That isn't too much of a load. A 1 GB droplet really should be able to handle that. Are you seeing any error messages when it crashes? Is there anything interesting in /var/log/messages ? We can give some general advice, but getting to the bottom of this exact issue would probably be best. More generally, there is a chance MySQL is running out of memory. In order to give it some extra breathing room, you might want to add a swap file: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-add-swap-on-centos-6 You may also consider moving to Nginx as it is more lightweight than Apache. Check out: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-linux-nginx-mysql-php-lemp-stack-on-centos-6 Setting up caching with something like Varnish is also a good step: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-wordpress-nginx-php-and-varnish-on-ubuntu-12-04 Less specific to your issue, one way to scale out is to add a separate database server: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-optimize-wordpress-performance-with-mysql-replication-on-ubuntu-14-04