1. Managing Disk Space Usage
On the Stellar plan, you are limited to 20 GB of SSD storage. This sounds like a lot, but it can fill up quickly due to:
- Email Storage: Old emails with large attachments are the #1 cause of space issues. Clean out your "Sent" and "Trash" folders.
- Backups: If you use plugins like UpdraftPlus, ensure they are sending backups to the cloud (like Dropbox or Drive) instead of keeping them on your server.
- Staging Sites: Forgotten staging sites or development folders can double your storage usage overnight.
2. Understanding the Inode Limit
An "Inode" is essentially any single file or folder on your server. Stellar and Stellar Plus have a 300,000 inode limit. If you have too many small files, your site will crash even if you have plenty of GBs left.
- Image Thumbnails: WordPress often generates 10+ versions of every image you upload. Use a plugin like Regenerate Thumbnails to clean up unused sizes.
- Cache Files: Some caching plugins generate thousands of static HTML files. Clear your cache regularly and exclude unnecessary pages.
3. Reducing CPU and Memory Load
If your site is slow, it might not be a storage issue—it might be a resource issue. Namecheap uses LVE (Lightweight Virtual Environment) to throttle sites that use too many resources.
- Avoid "Heavy" Plugins: E-commerce plugins and page builders use significant RAM.
- Use a CDN: Offload your images and scripts to Cloudflare to reduce the number of requests your server has to handle.
When Optimization Isn't Enough
If you have followed these steps and are still hitting limits, it's time to upgrade. Check out our Plan Comparison Guide to see which level you should move to next.