Most small business websites need less storage than hosts suggest: a typical WordPress brochure site fits in a few gigabytes. What usually decides speed is memory and CPU, and those depend on how much of your site can’t be cached, such as carts, bookings and logged-in users. This guide shows how to check what your site uses today and what to choose for the next few years.
Key takeaways
- Check your real numbers in WordPress under Tools, Site Health, Info, Directories and Sizes.
- Allow two to three times your current disk use, to cover growth, updates and a staging copy.
- Memory and CPU matter most for online shops, bookings, memberships and busy admin areas.
- WooCommerce recommends a WordPress memory limit of at least 256 MB.
- Slow pages are often a bloat problem, not a hosting problem. Fix that before paying for more.
What do storage, memory and CPU actually do?
Think of your hosting as a small office. Storage (disk) is the filing cabinet: your website files, images, database and sometimes email. Memory (RAM) is desk space: how much work can be laid out at once. CPU cores are the staff: how many requests can be worked on at the same moment.
A bigger filing cabinet doesn’t make the office faster. More staff and desk space do, but only when there’s work waiting. So sizing starts with what your site does, not how big it is.
How much storage do I need for my website?
Disk space gets used by five things:
- WordPress, your theme and plugins. Page builders and premium themes are larger than plain themes.
- Uploads. Images, PDFs and videos are usually the biggest item by far.
- The database. Posts, pages, orders, form entries and settings.
- Backups and logs. Old backup files left inside the site folder quietly fill a plan.
- Email, if your mailboxes live on the same plan.
To see your own numbers, log in to WordPress and go to Tools, then Site Health, then Info. The WordPress documentation explains that the Directories and Sizes section shows the size of your uploads, themes, plugins and database, plus the total installation size.
Take that total and allow two to three times as much. That covers a few years of new images, temporary files during updates and a staging copy for testing. In our experience, most brochure sites come in well under 5 GB, even after several years.
How much memory does a WordPress site need?
There are two numbers here, and people often mix them up.
The first is the PHP memory limit: how much memory one page request may use. WordPress asks for 40 MB by default on a single site, according to the WordPress wp-config guide. Heavier sites need more. WooCommerce’s server recommendations ask for a WordPress memory limit of 256 MB or more.
The second is server memory: the total your plan has. It’s shared between the database, the cache and every PHP process running at once. If ten visitors hit uncached pages together, each request uses its own slice. Too little total memory means queued requests, slow pages and, at worst, errors.
How many CPU cores do I need?
CPU matters when pages have to be built fresh. A cached page is served almost instantly and costs very little. These can’t be cached, or only partly:
- Carts, checkout and account pages in an online shop
- Booking calendars, quote forms and site search
- Membership areas and anyone logged in
- Your own admin work: editing pages, imports and bulk updates
A brochure site where nearly every page is cached runs well on one core. A shop with steady orders, or a site with many logged-in users, needs more cores so one slow request doesn’t hold up the rest.
Rough sizes by type of site
These are starting points from our experience, not rules. Your theme, plugins and traffic patterns shift them.
| Type of site | Storage | Memory | CPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brochure site, 5 to 20 pages, contact form | 5 GB | 2 GB | 1 core |
| Service business with a blog and bookings | 5 to 10 GB | 2 to 4 GB | 1 to 2 cores |
| Small shop, up to a few hundred products | 10 to 20 GB | 4 GB | 2 cores |
| Busy shop, memberships or learning site | 20 GB or more | 8 GB or more | 4 cores or more |
| Several sites, or traffic spikes from campaigns | Depends on the sites | Reserved resources on a VPS | 4 to 8 cores |
Bandwidth is rarely the limit for a small business. The median home page weighed 2.56 MB on mobile in 2025 (HTTP Archive Web Almanac). Even 10,000 page views a month at that weight is around 25 GB, and browsers cache much of it on repeat visits.
How do I know if I’ve outgrown my hosting?
Watch for these signs:
- The admin area is slow even when the public site seems fine.
- Checkout or booking pages slow down at busy times.
- You see 503 or “resource limit” errors during sales or campaigns.
- Your host warns that the disk is nearly full, or backups start failing.
- Imports, updates or image uploads time out.
One sign alone might be a faulty plugin. Two or three together usually mean the plan is too small.
Should I just buy the biggest plan?
No. Extra resources can’t fix a site that wastes them. Oversized images, unused plugins, an uncached page builder and years of old revisions slow sites on any plan. Our guide to how to speed up WordPress ranks the fixes by impact, and most cost nothing in hosting.
Old backup files are a common disk hog. They belong off-site, not in your hosting space. Our Maintain & Protect website care plans store backups off-site, and the Elite plan includes database and image optimisation, which keeps a site lean as it grows.
How do our plans set out resources?
Every one of our hosting plans states its CPU cores, memory and disk, so you know what you’re getting. They range from Personal Essentials, with 1 core, 2 GB of memory and 5 GB of disk, up to VPS Ultimate, with 8 cores, 12 GB and 400 GB. If no preset fits, you can tailor one in the hosting plan builder.
For shops, booking sites and anything that earns money directly, our business web hosting adds phone support, 7 days a week. Not sure which tier fits? Our comparison of Personal vs Business hosting explains the difference, and our guide to small business web hosting covers what a typical SME needs beyond raw resources.
Frequently asked questions
Is 5 GB enough for a WordPress website?
For most brochure and service sites, yes. Check your current size under Tools, Site Health, Info in WordPress. If you’re under 2 GB, 5 GB leaves room to grow. Shops with large catalogues, video or many PDFs usually need more.
How much RAM does WordPress need?
Each page request needs its own slice of memory, and WordPress asks for 40 MB by default. The plan as a whole needs enough for the database, cache and several requests at once. For a brochure site, 2 GB is usually plenty. WooCommerce shops should allow more.
Does more CPU make my website faster?
Only if the site is waiting on the CPU. Cached pages barely use it. More cores help when many uncached requests arrive at once, such as checkouts during a sale. If one visitor sees a slow page on a quiet site, the cause is usually the site itself.
Does email count towards my hosting storage?
It does if your mailboxes are hosted on the same plan. Mailboxes with years of attachments can outgrow the website itself. Ask your host where email is stored, and check mailbox sizes before choosing a plan.
Can I upgrade my hosting resources later?
Yes. With our plans you can move to a larger plan or tailor one in the plan builder as your site grows. Start at the right size and move up, rather than paying for years of unused resources.
Sources
- Site Health screen, WordPress.org, updated July 2026
- wp-config.php, WordPress Developer Resources
- WooCommerce server recommendations, WooCommerce
- Page Weight, Web Almanac 2025, HTTP Archive