How much web hosting does a small website need?
Last updated: 26 August 2026 · Reviewed: 26 August 2026 · By: Alston Antony
A Sri Lankan small business website comfortably runs on entry shared or WordPress hosting with 5 to 20 GB storage, unmetered bandwidth (real usage 10 to 30 GB per month), 256 MB to 1 GB PHP memory, and one to three PHP workers. That plan costs about LKR 400 to 1,500 per month billed annually (checked 27 August 2026). The "you need more headroom, buy the big plan" upsell we push back on ignores that most business sites use under 1 GB of storage total and only stress PHP workers, not disk.
What the four resource numbers actually mean
Hosting plans advertise four numbers that most buyers misread. Storage is the disk space on the server: a typical WordPress site with a blog and a few hundred images uses 1 to 3 GB, well under any modern shared plan's cap. Bandwidth is the monthly data transferred to visitors: "unmetered" means no hard cap but fair-use throttling around 30 to 60 GB per month per site on shared tiers. PHP memory is the RAM one page render can use: 256 MB is the WordPress floor, 512 MB is the WooCommerce floor. PHP workers is the concurrent request cap: shared hosting gives one to three workers per site, which is enough for a few hundred simultaneous visitors on a cached site.
Sizing by real site shape
Site shape determines the plan tier more than "site size" does. A brochure or lead-gen site with under 5,000 monthly visitors, under 500 MB of images, and no signed-in area fits any entry shared plan (Hostinger Premium, Namecheap Stellar Plus). A WordPress site with a blog, 1,000 to 5,000 monthly visitors and a moderate plugin load fits an entry managed WordPress or business shared tier (Hostinger Business, SiteGround StartUp). A WooCommerce store with 50 products and 5 to 20 orders per week needs 512 MB PHP memory, daily backups, and a business shared or managed WordPress tier. A site with signed-in dashboards or a directory feature past 10,000 signed-in visits per month usually needs isolated CPU on Cloudways or a VPS.
Storage, bandwidth and PHP memory by site shape
| Site shape | Storage used | Bandwidth / month | PHP memory | Typical LKR / month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brochure / lead-gen | 0.3 to 1 GB | 10 to 20 GB | 256 MB | LKR 400 to 900 |
| WordPress with blog | 1 to 3 GB | 20 to 40 GB | 256 to 512 MB | LKR 500 to 1,500 |
| WooCommerce small store | 3 to 10 GB | 30 to 60 GB | 512 MB | LKR 1,000 to 3,000 |
| WooCommerce with 500+ products | 5 to 20 GB | 50 to 150 GB | 512 MB to 1 GB | LKR 3,000 to 9,000 |
| Signed-in dashboards / directory | 2 to 15 GB | 30 to 120 GB | 1 to 2 GB | LKR 3,700+ (Cloudways / VPS) |
LKR bands assume annual billing on Hostinger, SiteGround or a well-vetted local host, USD/LKR 340.
When to size up - the real triggers
Sizing up is a decision driven by measured limits, not by feel. The three triggers are recurring throttle emails from the host (CPU or memory notices more than once a week), TTFB rising past 800 ms on cached WordPress pages measured from a Colombo network, and PHP fatal errors ("Allowed memory size exhausted") appearing in the WordPress site health screen. Any one of the three warrants a look at the next tier; two together is a move signal. Traffic above 20,000 monthly signed-in visits is a separate threshold, because signed-in traffic bypasses the CDN cache and lands on the origin every request.
Frequently asked questions
How much bandwidth does a Sri Lankan small business site actually use?
10 to 30 GB per month for a brochure or lead-gen site with 3,000 to 10,000 monthly visitors. Video, uncompressed images and file downloads add fast; a single product video streamed by 500 visitors can consume 20 GB alone. Shared hosts advertise unmetered bandwidth, which is fine because typical sites are nowhere near the fair-use ceiling.
What PHP memory limit do I need for WordPress?
256 MB is the practical floor for WordPress with a normal plugin load; WooCommerce prefers 512 MB. Hostinger, SiteGround and Namecheap all default to at least 256 MB on shared plans. If a site white-screens with 'Allowed memory size exhausted', raise the limit before rebuilding the plugin stack.
Does a WordPress plugin count against storage?
Yes but not much. A typical plugin adds 2 to 20 MB. The storage hog on WordPress is uploaded images and full-site backups, not plugin code. A store with 500 products and no image optimisation can consume 2 to 3 GB in images alone.
How many websites can I host on one shared plan?
Entry shared plans host one domain. Business tiers - Hostinger Business, SiteGround GrowBig, Namecheap Stellar Business - host 50 to 100 sites at LKR 800 to 1,800 per month, which is often cheaper than reseller hosting for a freelancer with fewer than ten client sites.
Sources
- Hostinger - shared plan resource limits — Storage, bandwidth, PHP memory across tiers (checked 26 Aug 2026)
- SiteGround - StartUp and GrowBig limits — Sites per plan, monthly visits, storage (checked 26 Aug 2026)