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Explanation of Resource Usage – Hosting

Every hosting plan includes a guaranteed amount of server capacity — such as CPU power, memory and concurrent processes. Is your website running into its limits? Below you'll find how to recognise this, how to check your usage and how to tackle the most common causes.


This article applies to our Web Hosting and Reseller Hosting plans (control panel DirectAdmin).



When is there a capacity issue?


When your plan reaches its maximum capacity, your website may become slow or temporarily unreachable. Common causes include:


  • Plugin or script — a faulty or heavy plugin may end up in a loop and continuously consume server resources.
  • Cron job — incorrectly configured cron jobs can consume all server resources.
  • Poorly optimised website — inefficient code or too many plugins can overload the plan.
  • Sudden traffic spike — an increase in visitors or an attack wave can fully use up your capacity.


Checking your usage


You can check your current resource usage in two ways:


1. Via the website check (quickest overview)


Go to xynta.com/en/support/website-check, enter your domain name and start the Quick scan. In the report, under Speed or Availability, you'll see signals of overload right away — including recommended actions.


2. Via DirectAdmin (detailed)


  1. Log in to DirectAdmin — via Single Sign-On or directly at https://yourdomain.com:2222.
  2. Under Extra Features, click Resource Usage.
  3. Click Details to see which limits have been exceeded.


In DirectAdmin you'll see graphs and an overview of the past 30 days — useful for spotting patterns or peak moments.


Analysing the cause


Before taking action, ask yourself the following questions:


  • Has anything changed on your website recently — a new plugin, theme, update or cron job?
  • When did the problems start? Do they coincide with a specific action?
  • Is there unusually high traffic from one IP address or one region?
  • Are there many errors in the Error Log (available in DirectAdmin)?
  • Do you have a backup from before the problem? See Creating your own backup.


For large websites or high traffic, upgrading to a larger hosting plan may be the most efficient solution. Not sure? We're happy to advise you, no strings attached.


Solutions per cause


Plugin or script


Disable all plugins temporarily and reactivate them one by one. Does usage spike back up with a specific plugin? Then that's the cause — update the plugin, replace it with an alternative or contact the developer.


Cron job


Temporarily disable your cron jobs and check whether the problem disappears. For WordPress it's often better to disable the default WP_CRON and replace it with a server-side cron job — this prevents every visitor from triggering the cron.


Poorly optimised website


A few practical steps:


  • Limit the number of plugins — the fewer, the better.
  • Enable caching — consider Redis, LiteSpeed Cache and Opcache.
  • Use a recent PHP version — see Changing the PHP version. Newer versions are faster and more secure.
  • Optimise the database — remove old revisions, transients and unused tables.
  • Fix errors that are visible in your Error Log.


Sudden traffic spike


Getting flooded with traffic from a suspicious IP address? You can block it via your .htaccess file:


order allow,deny
deny from 123.456.789.000
allow from all


Replace 123.456.789.000 with the IP address you want to block. Want to block multiple IP addresses? Add an extra deny from line for each address.


Only modify .htaccess if you know what you're doing — a broken file can take your entire website offline. Make a backup first, or let us help you. See also Managing files through File Manager.


Instructional video


Prefer to see how it works? Watch our short instructional video on Resource Usage:



Need help?


Can't figure it out or don't have time to investigate yourself? We're happy to help:


  • WordPress Hosting — troubleshooting is included with our WordPress Hosting plans.
  • Other plans — through our support services you can engage a specialist to investigate and optimise your website.


Feel free to get in touch — we're happy to think along with you.

Updated on: 19/04/2026

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