// hosting explained
How visit-based hosting billing works (and how not to overpay)
Shared hosts sell "unlimited" plans with fair-use limits. Managed WordPress hosts sell visits. A visit isn't a page view, and how a host counts them changes your bill.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Most hosts count one unique visitor per day as one visit, whatever the number of pages viewed.
- Bot handling matters: Pressable excludes known bots; WP Engine stopped billing bots in September 2025.
- Overage rates differ a lot: Pressable $1.20 per 1,000 visits, Kinsta $0.50.
- Rule of thumb: if you exceed your plan 3 months in a row, an add-on or the next plan up is usually cheaper.
What counts as a visit
Pressable hashes each visitor's IP and browser signature with a daily salt, no cookies, so 10 page views from one person in a day are 1 visit. Your Google Analytics numbers will differ: analytics tools miss visitors who block scripts, and hosts miss nothing that reaches the server.
Overage rates compared
| Host | Per extra 1,000 visits | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pressable | $1.20 | Or $8 per 10,000 as a monthly add-on |
| Kinsta | $0.50 | Per third-party 2026 pricing summary |
| WP Engine | Varies | Bots excluded since Sept 2025 |
Five ways to avoid overage charges
- Block bad bots and AI crawlers at the edge (edge rules).
- Watch the 80% usage warning and your host's usage page.
- Buy an add-on if you go over every month; it's cheaper than overage.
- Compare overage vs the next plan with a calculator.
- Check human vs crawler traffic; on one of my Pressable sites, 82.2% was human.
SOURCES
Prices and limits change. We note the date we checked each one; confirm on the provider's site before you buy.
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