Understanding Your Hosting Account Resource Limits Print

What Are Resource Limits?

Every hosting account has resource limits that ensure fair usage across all customers on the server. Understanding these limits helps you keep your website running smoothly and know when it might be time to upgrade your plan.

Disk Space

Disk space is the total amount of storage available for your files, emails, databases, and logs. To check your current usage:

1. Log into cPanel
2. Look at the Statistics panel on the right-hand side
3. Find Disk Usage to see how much space you're using

Tips to reduce disk space usage:

• Delete old email messages and empty your trash folders
• Remove unused files, backups, or old website versions from File Manager
• Optimise images before uploading them to your website
• Clean up old database tables and optimise databases via phpMyAdmin

Bandwidth (Monthly Data Transfer)

Bandwidth measures the total amount of data transferred between your hosting account and visitors. This includes web pages, images, downloads, and email traffic.

To check your bandwidth usage:

1. Log into cPanel
2. Go to Metrics > Bandwidth
3. View your current month's usage and historical data

Tips to reduce bandwidth usage:

• Enable browser caching and compression (gzip) for your website
• Optimise and compress images
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) such as Cloudflare
• Enable hotlink protection to prevent other sites from using your images

Email Storage

Each email account has its own storage quota. When an email account reaches its limit, it cannot receive new messages. You can manage email quotas in cPanel under Email > Email Accounts.

MySQL Databases

Your hosting plan includes a set number of MySQL databases and a total database size allocation. Large or unoptimised databases can slow down your website. Regularly optimise your databases through phpMyAdmin or your CMS's built-in tools.

CPU and Memory (RAM) Limits

Shared hosting accounts have CPU and memory limits to ensure one account doesn't affect others on the same server. If your website exceeds these limits, you may experience:

• Slow page loading times
• 503 Service Unavailable errors
• Incomplete page loads
• Cron jobs failing to complete

Common causes of high CPU/memory usage:

• Poorly optimised WordPress plugins
• Unoptimised database queries
• Large volumes of traffic without caching
• Cron jobs running too frequently
• Bots or crawlers accessing your site excessively

Checking Your Resource Usage

You can monitor your account's resource usage in cPanel:

1. Log into cPanel
2. Look at the Statistics sidebar for a quick overview
3. Go to Metrics > Resource Usage for detailed CPU and memory statistics

What to Do If You're Reaching Your Limits

If you're consistently approaching your resource limits, consider:

• Optimising your website — enable caching, optimise images, and clean up unused plugins
• Upgrading your hosting plan — you can upgrade from your client area under Services > My Services
• Contacting support — our team can help identify what's using the most resources and suggest solutions

If you need help understanding or managing your resource limits, please open a support ticket and we'll be happy to assist.