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What makes a website resource-intensive?

Above all, popular or simply good content makes websites resource-intensive, with traffic suddenly or consistently increasing. A lot of people are processing images, opening and closing sessions, reordering lists, and calculating https keys at the same time. The site uses more CPU as a result.

Sites like YouTube also use a lot of CPU, as do those involved in heavy image or video processing, such as optimizing images and generating memes. They might use GPU or FPGA.

Websites of the type “run Matlab” or “Run C++” online and others that process a lot of pure math calculations are CPU or GPU-heavy.

Resource-intensive sites also use more bandwidth and memory to operate. Examples include ecommerce platforms, streaming services, multiplayer online games, etc. The associated demands can place constraints on other aspects of website operation, like security. For example, just 7% of Alexa’s Top 1 Million websites have a valid content security policy. Around 3% of the sites with a valid CSP implement it with a meta tag in the HTML message. Implementing a CSP is perceived as a burden with budgets and teams already stretched to manage these resource-heavy websites.

VPS hosting

Coping with the demand for high resources doesn’t have not be expensive or intimidating. A managed VPS hosting plan is an excellent option for websites on a budget. These plans offer all server accounts individual hardware resources. You’ll have enough CPU to handle app processing loads, memory for caching and processing data efficiently, and the storage you need to keep it intact.

Resource-intensive sites need something extra to perform smoothly, and a managed VPS will let you add and remove resources as needed. Most of these plans also come with a load monitoring tool.

VPS hosting features caching tools, which speed up websites and reduce the load on the server. Your static web pages are generated and stored in advance, meaning the content management system won’t need to interact with a database to extract the required data.

If you opt for managed hosting, the provider will configure your server. This means you only have partial control over the configuration. If you’d like full control, unmanaged hosting is a more suitable option.

Cloud hosting

In 2024, 84% of companies use private cloud services, and 96% use the public cloud. Cloud hosting is quite affordable for individual users. On average, basic cloud hosting costs $8.47 a month. Proponents of cloud hosting would say that in a perfect world, the traffic to your site would increase gradually over time. This would make it possible to scale by adding resources in a controlled way and improving your IT infrastructure.

Obviously, the world is not perfect, and your site might experience a sudden surge in traffic due to a viral post or an unusual event. However, an analysis of 5,000 social videos shows that just 1% went viral.

If you want to plan for a high traffic event regardless, more power to you. As mentioned, this doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg. It’s a good idea to host your site in the cloud if you plan on growing it and feel it’s potentially susceptible to such an event. Cloud hosting providers are capable of absorbing huge traffic spikes. During the event, the website owner will pay more, but if it’s brief, costs will be contained.