How To Reduce CPU Usage On GoDaddy (AKA Bandwidth Limits + CPU Throttling)

Godaddy cpu usage

If you’re getting CPU overages on GoDaddy, it means your website (and plugins) are consuming too many server resources.

To reduce high CPU usage on GoDaddy and stay within limits, login to GoDaddy and activate the CDN and PHP 8.0. Remove any high CPU plugins, database junk, and install Autoptimize. Lighten the load on your server using the Heartbeat Control plugin and blocking bad bots from Wordfence. It’s also likely you’re running too many resource intensive tasks for shared hosting. Shared hosting (especially GoDaddy) can’t handle big plugins like WooCommerce or Elementor.

GoDaddy obviously wants you to upgrade, but hopefully after reading this guide, you won’t have to. Until then, you may be getting 503 errors which means you exceeded your CPU limits.

 

1. Know GoDaddy’s Resource Limitations

No serious website should use GoDaddy for hosting. It is mainly for beginners who are just starting their website and are concerned about 1 thing – price. But with this, comes with speed limitations which are reflected in your server response times, GTmetrix, and Pingdom reports.

  • GoDaddy is slow at releasing PHP versions (and are only available on cPanel plans)
  • GoDaddy blacklists cache plugins (which can improve speed more than Autoptimize)
  • GoDaddy uses outdated server hardware, resulting in slower server response times
  • GoDaddy puts too many people on the same server, resulting in slow response times
  • This is why their hosting is so cheap, because 100s of people share the same server

 

2. Check Your Resource Usage

Check how much bandwidth you’re actually using (in GoDaddy’s cPanel go to Web Hosting > Manage > Bandwidth). Next, review GoDaddy’s bandwidth limits and compare them to yours.

Quick Tips For Reducing Bandwidth:

  • Check CPU usage in GoDaddy cPanel
  • Upgrade to PHP 8 in your GoDaddy cPanel
  • Delete unnecessary plugins you can live without
  • Install Autoptimize plugin to optimize HTML, CSS, JavaScript
  • Resize large images to be smaller (serve scaled images in GTmetrix)
  • Losslessly compress images using the ShortPixel image optimization plugin
  • Install Heartbeat Control, WP-Optimize, and Blackhole For Bad Bots plugins
  • Use other tools in GoDaddy cPanel (eg. AWstats) to locate the source of high CPU

 

3. Upgrade To PHP 8

Upgrading PHP versions makes your site load faster (and improves security). Anytime GoDaddy releases a new PHP version, you should try to upgrade. Unfortunately, many WordPress users run outdated PHP versions since GoDaddy does NOT automatically upgrade you, since it can break your site if you’re running incompatible plugins. Here’s how to upgrade.

How To Upgrade PHP Versions

  • Login to your GoDaddy cPanel
  • In the Software section, click Select PHP Version
  • Change to PHP 8
  • Check your website for errors
  • If you see errors, run PHP Compatibility Checker to ensure your plugins are compatible
  • If you still see errors, revert to an earlier PHP version

Godaddy php

Unfortunately, if you don’t have a GoDaddy plan with cPanel, it is not available to you. Many GoDaddy customers aren’t happy about this, and it’s another drawback to using their hosting.

 

4. Offload Bandwidth To Cloudflare

Cloudflare’s free CDN will help offload resources to their 250+ data centers around the world, lightening the load on your own server. It will also reduce the geographic distance between your server and visitor, making your website load much faster for people who were far away from your 1 origin server. A CDN is also recommended in the WordPress optimization guide.

Step 1: Sign up for a free Cloudflare plan.

Step 2: Add your website and run the scan. You will come to a page with 2 nameservers.

Cloudflare-nameserver-dashboard.

Step 3: Change nameservers in your GoDaddy account to Cloudflare’s.

Godaddy cloudflare nameservers

 

5. Block Unwanted Requests With Cloudflare

If you have high quality images on your site, people may by copying and pasting them onto their own website (or even Facebook and other social networks). This means you’re still hosting them, which sucks up your bandwidth. Here’s how to prevent this using hotlink protection which can be activated in GoDaddy’s cPanel or Cloudflare’s scrape shield settings.

In GoDaddy:

  • Login to your GoDaddy cPanel
  • In the Security section, click Hot Link Protection and enable it

In Cloudflare:

  • Sign into your Cloudflare account
  • Go to your Scrape Shield settings
  • Enable hotlink protection

Cloudflare hotlink protection

Spam bots are notorious for crawling websites and consuming server resources. If you don’t set rules for bots to follow (eg. using the Blackhole For Bad Bots plugin) they will continue to crawl your website, and you will be spending server resources (and money) on literally nothing.

Blackhole for bad bots

Check If Spam Bots Are Hitting Your Site

  • Install Wordfence
  • Go to your Live Traffic Report
  • Watch all bots hitting your site in real-time
  • If you don’t recognize a bot, Google it’s hostname (provided by Wordfence)
  • See if other people report the bot as spam (compute.amazonaws.com is a common one)
  • Block the spam bots using the Blackhole For Bad Bots plugin (you can also use Wordfence’s blocking tab or Cloudflare Firewall Rules to block spammy bots by using their hostnames… be sure to use asterisks which blocks all variations of the bot)

Block Spam Comments Too!
Spam comments also consume resources. I use Anti-Spam to block comment spam.

 

6. Increase Browser Cache Expiration

 

7. Remove Plugins Causing High CPU Usage

Some plugins are known for consuming lots of server resources and will cause CPU overages. Too many plugins (one just 1 single high CPU plugin) can absolutely destroy your load times and bandwidth usage. I created an extensive list of known high CPU plugins you should avoid.

You can also use GTmetrix’s Waterfall tab to find slow plugins:

Slow wordpress plugin waterfall

Or use Query Monitor to see which plugins take longest to load:

Slow wordpress plugins query monitor

 

8. Protect Your WP-Login Page

 

9. Remove Junk From Your Database

Your database can get bloated by accumulating junk files like post revisions, spam comments, transients, pingbacks, trackbacks, and other junk which can be cleaned with WP-Optimize. It’s a good idea to clean your database once every 1-2 weeks, and take a backup before doing so.

Wordpress database cleanup settings

 

10. Disable Or Limit Background Tasks

The WordPress Heartbeat API shows real-time plugin notifications, and when other users are editing a post. This consumes server resources and should be limited, or disabled. Install the Heartbeat Control plugin and limit it to 60 seconds, or ideally, disable heartbeat completely.

Heartbeat control

 

11. Replace WP-Cron With A Real Cron Job

aaa

 

12. Limit Preloading And Cache Clearing In Cache Plugins

 

13. Avoid Page Builders + WooCommerce On Shared Hosting

 

14. Leave GoDaddy

Godaddy wordpress hosting review

NameHero’s Turbo Cloud plan and FastComet’s FastCloud Extra are both lightyears ahead of GoDaddy and usually cheaper. Both use LiteSpeed servers which means you’ll use LiteSpeed Cache + QUIC.cloud CDN (arguably the fastest setup on a budget). NameHero uses NVMe/Redis (faster than SATA SSDs/Memcached), but their data centers are only in US + EU. If your visitors aren’t close to there, use QUIC.cloud’s paid plan which uses 80 PoPs + full page caching, or use FastCloud who has more data centers. The LiteSpeed Cache plugin is free and much faster than even most premium cache plugins (see my guide), and QUIC.cloud was also build for LiteSpeed.

GoDaddy Managed WP Deluxe NameHero Turbo Cloud FastComet FastCloud Extra Cloudways Vultr HF (2GB) Rocket.net Starter
Type Shared Shared Shared Cloud Private cloud
Websites 1 Multiple Multiple Multiple 1
Visits/mo (est.) Not listed 50,000 100,000 2TB bandwidth 50GB bandwidth
Server Apache + Nginx LiteSpeed LiteSpeed Apache + Nginx Apache + Nginx
Cores/RAM 2 cores/1GB 3 cores/3GB 6 cores/6GB 1 core/2GB 32 cores/128GB
Storage 60GB / SATA Unlimited NVMe 35GB / SATA 64GB / NVMe 10GB / NVMe
Database MySQL MariaDB MySQL MariaDB MariaDB
Object cache Memcached Redis Memcached Redis Pro Redis
PHP processor Not listed LiteSpeed LiteSpeed FPM LiteSpeed
PHP workers CPU limits common Efficient with LiteSpeed Efficient with LiteSpeed No limit No limit
DNS Internal (slow on dnsperf.com) Use QUIC Use QUIC DNS Made Easy ($5/mo) Cloudflare
CDN GoDaddy CDN QUIC.cloud QUIC.cloud Cloudflare Enterprise Cloudflare Enterprise
CDN PoPs Not listed 80 80 285 285
CDN Tbps Not listed Not listed Not listed 192 192
Full page caching x x
Smart routing x Geo-routing Geo-routing Argo Argo
Image optimization x via QUIC via QUIC Mirage/Polish Mirage/Polish
Image resizing x x x via Cloudflare via Cloudflare
Cache plugin x LiteSpeed Cache LiteSpeed Cache Breeze x
Email hosting x x
Major incidents Breach almost every year 2011 2-day node outage 2022 DDoS attack on 3 data centers None None
Migrations Paid 1 free 3 free 1 free + $25/site Unlimited free
TrustPilot rating 4.7/5 4.6/5 4.9/5 4.6/5 4.9/5
CDN price Included $.02 – .08/GB $.02 – .08/GB $5/mo Included
Intro price $18.99/mo $9.98/mo $5.49/mo $30/mo $25/mo when paying yearly
Renewal price $19.99/mo $19.95/mo $21.95/mo $30/mo $25/mo

 
Cloudways with their Cloudflare Enterprise is a big step up from shared hosting and who I previously used (before SiteGround), but they’re getting expensive with price increases and add-ons. If you want a <100ms global TTFB which you can test in KeyCDN, use Rocket.net with their Cloudflare Enterprise. They’re by far the fastest host I’ve used. If your TTFB is slow, you need to rethink your hosting/CDN since those are 2 main TTFB factors. Another solid tool to test hosting performance is the WP Hosting Benchmark plugin. TTFB is also 40% of your LCP score.

Keycdn global ttfb
Use KeyCDN to measure TTFB in multiple locations (here’s my GTmetrix report and I pass core vitals)

Do your research in unbiased Facebook Groups like WP Speed Matters:

Siteground to rocket. Net

Rocket. Net trustpilot review

Kinsta to rocket. Net migration

Moved to rocket. Net vs siteground

Rocket. Net positive review

Litespeed cache litespeed server

Rocket. Net woocommerce elementor

Rocket. Net vs cloudways vultr hf trustpilot review

Rocket. Net facebook review 1

Rocket. Net vs kinsta

Kinsta to rocket. Net ttfb redis

Namehero vs siteground feedback

Namehero cloudways rocket. Net
NameHero for shared LiteSpeed, Cloudways Vultr HF for cloud, Rocket.net outperforms both

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What causes CPU issues?

This simply means your hosting plan can't handle your website and plugin's resource consumption. The only way to fix this is to increase CPU (upgrade your hosting plan) or optimize your website and plugins to consume less CPU so they fall within your limits.

Is GoDaddy the problem?

GoDaddy was rated very poorly in Facebook Groups and are one of the least recommended hosts among the WordPress community. Their domains are fine, but their servers are overcrowded and slow. This is well-known among the hosting community.

What are 3 easy ways to fix CPU issues?

Upgrade the a higher PHP version inside your GoDaddy account, remove any slow loading plugins, and finally, move away from GoDaddy.

Will upgrading my plan help?

It might, but there have also been many reports of GoDaddy customers still getting CPU issues when they upgrade to a more expensive hosting plan. I recommend optimizing your website, then only upgrade plans if you still get errors. Or explore other hosting options.

How do I find my slowest plugins?

Run your site through GTmetrix and look at the Waterfall tab to see which of your plugins take longest to load. You can also use the Query Monitor plugin to find slow plugins, and finally, avoid my list of 65+ common slow plugins.

I hope this tutorial was helpful! Drop me a line if you have questions.

Cheers,
Tom

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2 Comments...

  1. Very helpful article. Nice suggestions. I have solved GoDaddy 512 mb RAM plan I/O and CPU usage problem using your guide.
    Thanks

    Reply

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