A small blog, a personal site or a simple business website usually runs well on the RAM and CPU of a basic hosting plan. You'll want more if you expect more traffic, run a large online shop or an application, or host several websites on one plan. RAM is the server's working memory, and the CPU is the processor that does the work.
How does RAM work?
RAM, short for Random Access Memory, is the memory a computer or server uses to keep data and program instructions ready for quick access. Think of it as short-term memory, while storage is the long-term memory where your website's files are kept. RAM only keeps data while the power is on. Storage doesn't lose your files when the power is off.
RAM holds far less than storage, though. When it fills up, the system has to free up space for new data, sometimes by moving data to storage for a while. Reading that data back takes longer than reading it from RAM. So the more RAM your server has, the more tasks it can handle and the faster it processes data.
What does a CPU do on a computer or server?
The CPU, or Central Processing Unit, is the processor that carries out a program's instructions, on a computer and on a server alike. It does the calculations and handles the data processing. CPUs have several cores, so they can work on more than one task at once. More CPU power means better performance for your website, especially when it gets a lot of traffic.
How well your website performs depends on the server's hardware as a whole: the number of processors, how fast they are, how much memory is free, the disk space and the kind of storage it uses.
How do CPU and RAM work together?
The CPU works on what RAM holds. When a visitor opens a page, RAM keeps the programs and data for that page close at hand, and the CPU carries out their instructions to build it. With enough RAM, the CPU gets that data without waiting.
Both have to keep up with your visitors. On a busy website, too little of either slows your pages down.
What decides how much RAM and CPU your website needs?
These things affect what your website needs:
- Your traffic. The more visitors you expect, the more RAM and CPU your website needs to keep up with them.
- Your content management system. A WordPress website runs on PHP. Plugins on a WordPress website affect how fast the site loads, and the WordPress documentation advises deleting any plugins you don't need.
- A shop or an application. A large online shop or an application needs more power than a simple site, often more than shared hosting can offer.
- The number of websites on your plan. On our shared hosting, websites share the server's CPU and RAM, and the higher plans let you host more websites.
To pick a plan, start from how many websites you host and the traffic you expect. Then look through our range of hosting plans for the one that covers both.
How much RAM and CPU do I need for web hosting?
For your first website, our Starter plan usually gives you enough RAM and CPU. Each plan above it lets you host more websites, and the higher plans give them better performance:
| Plan | Websites | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Your first website | A small blog, personal site or simple business website |
| Professional | Up to 3 | Room to grow as your traffic builds |
| Business | Up to 10 | Higher traffic and demand |
| Max | Up to 25 | Professionals who manage multiple sites |
Plans like our Business plan give your websites more RAM and CPU power to handle higher traffic and demand.
Every plan runs on NVMe SSD storage, a fast type of solid-state drive, in our European data centres.
See hosting plansShould you choose shared hosting or a VPS?
For most small websites, shared hosting is the right choice, and a VPS makes sense once you need resources of your own. With shared hosting, several websites share the same server's CPU and RAM, and we look after the server. A VPS, or virtual private server, gives you a fixed allocation of CPU cores and RAM that other customers can't use. With our VPS, you manage the server yourself.
| Shared hosting | VPS | Managed VPS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU and RAM | Shared with other websites on the server | A fixed allocation for your server that other customers can't use | Dedicated resources on a virtual server |
| Who manages the server | We do | You do, with full root access to set it up your way | We do |
| Technical skills | None needed to get started | Some technical skills, as you look after updates, security and configuration | None needed, as we set up and maintain the server |
Our advice: stay on shared hosting while your website has low to moderate traffic, and move up a hosting plan first when you need more. Choose a VPS when you expect high traffic or run a large online shop or application, and you're happy to manage the server yourself. With Managed VPS, you get dedicated resources and we handle the server management.
How to scale CPU and RAM as your website grows
Start with the plan that fits your website today. You can upgrade your hosting plan at any time.
Pages can start to load more slowly, especially when many visitors arrive at once. If your WordPress website reaches its PHP memory limit, visitors can also see a "500 internal server error" message instead of your page. On a WordPress website, check your plugins first, as some plugins cause performance issues that make your pages load more slowly.
Before you switch, check how much storage, email and databases you use now. The new plan should cover those as well as the extra RAM and CPU. To upgrade, select the new plan for your website in your control panel, then choose a payment method and approve the upgrade, entering your payment details if your payment method needs them. Our help centre shows how to upgrade your hosting plan.
For your first website, or a busy one that needs more room, choose a hosting plan that fits your websites and traffic today.
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