How do you know when you need a bigger plan

[DigNap15]

Hello
I just started by Xenforo site a few weeks ago.
I was not expecting to get many members. (its a passion of mine)
It started very slowly.
Then (due to another site closing) its gone crazy
I have over 400 members now

My question is.
I am on a shared hosting plan the basic one (just to get started etc)
How do you know when you need to move up to the next level?
Do the web hosts tell you, or do you get warning signs?
What stats shouId I look for?

 

[LeadCrow]

Assuming you're conservative in your addon and feature usage, once you hit 30-50.000 posts you'll start noticing performance degrading.

A webhost might not upsell you that early, but higher priced shared hosting plans would grant your site higher ressources (cpu, concurrent database connections, ram...). It's wise to plan ahead and use the extra unused capacity for other projects or websites.

 

[CrazyTech]

Keep an eye on the physical performance of the website, firstly. If you notice a consistent slowdown, then you're getting close to that level. It will depend on the activity level of the forum as LeadCrow said, but I ran a ~7,000 member with a few hundred thousand posts on a shared host, virtually without issue. That may be different for a more active forum moving at a rapid clip.

The other things to keep an eye on would be your error logs - see if there are a lot of error codes coming up.

Most decent hosts will not just suspend a growing website. I would even suggest being proactive and requesting your host's procedures for sites hitting their limits. You may even be able to work out a plan beforehand where they can relocate you or let you know prior to being surprised by a suspended notice or something else.

 

[Joeychgo]

and I always suggest you try to stay a step ahead. Don't wait for performance to degrade. as you grow and get busier, keep improving your hosting along the way to avoid problems that could stunt the growth of your site.

 

[DigNap15]

I've just had my first site go down situation.
I'm up to 200,000 pages views according to my webhost.

 

[User37935]

How do you know when you need to move up to the next level?
Do the web hosts tell you, or do you get warning signs?

Possibly both. If you're maxing out bandwidth/storage or hogging CPU/RAM then your host might tell you (or it will be evident in your hosting plan stats). Otherwise keep an eye on the server error logs in the Xenforo admin area. You basically shouldn't get any errors on normal running but if you're reaching capacity you could start to see regular errors. Also you might see odd things when using your forum - I started to see the online members being reset which, coupled with the server error log, showed MySQL was restarting due to lack of RAM.

Also you can turn on debug mode and look at the page generation times. These could start to slow when you're maxing the host out.

 

[overcast]

I think your account hitting limits give you better sign but apart from that your database calls would also take your site down lot quicker than just bandwidth.

 

[DigNap15]

Possibly both. If you're maxing out bandwidth/storage or hogging CPU/RAM then your host might tell you (or it will be evident in your hosting plan stats). Otherwise keep an eye on the server error logs in the Xenforo admin area. You basically shouldn't get any errors on normal running but if you're reaching capacity you could start to see regular errors. Also you might see odd things when using your forum - I started to see the online members being reset which, coupled with the server error log, showed MySQL was restarting due to lack of RAM.

Also you can turn on debug mode and look at the page generation times. These could start to slow when you're maxing the host out.

Thanks for that very detaled info

 

[CyberJoe]

Hello
I just started by Xenforo site a few weeks ago.
I was not expecting to get many members. (its a passion of mine)
It started very slowly.
Then (due to another site closing) its gone crazy
I have over 400 members now

Remember member count means nothing, page views per day is a much better measure.

 

[overcast]

Your server has analytics where you get the idea how much bandwidth you are hitting. So memberbase is not the count to check.

 

[DigNap15]

Your server has analytics where you get the idea how much bandwidth you are hitting. So memberbase is not the count to check.

Thanks, but I dont understand the analytics they give me
It says Bandwidth 13.6 and this figure is growing slowly
Then there is a chart below it which says numbers like 2000, 1950 and now 600

 

[LeadCrow]

Bandwidth is nothing, iops makes a bigger difference with shared accounts. Plans from notable providers give 5mb/sec io, anything less than 3 is a waste of cash (commonplace with resellers and providers that do not pass savings to clients or try to push them towards more expensive plans).