Many startups and personal projects choose shared web hosting plans to balance performance with affordability. These plans are easy to manage and inexpensive, making them work best for users with minimal technical knowledge. However, with shared hosting, convenience comes at a cost. In this case, the most notable disadvantage is resource contention.
If you've been curious thinking about why your website (particularly one that uses Python hosting mysteriously slows down, becomes unresponsive, or even goes offline, resource contention is most likely the reason.
In this blog, we delve into the causes and effects of resource contention. Moreover, we will discuss some easy, practical ways to reduce resource contention without needing to upgrade your hosting plan.
What is Resource Contention in Shared Hosting?
In shared hosting, numerous websites are hosted on a single server. This means that all websites hosted share a single CPU, RAM, Disk space, bandwidth, and I/O (input/output) bandwidth. These resources can be categorized as both physical and virtual.
Imagine this situation—you are living in an apartment with several other people. You share water, electricity, and even wifi. If your neighbor decides to host a movie party, all the bandwidth will be used, resulting in you having lagging or disconnected internet access for your needs.
The same thing happens with shared server hosting. Video calls and internet bandwidth are parallel to shared hosting CPU, RAM, and I/O. If any of the websites hosted on the server consume too much bandwidth, other sites hosted on the same server suffer. This causes slow or unresponsive loading times, highly reduced performance, and, in some cases, even complete downtime.
Common Causes of Resource Contention
1. Traffic Spikes
Resource contention occurs when there are competing demands for a scarce resource. For example, if a specific website hosted on a (shared) server goes viral or gets sudden media or social platform coverage (flash sales), its peak demands would starve the competing websites of most of their traffic.
2. Poorly Optimized RAM
Some websites put a greater strain on the server due to inefficient scripts. A poorly coded site can easily bring down other websites hosted on the same server.
3. Background Processes
Sometimes, website operations can accidentally trigger unnecessary tasks, like random scheduled jobs or unneeded database queries.
4. Abusive Neighbors
On shared servers, there are users who undertake mass email campaigns and other scripts that hog server resources, or simply bot traffic.
5. Limited Server Resources
During peak traffic periods, sites operating on budget shared hosting resources experience severe drops in performance. Such shared budget hosting can help save costs but make your website vulnerable.
How Resource Contention Affects Your Website
Resource contention can lead to an increase in:
- Slow performance and increased load times
- Increase in round service interruptions
- Increase in partial site use
- Increase in failed transactions
- Loss of e-commerce revenue.
Effective Strategies to Alleviate Resource Contention Issues
It's true that resource contention is beyond your control and depends on what your neighboring servers are doing, but there are a few tricks that you can apply:
1. Optimize Website Code and Assets
Streamlining processes proves the best way to combat vulnerability. Make sure images are properly optimized, CSS and JS files are minified, HTTP requests are reduced, and lazy loading is enabled. Additionally, use lightweight themes while curbing the use of resource-demanding plugins.
2. Make Use of A Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) store cached copies of your website on servers that are near your users’ regions. A feature such as this is particularly useful for assets such as images, CSS, and JavaScript that are static.
Apart from improving your site's load time, CDN services will also secure your website against traffic surges and bot-based attacks.
3. Configure Caching
To help your server minimize the steps in recreating the same content, caching is crucial. Enable browser caching (for users) as well as server-side caching (for backend processes). Your server will be able to handle a larger number of simultaneous users with fewer server resources due to the ability to serve users without having to recreate content.
4. Outsource Resource-Intensive Tasks
As much as possible, utilize third-party facilities for handling large files, creating reports, or even distributing newsletters. Delegating some of the workload on your server will prevent your site from contention issues.
5. Choosing the Right Shared Hosting Provider
Look for hosts like MilesWeb that offer optimal resource isolation, fair usage policies, and smart resource allocation.
Consider these features hosted by shared providers and look for LiteSpeed or NGINX servers:
- AI load balancing
- Generous resource caps
- 24/7 active system check and optimization
MilesWeb is a great example of a provider that offers smart monitoring on shared hosting plans.
When Should You Change Your Hosting Plan?
If your site is still suffering resource contention problems despite all possible optimizations being done, here are a few solutions that may help:
- Cloud Hosting (more isolation and better scalability)
- VPS (Virtual Private Server with allocated resources)
- Managed Hosting (with provided optimization and ongoing support)
That being said, many small and mid-size websites, with strong optimization techniques, have the potential to perform well even on shared hosting.
Conclusion
Sharing resources is a common problem with shared hosting; however, it does not have to be your downfall. With strategic planning, the right tools, and the appropriate optimizations, you can mitigate the problem without needing to upgrade your plan.
If you understand how shared environments work and take the right steps to minimize content retention, then your site can remain fast, responsive, and dependable. In the current competitive digital landscape, that can be the advantage you need.
