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Yogesh Sarkar · #1 10-30-2008, 11:01 AM

I am contemplating shifting one of my wordpress powered blog from my VPS to a shared hosting account and was wondering if a shared host would be able to support it. The blog last month got around 30k unique visitors (google analytic) and used up almost 18GB of bandwidth.
There are only a few plugins that I use and I have wp-super catch in place as well, do you guys think it would be a good idea to shift it to a shared host like hostagtor or should I keep it on my vps along with my other websites?

citricsquid · #2 10-30-2008, 11:11 AM

Uniques and bandwidth would be fine for hostgator to handle, however, cpu performance may not be. As far as I know, Wordpress can be quite cpu intensive with a lot of addons. Your best bet would be to contact hostgator directly, we can only speculate as to what it can handle.

chennaihomie · #3 10-30-2008, 11:15 AM

I think hostgator will easily handle a blog which uses only 18gb of bandwidth.

Yogesh Sarkar · #4 10-30-2008, 12:07 PM

Spoke to their sales department, they are not hot for it, according to them, the site could end up using more than 25 processes which is their limit. Which is kind of strange considering a friend of mine runs a blog with more traffic on dreamhost, though it isn’t as fast as mine. I guess I would be better off sticking with the VPS.

BrentOfHG · #5 10-30-2008, 12:13 PM

Hello,
How many page views does it get? It could get 1 unique but if it got millions of page views it would more then likely be a problem.

arkin · #6 10-30-2008, 12:23 PM

WP-Supercache turns those pages into partially static pages reducing server load. I don't think you will see any problems.
Only you can really find the answer to this question, give it a try

Report back.
<<Snip>>

Ryan Williams · #7 10-30-2008, 12:30 PM

The problem is you're looking straight at the cheapest shared hosts that are typically extremely stringent on server resources. If you look into higher end shared hosts you may well find that not only can they handle your blog with ease, but because they maintain their servers well and cram less clients onto each one they can support you better during traffic surges such as the Digg effect — a cheapo shared host will just cut you off.
One host I spoke with recently that seems very good is Simple Helix (http://www.simplehelix.com/). They make a big fuss about their Litespeed-powered hosting's speed, and I would definitely agree with this considering they can generate a vanilla WordPress installation's pages in an impressive 0.035 seconds (this is at least 200% faster than the vast majority of shared hosts). Their packages are geared towards high usage, and they have supposedly handled Digg effects.

Yogesh Sarkar · #8 10-30-2008, 12:51 PM

Hello,
How many page views does it get? It could get 1 unique but if it got millions of page views it would more then likely be a problem.
72k page views last month, according to Google Analytic, 112k according to AWStats (+28k if you include spiders).
WP-Supercache turns those pages into partially static pages reducing server load. I don't think you will see any problems.
Only you can really find the answer to this question, give it a try

Report back.
<<Snip>>
They are talking about processes, so I guess that would include, mail daemon, httpd, mysql, stats etc.
The problem is you're looking straight at the cheapest shared hosts that are typically extremely stringent on server resources. If you look into higher end shared hosts you may well find that not only can they handle your blog with ease, but because they maintain their servers well and cram less clients onto each one they can support you better during traffic surges such as the Digg effect â a cheapo shared host will just cut you off.
One host I spoke with recently that seems very good is Simple Helix (http://www.simplehelix.com/). They make a big fuss about their Litespeed-powered hosting's speed, and I would definitely agree with this considering they can generate a vanilla WordPress installation's pages in an impressive 0.035 seconds (this is at least 200% faster than the vast majority of shared hosts). Their packages are geared towards high usage, and they have supposedly handled Digg effects.
Basically I was checking whether I can run it for the price of 128MB RAM that I have just added to my VPS because it was kind of getting slow running this blog + vbulletin + vbseo forum + wordpress (another site) + 4-5 small sites using phpld, wordpress etc.
The host you mentioned sounds good; however their base price is enough to add another 384MB RAM and when combined with what I am paying right now, enough for a basic managed server.

Ryan Williams · #9 10-30-2008, 01:13 PM

It's worth bearing in mind that a VPS or dedicated server doesn't necessarily mean a faster service. I've seen shared hosting outperform VPS and dedicated servers on many occasions, both with regards to performance and ability to withstand traffic surges.
In fact, it's generally more likely that a VPS or smaller dedicated server will topple over when faced with an intense traffic burst because while they may only have a 1GHz CPU share and 1GB of RAM, a quality shared host will be running servers with many ~3GHz fast cores, SCSI storage, and 16GB of RAM. So as long as they don't overload their servers like cheap hosts such as Dreamhost do, they're more likely than not going to be able to absorb something like the Digg effect.
Plus, because such shared hosts have so much hardware behind their sites, sites can end up being generated extremely quickly as evidenced by hosts such as Simple Helix and Media Layer.
Just like VPS and dedicated servers get better and better as you add more price, the same can apply to shared hosting. In fact, shared hosting exists where only a dozen people are put on an entire beast of a server — at a cost, of course.
Food for thought.

Jedito · #10 10-30-2008, 01:18 PM

30K unique per month shouldn't be a problem even in big oversellers like hostgator unless you use an unique setting overloading the server

Yogesh Sarkar · #11 10-30-2008, 01:34 PM

It's worth bearing in mind that a VPS or dedicated server doesn't necessarily mean a faster service. I've seen shared hosting outperform VPS and dedicated servers on many occasions, both with regards to performance and ability to withstand traffic surges.
In fact, it's generally more likely that a VPS or smaller dedicated server will topple over when faced with an intense traffic burst because while they may only have a 1GHz CPU share and 1GB of RAM, a quality shared host will be running servers with many ~3GHz fast cores, SCSI storage, and 16GB of RAM. So as long as they don't overload their servers like cheap hosts such as Dreamhost do, they're more likely than not going to be able to absorb something like the Digg effect.
I agree, however every host has a limit in their TOS and they likely have that too and if one is hoping to use even one quarter of the CPU power from a server like that for more than a few minutes, their site would likely be suspended.
Plus, because such shared hosts have so much hardware behind their sites, sites can end up being generated extremely quickly as evidenced by hosts such as Simple Helix and Media Layer.
Just like VPS and dedicated servers get better and better as you add more price, the same can apply to shared hosting. In fact, shared hosting exists where only a dozen people are put on an entire beast of a server â at a cost, of course.
Food for thought.

Currently my VPS is hosted on a 2 x dual core optron processor (equal share) running RAID10 and I get more than double the RAM for burst (I donât count on it). According to their site, the basic plan (US$ 20) is good for sites with 1k-10k hits/day and their US$50 plan is for sites with 10k-100k hits/day and according to AWStats my blog is already getting 40+k hits a day. While the VPS takes care of a much larger site + this one + 4-5 more and still has plenty of horsepower left even during peak time. I pay around US$55 for my VPS, so while their hosting might be faster (donât know how it would take modrewrite) it is costlier and simply doesnât make economical sense for me.

#12 10-30-2008, 05:30 PM

I do not think 30k unique blog would be a problem with hostgator. The true question is... if you are happy with your VPS do you think its really worth while to downgrade to a shared web hosting account? That to me, would be the biggest question.
If your happy with your VPS and do not mind paying the price... stay. If you want to pay less... there are downsides to choosing shared hosting accounts.