos, and other media.
• Content Management System (CMS): When setting up your website, you will need a CMS like WordPress. This will require disk space, the same as how the operating system on your phone or computer needs its own dedicated space.
• Scripts and plug-ins: To ensure your site is capable of everything that you need, you’ll run scripts, plug-ins, and other tools that can help track analytics, optimize performance, or display advertisements.

With your knowledge of your working budget, you can determine how much disk space you will need now and in the future, along with your goals for growth.

How Do I Calculate How Much Disk Space I Need?

Calculating the amount of disk space your website needs can be a little tricky, especially if your site hasn’t been built yet. But even if you aren’t entirely sure how big your site will be, you can come up with a rough estimate based on available information.

For example, the average size of a webpage is 2MB. This is a good baseline number to use, though it’s best to ramp that figure up if you plan to have a media-heavy site, which can have pages that host content well over 100MB.

How many pages will my website have?

If your site has already been built, it is best to know how many web pages you have. You can get an idea of the size of each page by using online tools like GTMetrix or Pingdom. Figure out the average size of your website pages, and you can determine exactly how much disk space you need.

• A portfolio site requires only a few web pages (under 10)
• A business website may contain 50 pages or more
• E-commerce sites can have hundreds of pages and regularly expand with more content and new products

If your site has not yet been built, use the averages above to estimate how much disk space you may need. Remember that the average web page size is 2MB, and consider the types of pages you want on your site upon launch. Pages like your homepage or landing page, contact page, about page, and several pages of content will likely be necessary at launch.

Formula to calculate your disk space

Whether you have exact figures or you are using the average site as your baseline, here’s a quick formula for determining how much disk space your website needs:

Average size of webpage * number of webpages

This equation tells you how much total MB or GB of storage it will take to store your website. Ensure you have at least that much disk space from your web host.

Keep in mind that you will grow your site at some point, adding pages with new content, expanding your product offerings, and upgrading parts of your site to improve performance. All of this will require more disk space, so you may opt for a plan that offers more storage than you need now. Planning for expansion ensures there is enough room for growth.

Is Unlimited Storage Real?

Some web hosts offer unlimited storage, appearing to make your website future-proof, with endless expansion. But limited bandwidth makes it difficult to maximize the space available. You can have all the storage you’d like, but it only goes so far if your website is capped by the amount of data it transfers and limited in the speed at which it transfers that data.

Web hosts know the average website doesn’t need that much disk space, so unlimited storage is unnecessary. Some website providers also have an upper echelon at which they cap your disk space. Keep an eye out for any potential limitations in the fine print.

Why Should I Consider Disk Space When Choosing a Web Hosting Provider?

An important consideration when building and launching a website, the disk space made available by your web hosting provider dictates the size of your website. Too little disk space will cap the type of site you can build; perhaps you’ll have to exclude content or plug-ins you planned to use. But with more disk space, you get the space to expand and grow your site, but it also eats into funds that could be applied elsewhere.

Disk space is scalable, so you don’t need to worry too much about purchasing the wrong package from your web host. In most cases, you can upgrade your monthly plan to expand your available disk space or downgrade your plan if you don’t need as much space as you initially planned. Disk space dictates the kind of site you can build and the content you can offer, so make sure you have enough room for all your ideas.