How much does RAM matter for web hosting?

I have been checking out some new web hosting services both here and in some searches in Google and I have noticed that there is some differences between the amount of RAM that some hosting services offer.

I read somewhere (can't remember where) that RAM is very important for the performance of your site but I am not sure if that's really a big thing or not.

Is this something that I should really look for or are there other things that are more important?

RAM matters for some different things and I really don't know all of them because that's just not my area of expertise but I do know that if you don't have enough RAM then it can cause your website to load slow or even not work right.

Having a lack of RAM can really affect the performance of your website or blog so RAM is always going to be important and it's better to have too much than not enough.

Lots of shared hosting plans skimp on the available RAM that your hosting account has access to so you will want to make sure that you are not short in that area.

Many of these "Unlimited" shared web hosting services only give you access to 256-512MB of RAM which would be ok in some cases but not for many more.

Catherine1 said:

I read somewhere (can't remember where) that RAM is very important for the performance of your site but I am not sure if that's really a big thing or not.

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RAM is definitely important for the performance of your website but it's mostly important when you have a shortage of it and your site slows down or doesn't operate correctly.

RAM can affect many things and having a shortage of available RAM for your sites can even result in your site or sites going down because your resources can't keep up with the demand that is being called for.

It's probably going to have more impact on the performance of your site when you are getting a lot of traffic or have some aspect of your site that is needing more RAM that isn't there.

RAM is definitely something to keep in mind when checking around and shopping for web hosting.

If your web hosting service doesn't give you enough RAM to make your site run properly then it's probably going to have a lot of downtime and errors when trying to load pages if it's under too much load.

It's better to have more than you need than not enough.

Storm said:

If your web hosting service doesn't give you enough RAM to make your site run properly then it's probably going to have a lot of downtime and errors when trying to load pages if it's under too much load.

It's better to have more than you need than not enough.

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That's one of the things that I figured about it. I just don't know if there is some kind of number amount that I should look for.

Catherine1 said:

That's one of the things that I figured about it. I just don't know if there is some kind of number amount that I should look for.

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I think that it will depend a lot on what your website was created with as far as software. I think that one website with something like Wordpress for example that doesn't get a lot of traffic will be ok with maybe half a GB of RAM. It depends on a lot of things though.

I think that if the RAM makes a big difference on how well your website loads and it can help it from not loading properly then you should make sure that your website has enough. I don't know how much is needed but I think that the cheaper web hosts will give you less.

Storm said:

I think that it will depend a lot on what your website was created with as far as software. I think that one website with something like Wordpress for example that doesn't get a lot of traffic will be ok with maybe half a GB of RAM. It depends on a lot of things though.

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I use Wordpress. I can do most things I need to in that so I stick with it.

I saw that some hosts don't say how much RAM they give you. The ones that do are saying anywhere between 256mb and 1 gb.

Catherine1 said:

I use Wordpress. I can do most things I need to in that so I stick with it.

I saw that some hosts don't say how much RAM they give you. The ones that do are saying anywhere between 256mb and 1 gb.

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They are probably not telling you the specs because they don't want to drive you away.

RAM isn't the only thing that affects the performance of a website though. Just pointing that out.

Storm said:

They are probably not telling you the specs because they don't want to drive you away.

RAM isn't the only thing that affects the performance of a website though. Just pointing that out.

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I think that some don't want to tell you because they know that they will probably lose you to another competitor.

I actually got onto the live chat of a few different web hosts and 2 couldn't or wouldn't tell me how much RAM the accounts came with. They were avoiding the question and it was obvious.

Catherine1 said:

I think that some don't want to tell you because they know that they will probably lose you to another competitor.

I actually got onto the live chat of a few different web hosts and 2 couldn't or wouldn't tell me how much RAM the accounts came with. They were avoiding the question and it was obvious.

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If they are avoiding giving you important information before the potential sell then you should avoid them because they are hiding something or they don't care.

Find another host to check out.