At MwzConnect, we limit the number of Inodes per cPanel account (on Basic and Reseller hosting) to 100,000 (soft limit) and 250,000 (hard limit). What are Inodes, and why are they limited?
An Inode is a data structure in a Unix-style file system that describes a filesystem object such as a file or a directory. It stores the attributes and disk block location(s) of the object's data, including metadata (times of last change, access, modification), as well as owner and permission data. Directories are lists of names assigned to Inodes, containing an entry for itself, its parent, and each of its children.
Simply put, an Inode can be considered a file. We place these limits on our Basic and Reseller hosting packages to optimize for performance, enabling us to provide servers with blazing fast speed.
On average, a small business WordPress website uses around 5,000 Inodes. This number greatly increases if you utilize email on your web hosting account. However, the majority of websites seeking shared or reseller hosting will not exceed this limit. Only websites with a lot of files that aren't properly maintained will face such issues.
To avoid hitting the limit, it's crucial to keep your file structure clean, especially for websites that have been online for years. Truncating your caching directory a couple of times a month is also essential. Additionally, storing large amounts of email on the server can increase the number of Inodes, so it's recommended to download these emails to your computer or clean your spam box regularly.
If you're looking to host multiple domains/websites, investing in a Reseller hosting package is recommended as the Inode limit will be "fresh" with each cPanel account you create. Having many add-on and sub domains will quickly increase the number of Inodes on your account.
In case you hit the limit, we have two limits. The first is 100,000 soft, which means the account will still function but you'll have a warning message in your cPanel. In this case, basic website "housekeeping" should be done to reduce the limit, such as deleting old files and/or emails. Once you hit the 250,000 hard limit, the account will cease to function, and you'll need to bring that number down to continue using it.
For those who reach the 250,000 hard limit, cleaning up their file structure often solves the problem. An account upgrade may be needed for those who still have issues. Our Basic Business package allows for a 250,000 soft / 500,000 hard limit. However, accounts with 100,000 or more Inodes are not included in our complimentary daily backups. Websites that reach this level may be too large for shared hosting and require their own Virtual Private Server. All of our VPS hosting packages do not have any Inode limits.
We place these limits on our accounts to keep our servers running at optimal performance. If you have any questions about these limits or need help cleaning up your account, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're always happy to help!
