There are three ways to tell if you have outgrown your shared web hosting account. When you encounter these three scenarios then you should really consider upgrading to a more powerful web hosting plan or even a managed virtual private server or dedicated server. If you don’t upgrade then your website may be offline more than it is online.
Error messages from your site
First, when you attempt to access your site and there is a timeout error. You may encounter timeout error messages or a error message from your content management system (CMS) about being out of memory. These error messages popup when your site is using a lot of memory or CPU (processing power) resources. When your site has grown to a size where your existing web hosting account can not provide enough resources for your CMS to be able to serve up the web pages.
Slow site loading times
Second, when you try to reach your site and it loads really slowly. When your site starts loading slowly without any explanation and you haven’t done any modifications to your site lately then it maybe a sign that your site is no longer a small site.
Take for a example you have a small closet and need to continue storing boxes in that closet. If that closet is only 1 meter by 1 meter and you continue filling it with boxes then one day there won’t be enough space for any additional boxes. This is like with web hosting. When you purchase your web hosting plan you are buying only a number of computing resources. Once your site outgrows those resources then it may lead to such slowdowns.
Suspension or technical support alerts you
Third, when technical supports warns you or doesn’t warn you and decides to suspend your site. When technical support contacts you and tells you that you need to upgrade to a new plan then there is a really good chance that you are using a lot of memory or CPU (processing power) resources. When you get the attention of the technical support department then it means you are probably causing performance issues for other users that are also hosted on your web server.
If technical support doesn’t contact you and decides to suspend your account then this is another sign you need to upgrade. Depending on the web host and their policies they may warn you or not. If they don’t warn you then they may suspend you until you contact them.