Many users encounter quotas in the web hosting sector when they rent web space or use e-mail hosting with fixed, defined mail storage.
Web space quota
It’s common to host multiple client projects on a shared server using web hosting models like shared hosting. The hardware resources of the physical server are divided among individual users. Limits such as web space quotas are used in order to state the amount of memory available (which was rented within the chosen hosting package) for each customer project. The web space, which each user is entitled to, cannot therefore be used by anyone else even when storage quotas are distributed. Quotas give web hosts the chance to offer web hosting products in different performance categories.
Mail quota
A quota used in the e-mail field limits the space available for storing e-mails and e-mail attachments and is known as a mail quota. Since many users have e-mail inboxes stored on a shared mail server, mail quotas are there to make sure users don’t exceed their allocated quota. While messages are automatically deleted by the mail server when retrieved via POP3 (Post Office Protocol), mails that are accessed via IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) are kept on the server until the user decides to delete them themselves. Considerably larger quotas are needed if IMAP is used instead of POP3.