How many users at once on shared hosting?

[Gregory Lynn]

I know this is a really tough question to answer. But I was wondering if some one could give me a guess to how many users can be on the forum at once with shared hosting. I am still working on my forum to get it ready. But when its ready I want to start promoting it and the last thing I want is a slow down or have the website crash because of too many users.

Greg

 

[Chris D]

How long is a piece of string?

It's not just a tough question, it's an impossible question to answer.

The answer is probably "not many". But the thing is it depends on how many sites are hosted on the same server, what resources your server has, how busy the other sites are.

The only thing you can do is prepare to act fast if resources become a problem (e.g. buying more resources or upgrading to a better package) or take the risk in advance, pay more and have something that's way more than you need initially.

I'd probably go with the first option, to be honest. Make sure you choose a reputable host who will support you as you grow.

 

[LPH]

This will depend on the hosting company. I host with a company that only does shared servers and they are hard core about speed. They monitor their servers all of the time and if a site starts spiking then they move things around to optimize.

 

[Gregory Lynn]

How long is a piece of string?

It's not just a tough question, it's an impossible question to answer.

The answer is probably "not many". But the thing is it depends on how many sites are hosted on the same server, what resources your server has, how busy the other sites are.

The only thing you can do is prepare to act fast if resources become a problem (e.g. buying more resources or upgrading to a better package) or take the risk in advance, pay more and have something that's way more than you need initially.

I'd probably go with the first option, to be honest. Make sure you choose a reputable host who will support you as you grow.

Ok, then I would rather buy more resources in advance. What about a VPS from Known Host or Wiredtree? How many users do you think a 1GB or a 1.5GB vps can handle?

 

[Chris D]

Again, still too many variables. You'd be best speaking to your desired host who will help you appropriately size up the server.

 

[alegeek]

Ok, then I would rather buy more resources in advance. What about a VPS from Known Host or Wiredtree? How many users do you think a 1GB or a 1.5GB vps can handle?

Right now, my 1GB VPS running nginx +php-fpm has 156 people online, load is hovering around 0.20 and I'm using 264mb RAM.

 

[Gregory Lynn]

Right now, my 1GB VPS running nginx +php-fpm has 156 people online, load is hovering around 0.20 and I'm using 264mb RAM.

Thank you friend, that was the kind of answer I was looking for.

Greg

 

[rdn]

Right now, my 1GB VPS running nginx +php-fpm has 156 people online, load is hovering around 0.20 and I'm using 264mb RAM.

OW!

A very little resources, for 156 online at a time?
Meaning every 15 minutes, average online is 100+ ?

Including guest?
Or How many average visitors at a time/15 minutes, including guest?

 

[MikeMpls]

OW!

A very little resources, for 156 online at a time?
Meaning every 15 minutes, average online is 100+ ?

Including guest?
Or How many average visitors at a time/15 minutes, including guest?

A user load of X doesn't mean that X are actively simultaeously, only that X have been active in the last 15-30 minutes (default is 15, I usually configure mine for 30 (same as my vBulletin sites used to use).

There might be other limitations that are more subtle (memory allocation errors, blank web pages returned, limits on database accesses / account / hour).

You might be cruising along just fine and wake up some day to find that one popular thread like this one has gotten your account shut down. I made about 5X my normal AdSense income the day before ... and almost zero for several days afterwards as I hustled to move 6 XF sites & 5 WP blogs to a VPS, with more to follow over the next several months. One of my sites had been linked a couple times from the NY Times so I figured I could handle a surge. I guessed wrong. At the time each of my 3 largest XF sites (the only ones w/ user loads large enough to be noticed) were in separate accounts at the shared hosting service, so it was just the one site hat pushed things over the limits.

My feeling after these experiences is that if you breaking 100 users, it's probably time to move up a notch in hosting services and find a VPS.

 

[MikeMpls]

Ok, then I would rather buy more resources in advance. What about a VPS from Known Host or Wiredtree? How many users do you think a 1GB or a 1.5GB vps can handle?

I run up to 500 users on a 1GB account at KnownHost, rarely use half the memory, but the reserve is there if I ever get a repeat of this thread.

If you're still "still working on my forum to get it ready", you're a long ways from needing that kind of performance. Either go for a low-end VPS that will still cost you ~$300/year and save you the trouble of moving IF you eventually grow to that point, or find a decent shared-hosting service for around $100 year. With regard to shared-hosting services, I can only recommend one to avoid: FatCow.

 

[rdn]

Mine got average online at a time 1,000+ including guest, peaks hours grow up to 1,500 to 1,700.
But I'm just using a Cloud Server, $65/month.
Yes, I'm already planning of migrating into a dedicated server, minimum 8GB(nginx is my beat)

 

[alegeek]

Concurrent connections normally average around 50, with the most over a 5 minute period being 643.

It's taken years of tweaking settings to keep things pretty stable during traffic spikes!

 

[HostDash]

If your just starting out your website then don't worry about starting with a VPS. Save money and go with shared hosting. For most it will be a very long time before you get enough traffic that your website is deemed no longer suitable for shared hosting.

With any reputable hosting provider when it comes to the time where an upgrade is needed they will work with you in any possible way to make it as smooth as possible.

 

[TPerry]

If your just starting out your website then don't worry about starting with a VPS. Save money and go with shared hosting. For most it will be a very long time before you get enough traffic that your website is deemed no longer suitable for shared hosting.

With any reputable hosting provider when it comes to the time where an upgrade is needed they will work with you in any possible way to make it as smooth as possible.

Time to clarify that... go with Shared Hosting only if you know you don't need GeoIP. Most shared hosts will not allow GeoIP on their plans - so you have to either got VPS or dedicated. That was the reason I left from a shared host after just a few months to a VPS - and then a month later to dedicated servers (didn't have to - just wanted to).

 

[HostDash]

Time to clarify that... go with Shared Hosting only if you know you don't need GeoIP. Most shared hosts will not allow GeoIP on their plans - so you have to either got VPS or dedicated. That was the reason I left from a shared host after just a few months to a VPS - and then a month later to dedicated servers (didn't have to - just wanted to).

Who was you previously hosting with? I am not sure of other hosts though at Arvixe we do have GeoIP enabled on all of our packages.

 

[TPerry]

Who was you previously hosting with? I am not sure of other hosts though at Arvixe we do have GeoIP enabled on all of our packages.

HostGator. According to them it taxed their systems to much - but they were more than happy to upgrade me into a VPS plan.