What are resource limits?

This guide explains the resource limits on your hosting account, how to check your usage, and what to do if your site hits them.

Why there are limits

Our servers run CloudLinux, which gives each account its own fair share of the server. This stops one busy or broken site slowing down everyone else. It also means other accounts can’t slow yours down.

The main limits

• CPU: how much processing power your site can use. Each account can use up to 2 CPU cores.
• Memory: how much RAM your site’s scripts can use at once. Each account can use up to 4 GB.
• Entry processes: how many requests your site is working on at the same moment. This isn’t the number of visitors. A fast page finishes in a fraction of a second and frees its slot, so many visitors can share a small number of processes.
• I/O: how quickly your account can read from and write to the disk.

Check your usage

1. Log in to cPanel. See how to log in to cPanel.
2. In the Metrics section, click Resource Usage. The name may vary slightly.
3. Look at the graphs for the last day or week. A line that reaches the limit, or a note saying a limit was hit, shows when it happened.

What happens when you hit a limit

Your site slows down while it waits for its share. If it can’t get what it needs, visitors may see a 508 Resource Limit Is Reached error. Usually this passes on its own once the busy moment is over. See what website error codes mean.

Common causes

• Bots and crawlers. Search engines, scrapers or attackers requesting lots of pages at once.
• Heavy plugins. On WordPress, some plugins do a lot of work on every page load, such as statistics, related posts or backup plugins.
• Cron jobs. Scheduled tasks that run too often or take too long.
• No caching. Every visit builds the page from scratch.
• Slow database queries. A large or untidy database takes longer to answer.

What to do

1. Check Resource Usage to see which limit was hit and when.
2. Look at what was happening at that time. A sudden spike often points to bots or a cron job.
3. Add caching and remove plugins you don’t need. See how to make WordPress faster.
4. Check your cron jobs aren’t running more often than needed. See how to set up a cron job.
5. If your site has simply grown, a larger plan may suit it better.

If it doesn’t work

• You still see 508 errors after tidying up. Open a ticket with the times it happened and we’ll look at the logs with you.
• Usage is high but traffic is low. This often points to bots or a problem in the site’s code. A malware scan is worth running too. See how to scan your site for malware.

Still stuck? Open a support ticket and we’ll help.