Could a 512MB Ram Droplet hold 6 wordpress sites?

July 1, 2016 8k views
WordPress PHP Networking LAMP Stack Ubuntu
GeekFred
By:
GeekFred

Hi guys,

Thing is, I want to run 6 to 10 wordpress sites (don't get freaked out by the number just yet) on a 512MB RAM Droplet. Of this sites I get hit roughly 1k times a day, IN TOTAL. So:

  • The sites get hit like 1000 times a day IN TOTAL.
  • I end up using roughly 15GB to 20GB a month of outbound bandwidth and maybe 1GB or 2GB of inbound bandwidth.
  • My current HD use is -> Usage: 10.87 GB / 100 GB (10.87%). Of those 10.87GB, 9GB are used by email.

What do you guys think?

Thanks.

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3 Answers
jsamuel July 1, 2016

Memory is going to be your bottleneck. With 10 sites on a 512 MB server, you'll be cutting it close. However, you could cut corners by doing things like disabling PHP's opcache (so, making every request a tiny bit slower but saving memory). Take a look at reducing WordPress memory usage.

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  • GeekFred July 1, 2016

    And what about asking for some CDN help, that could help a bit with the processing? Thanks!

    • jsamuel July 1, 2016

      A CDN wouldn't be as critical to keeping memory down as properly configured WordPress caching such as using WP Rocket or WP Super Cached. If it's configured for static file-backed caching, then requests that are served from cache don't even hit PHP at all and are instead served by the web server directly as static files. This uses basically no additional memory to serve a request. The memory consumption on your server comes almost entirely from the operating system itself, MySQL, and PHP. MySQL will always be using a certain amount, but PHP memory usage will increase with the number of concurrent requests it's serving.

      • GeekFred July 1, 2016

        I know this is not the place, but, your favorite pick on those two cache plugins? Thanks again.

        • jsamuel July 1, 2016

          I recommend WP Rocket first because it's a commercial product with paid developers and support. If it has to be a free plugin, though, then WP Super Cache is what I recommend of the various free caching plugins out there.

          • GeekFred July 1, 2016

            Awesome, one last question. How would you deal with email? Run your own solution or go ahead with Zoho Mail? I do not include the ones that do not offer any inboxes for free because I have over 100 emails accounts, so, paying $5 for each is a no no.

          • jsamuel July 1, 2016

            I recommend Google Apps but it sounds like that's not an option for cost reasons. So, probably Zoho or FastMail since price is an issue.

            Hosting mail yourself is always a bummer. But, if you had to, probably using iRedMail would be a reasonable way to do that.

            (Had to reply to myself here as the comment thread can't go any deeper.)

BrookDO July 1, 2016

It could definitely hold your site, but you might run into MySQL performance issues pretty quickly, even with a small amount of traffic. The good thing is it is very easy to upgrade to a higher level of hosting if necessary, so it wouldn't hurt to test running your stack on the 512 server, and move to a 1gb or 2gb if necessary, or when you see large spikes in usage.

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  • GeekFred July 1, 2016

    Is this upgrade process..elastic in some way? And can I go back to the smaller stack while resources are not needed? Thanks for your answer btw.

    • ryanpq MOD July 1, 2016

      There are two types of resize available. The flexible resize option will upgrade your RAM and CPU specifications but will not affect your disk image. If you scale up with this type of resize you can always scale back down. The other option is a permanent resize which also resizes your disk and partition and this type cannot be undone (allowing this would risk data loss or other issues).

      • GeekFred July 1, 2016

        Heya Ryan, thanks for your answer. Does this flexible resizing could happen automatically by adding certain rules or do I have to manually do it? Thanks!

        • ryanpq MOD July 1, 2016

          Currently it has to be done manually and does require a reboot. It is a function accessible via the API though so you could script something to trigger it automatically.

luzanta.abdullah August 15, 2016

Do you have idea if 512 RAM can run(faster) a single wordpress site? estimate traffic 100 per day

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  • GeekFred August 15, 2016

    A single Wordpress site, with 100 visitors per day is basically going to fly. BUT you can definitely slow it down if you throw 100 plugins at it.

    • GeekFred August 15, 2016

      I'm actually giving you an opinion based on my experience. Currently I have one single site running on a single 512RAM Droplet but it has almost 30+ plugins installed and you can actually feel some lag when working on it, specially on the admin, but I have other droplet that runs almost 20+ sites with the same amount of RAM but those have almost zero plugins installed and they run normal.

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