Shared hosting advertises “Node.js support” but infrastructure designed for PHP can’t handle persistent processes. Entry Process limits, RAM caps, and cPanel process management break Node apps. Learn what real Node.js hosting requires.
Your Node.js hosting provider advertises “Node.js support” on their shared hosting plans. You deploy your Express app, configure the startup script, everything looks fine in the control panel. Then reality hits – random crashes, mysterious timeouts, 508 errors under minimal load, processes that won’t stay running. Within 24 hours, support suspends your account for “excessive resource usage.”
The dirty secret of shared hosting is that it’s architected for PHP, not Node.js. The fundamental operating model – how web servers handle requests, how process managers work, how resources get allocated – assumes short-lived PHP scripts that execute and die. Node.js applications run continuously as persistent processes with event loops, WebSockets, and long-running connections. Trying to run Node.js on traditional shared hosting is like installing a jet engine in a bicycle frame. The hardware might physically fit, but the architecture fundamentally can’t handle it.
Most providers know this. They advertise “Node.js support” anyway because competitors do. They bury restrictions deep in Terms of Service, set impossible resource limits through CloudLinux, and wait for customers to discover the incompatibility through production failures. When apps crash, support blames your code. When you outgrow their crippled environment, they upsell VPS plans at premium prices.
This article explains exactly why shared hosting architecture breaks Node.js applications through technical analysis of process models, resource allocation, and infrastructure limitations. No vendor marketing – just engineering reality about what Node.js needs and why traditional shared hosting can’t provide it.
Understanding why shared hosting fails for Node.js requires understanding how fundamentally different PHP and Node.js execution models are. This isn’t about programming language preference – it’s about how application processes interact with web servers and operating systems.
PHP applications run under the request-response model. Apache or LiteSpeed receives an HTTP request, spawns a PHP-FPM worker process, executes the PHP script, returns the response, and terminates the process. The entire lifecycle completes in milliseconds. Each request is isolated. If one PHP script crashes, only that single request fails – other requests continue unaffected. Memory leaks don’t accumulate because processes die after each request.
Web servers optimized for PHP treat each script as disposable. Apache MultiProcessing Modules spawn hundreds of worker processes, each handling one request then dying or returning to the pool. LiteSpeed implements similar patterns with LSAPI. Resource limits apply per-request – if a PHP script uses 512MB RAM, the process terminates after the response, freeing memory immediately.
Node.js operates completely differently. Your application starts once and runs continuously as a long-lived process listening on a port. The Node.js event loop handles thousands of concurrent requests through asynchronous I/O without spawning new processes. One Express.js server process serves all requests. WebSocket connections remain open for hours or days. Background jobs execute while serving HTTP traffic. The application never stops until you manually kill it or the server restarts.
This architectural difference creates fundamental incompatibility with shared hosting infrastructure designed for PHP. Apache/LiteSpeed web servers don’t manage persistent Node.js processes – they manage request handlers. CloudLinux resource limits assume processes that die after requests – not applications that run indefinitely. Control panels like cPanel implement process managers for PHP-FPM, not Node.js applications with PM2 or Forever.
Traditional shared hosting treats processes as ephemeral request handlers. Node.js applications are persistent application servers. The infrastructure mismatch isn’t a configuration issue – it’s fundamental architectural incompatibility that can’t be fixed with better settings.
CloudLinux LVE (Lightweight Virtual Environment) controls resource allocation on shared hosting through limits including Entry Processes, which most Node.js developers have never heard of until their applications mysteriously fail. Understanding Entry Processes explains why Node.js apps crash on shared hosting while PHP sites run fine with identical visitor traffic.
Entry Processes (EP) represent the maximum number of concurrent Apache/LiteSpeed processes your account can run simultaneously. When a visitor requests a PHP page, Apache spawns a worker process that increments your EP count by one. The process executes the PHP script and terminates, decrementing EP count. Brief traffic spikes might consume 10-20 EPs temporarily, but processes die within milliseconds, freeing slots for new requests.
Typical shared hosting EP limits range from 20 on budget plans to 50 on premium shared hosting. These limits work fine for PHP because processes are short-lived. Even under traffic spikes, PHP processes execute and release EP slots in under 100ms. The limit controls simultaneous processing, not total request capacity.
Node.js breaks this model completely. Your Node.js application starts and occupies one Entry Process indefinitely. That process never terminates. It holds the EP slot forever while serving thousands of requests through its internal event loop. From CloudLinux’s perspective, you’re permanently consuming one Entry Process. This seems reasonable until you realize what happens during normal operation.
If your Node.js app needs to connect to a database, that database connection might spawn additional processes. Background workers, task queues, scheduled jobs – each potentially consumes an EP. The Node.js process manager like PM2 running in cluster mode spawns multiple Node processes to utilize all CPU cores. Each clustered process consumes an EP permanently.
Common scenario: Node.js Express app with PM2 cluster mode on 4-core shared hosting. PM2 spawns 4 Node.js processes to utilize all cores. Database connection pooling spawns 2 persistent connections. Redis worker for background jobs holds 1 process. Total: 7 Entry Processes consumed permanently out of a 20-30 EP limit. You haven’t served a single visitor yet – just running the application at idle consumes one-third of your total allowed concurrent processes.
Now traffic arrives. Each visitor to your PHP neighbor’s WordPress site consumes 1 EP for ~50ms. Your Node.js app serves 100 concurrent users through its internal event loop without spawning new processes. But CloudLinux sees you holding 7 EPs permanently while the WordPress site cycles through its allocation. When combined load peaks, CloudLinux throttles based on EP count, not actual resource consumption.
The fatal scenario happens like this: Your Node.js app runs fine with 7 persistent EPs. Traffic increases. Your neighbor’s PHP sites generate request spikes that temporarily consume their allocated EPs. Combined EP usage across all accounts on the server approaches the limit. CloudLinux sees your account holding processes indefinitely and starts rejecting new process spawns. Your Node.js app tries to spawn a new worker or database connection. EP limit blocks it. Application crashes with “Cannot fork process” errors. Visitors see 508 Resource Limit Reached.
From your application logs, everything looks fine until sudden unexplainable crashes. From CloudLinux’s perspective, you’re hogging processes that never release. The infrastructure is fundamentally incompatible with persistent process models.
PHP developers never hit EP limits because their processes die after requests. Node.js developers hit EP limits just by running their applications. The limit that makes perfect sense for PHP creates random production crashes for Node.js. No amount of code optimization fixes this – the hosting infrastructure doesn’t understand persistent processes.
PHP’s disposable process model provides automatic memory leak protection that Node.js completely loses. This difference transforms minor memory management bugs from annoyances into production disasters on shared hosting with strict RAM limits.
PHP executes a script, allocates memory, serves the response, and terminates the process. All allocated memory gets freed when the process dies. If your WordPress plugin leaks 10MB per request, it doesn’t matter – the memory releases after the response. The next request starts with a clean slate. Memory leaks in PHP are self-correcting because processes are ephemeral.
CloudLinux RAM limits on shared hosting typically allocate 512MB to 2GB depending on plan tier. For PHP, these limits apply per-process for brief durations. A PHP script can consume 500MB generating a complex report, return the result, and free the memory immediately. The limit prevents individual requests from consuming excessive RAM, but short-term usage patterns allow occasional spikes.
Node.js applications run as persistent processes where memory leaks accumulate indefinitely. A small memory leak that allocates 1MB per request goes unnoticed in PHP – each process dies and frees the memory. In Node.js, that same leak grows continuously. After 1,000 requests, your process consumes an extra 1GB. After 10,000 requests, the process hits your CloudLinux RAM limit and the entire application crashes. Every visitor experiences downtime, not just the current request.
Common Node.js memory leak sources demonstrate why shared hosting amplifies the problem. Event emitters that don’t remove listeners accumulate memory with each event. Caching layers without eviction policies grow unbounded. Circular references in JavaScript create memory retention. Database connection pools that don’t close connections leak handles. Global variables that accumulate data never release.
In development environments with process restarts, these leaks remain hidden. A server that reboots nightly or restarts on code deploys never accumulates enough leaked memory to notice the problem. The application runs fine locally, passes tests, deploys to production – then crashes after 3 days of uptime when cumulative leaks exceed RAM limits.
Shared hosting exacerbates memory leak problems through strict limits and no graceful degradation. VPS or dedicated servers with 16GB RAM might run for weeks before memory leaks become visible. Shared hosting accounts with 1-2GB RAM hit limits within days or hours. CloudLinux doesn’t gradually slow your application – it kills the entire process instantly when RAM limits are reached. Every visitor sees errors simultaneously.
Diagnosing memory leaks on shared hosting is nearly impossible without proper tooling. Node.js profiling tools require SSH access and sufficient permissions to collect heap snapshots. Many shared hosts don’t provide the access level needed to run memory profilers. cPanel logs don’t show incremental memory growth – just sudden OOM (Out of Memory) kills. Developers see mysterious crashes with no useful diagnostic information.
The correct solution is disciplined memory management with tools like clinic.js, heapdump analysis, and automated process restarts before leaks accumulate. But shared hosting environments often lack the tools and control needed to implement these practices. You’re flying blind with insufficient RAM buffers to survive even minor leaks.
PHP developers don’t think about memory leaks because process disposal handles it automatically. Node.js developers on shared hosting spend weeks debugging production crashes caused by tiny leaks that would be irrelevant in properly resourced environments.
Control panels like cPanel and Plesk evolved to manage PHP applications, MySQL databases, email servers – not long-running Node.js processes with complex lifecycle requirements. The process management tools these panels provide work fine for traditional web applications but fall apart when handling Node.js deployment patterns.
cPanel’s Node.js Selector interface, when it exists, provides basic functionality: select Node version, specify application root, define entry point file (typically app.js or server.js), click “Start Application.” Behind the scenes, cPanel spawns your Node process using Phusion Passenger or a simple process spawner. The interface shows running/stopped status. That’s it. No process monitoring. No automatic restarts on crashes. No log aggregation. No health checks. No zero-downtime deployments.
Real Node.js production deployments use process managers like PM2, Forever, or systemd unit files that provide critical functionality cPanel lacks entirely. PM2 handles cluster mode to utilize all CPU cores. It automatically restarts crashed processes. It rotates logs to prevent disk fill. It provides memory usage monitoring and automatic restarts when memory thresholds are exceeded. It enables zero-downtime deployments through graceful process reloads. None of this exists in cPanel’s basic process spawning.
Attempting to use PM2 on cPanel shared hosting creates new problems. PM2 expects to manage processes as the primary process supervisor. cPanel also wants to manage processes through its interface. The two systems conflict. cPanel’s interface shows your app as “stopped” while PM2 actually runs it. Stopping the app through cPanel doesn’t kill PM2-managed processes. Starting through cPanel spawns duplicate processes alongside PM2 instances.
Process persistence becomes unreliable. Shared hosting servers restart periodically for updates or maintenance. PHP applications don’t care – Apache starts automatically and serves requests immediately after restart. Node.js applications need manual restart or systemd unit files to auto-start on boot. cPanel provides no mechanism for this. Your application stops working after server reboots until you manually SSH in and restart processes.
Resource monitoring through cPanel provides metrics useless for Node.js troubleshooting. cPanel shows disk usage, bandwidth consumption, email usage. It doesn’t show Node.js process memory consumption trends, event loop lag, or asynchronous operation queue depths. The metrics that matter for Node.js performance aren’t exposed through the interface.
Deployment workflows that work elsewhere break on cPanel. Modern Node.js deployments use git webhooks or CI/CD pipelines that pull code, install dependencies via npm, run tests, and perform zero-downtime restarts. cPanel has basic Git integration for pulling repositories but no hooks for automated dependency installation or coordinated restarts. Developers resort to manual SSH deployments with hand-crafted scripts that duplicate PM2’s functionality.
Log management is primitive. Node.js applications log to stdout/stderr which PM2 captures and rotates automatically. cPanel’s process spawner might capture logs to files, but without rotation they grow unbounded and fill disk quotas. Application logs get mixed with Apache logs, making troubleshooting difficult. No centralized log aggregation exists.
The fundamental problem is cPanel was designed when “web hosting” meant “serving PHP files.” Its architecture assumes applications are collections of files that Apache serves, not long-running server processes that need lifecycle management. Adding Node.js support through basic process spawning doesn’t address the architectural mismatch.
Proper Node.js hosting needs process supervisors, health monitoring, graceful restarts, log management, metrics collection – none of which cPanel provides. Developers trying to run production Node.js applications on cPanel shared hosting end up building workarounds that replicate functionality standard in any modern deployment platform.
When shared hosting providers advertise “Node.js support,” they’re technically telling the truth – you can run Node processes. What they’re not telling you is that they’ve deliberately crippled the environment to make serious Node.js development impossible, forcing users toward expensive VPS upsells.
Resource consumption profiles for Node.js applications differ drastically from PHP. A WordPress blog running PHP might spike to 100% CPU for 200ms processing a page request, then drop to idle. Average CPU usage over time stays low. Node.js applications maintain consistent baseline CPU load from the event loop and background tasks. What looks like “excessive” usage to CloudLinux monitoring is normal operation for event-driven applications.
Shared hosting economics depend on overselling resources by banking that most customers use minimal resources most of the time. If 200 WordPress blogs share a 16-core server, that works because they’re mostly idle. If 50 Node.js applications run constant event loops and WebSocket connections, they consume significantly more baseline resources. Hosting providers can’t pack as many Node.js accounts per server while maintaining advertised performance.
The solution is deliberate crippling through resource limits. Providers set Entry Process limits that make clustering impossible. They cap NPROC (max processes) so low that spawning workers crashes applications. They restrict RAM allocations below what modern JavaScript frameworks require. They disable SSH access on cheaper tiers, making npm dependency installation impossible. They ban process managers like PM2 through Terms of Service.
Support complexity drives additional restrictions. PHP troubleshooting follows predictable patterns: check file permissions, verify database connectivity, confirm PHP version compatibility. Support teams can handle this. Node.js introduces dependency conflicts (npm hell), version incompatibilities, memory profiling, event loop debugging, async operation analysis. Support complexity increases dramatically. Providers avoid this by making Node.js barely functional, ensuring customers who need it upgrade to VPS where “you manage everything yourself.”
Security concerns justify further restrictions. PHP in shared hosting runs in isolated environments with disable_functions removing dangerous operations. Node.js has full JavaScript execution including child_process spawning, file system access, network operations. Providers worry that one compromised Node.js app could impact other accounts. Rather than implement proper isolation, they restrict Node.js to the point of near-uselessness.
The classic bait-and-switch works like this: Advertise “Node.js Hosting – starting at $3.99/month!” to rank in search results. Customer signs up, discovers 20 Entry Process limit makes their app crash randomly. Support says “Node.js applications require more resources than our shared plans provide. We recommend upgrading to VPS for $29.99/month.” Customer either pays the upsell or leaves negative review. Provider doesn’t care – the upsell revenue from the 10% who pay exceeds the cost of lost customers who leave.
Some providers are more honest, explicitly stating “Node.js available on VPS and dedicated servers only.” Others list “Node.js Support” in feature charts without mentioning it’s crippled beyond functionality. The most deceptive ones provide Node.js version selectors in cPanel to create the impression of proper support while silently enforcing limits that prevent real usage.
Check your provider’s actual policies. GoDaddy shared hosting technically “supports” Node.js but limits processes so aggressively that even a single cluster-mode process hits limits. Bluehost advertises Node.js on shared plans but requires VPS for proper deployment. Hostinger provides Node.js but documentation reveals extensive restrictions that make production deployment impractical.
The hosting industry has normalized selling “Node.js support” while providing infrastructure fundamentally incompatible with Node.js requirements. It’s not accidental oversights – it’s deliberate product design that uses Node.js as a VPS upsell mechanism rather than a functional shared hosting feature.
Understanding what Node.js applications genuinely require clarifies why most shared hosting fails and what infrastructure actually works. This isn’t about premium features or enterprise extras – these are baseline requirements for functional Node.js deployment.
Persistent process management represents the foundation. Your Node.js application must start automatically on server boot, restart automatically if it crashes, and survive server maintenance without manual intervention. This requires systemd unit files, PM2 with startup scripts, or equivalent process supervisors. cPanel’s “click to start app” doesn’t cut it – you need robust lifecycle management.
Adequate RAM allocation matters more for Node.js than PHP. Modern JavaScript frameworks load entire dependency trees into memory. Express apps with typical middleware stack consume 100-200MB at idle before serving a single request. React Server-Side Rendering with Next.js can easily require 500MB-1GB. Database connection pools, caching layers, session stores all consume memory. Minimum viable RAM for production Node.js is 1GB with 2GB recommended for anything beyond simple APIs.
Multiple CPU cores become essential for handling real traffic. Node.js is single-threaded per process but applications use cluster mode to spawn worker processes matching CPU count. A 2-core server runs 2 workers. A 4-core server runs 4 workers. Shared hosting with 1-2 vCPU cores severely limits concurrent request handling capacity. Real applications need 2-4 cores minimum.
SSH access isn’t optional – it’s mandatory for Node.js workflow. You need SSH to run npm install for dependency management, execute database migrations, inspect running processes, view application logs, restart services during troubleshooting, and deploy via Git. Providers that restrict SSH to “business” or “premium” tiers make Node.js development impossible on cheaper plans.
Port availability presents another hard requirement. Node.js applications listen on ports (typically 3000, 8080, or custom ports). Shared hosting must either provide reverse proxy from standard HTTP ports to your application port or allow custom port access through firewalls. Many shared hosts block custom ports entirely, making Node.js apps unreachable.
npm and Node.js version management enables keeping dependencies current. Security patches release frequently. Framework versions update constantly. Being stuck on Node 14 when your application requires Node 18 features breaks deployment. Version switchers should support Node.js 16+ at minimum with ability to upgrade to latest LTS versions.
Sufficient disk I/O throughput matters because npm install operations read/write thousands of small files from node_modules. Budget shared hosting with slow HDD storage makes npm operations painfully slow. NVMe SSD storage significantly improves development experience and deployment speed.
Environment variable configuration allows separating development settings from production. API keys, database credentials, service endpoints all belong in environment variables, not hardcoded. Control panels need interfaces for setting environment variables that Node.js applications read at startup.
Process resource limits need sensible defaults. Entry Processes limits should accommodate cluster mode (4-8 EPs for application workers). NPROC limits should allow supervisor processes plus workers. Memory limits should provide headroom beyond typical consumption. Limits designed for PHP don’t work for Node.js.
Database connectivity requires proper networking. Node.js apps commonly use PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis for caching, or MySQL with connection pooling. Some shared hosts restrict database access to localhost only or provide no database access at all. Production Node.js needs flexible database connectivity.
SSL/TLS certificate management enables HTTPS for APIs and WebSocket connections. Let’s Encrypt integration should work seamlessly for custom domains. Wildcard certificates or multiple domain support helps microservice architectures.
These aren’t premium enterprise requirements – they’re baseline functionality for legitimate Node.js deployment. Shared hosting that provides all of these actually supports Node.js. Shared hosting lacking multiple items from this list is selling marketing buzzwords, not functional development environments.
At WebHostMost, we don’t advertise “Node.js support” and then cripple it through impossible limits. Our Node.js hosting works because we designed infrastructure accounting for persistent processes, adequate resources, and proper tooling – not because we slapped a version selector in DirectAdmin and called it supported.
Node.js version coverage spans the entire ecosystem from legacy 6.17 through current 22.17 with instant switching via DirectAdmin’s version selector. Testing compatibility across different Node versions doesn’t require spinning up multiple servers or containers. Switch versions in seconds, test your application, switch back. The same flexibility PHP users expect should be available for Node.js.
Web Terminal integration provides proper NPM environment access directly in DirectAdmin. No SSH client configuration needed. Click terminal, get a shell with Node.js and npm already in PATH. Run npm install, execute migrations, check process status, inspect logs. The terminal supports virtual environments so your npm global packages don’t conflict across projects.
SSH access comes standard on all paid plans because Node.js development without SSH is pointless. We’re not gatekeeping basic functionality behind premium tiers. The Micro plan at $2.5/month includes full SSH access. Deploy via Git, automate workflows, use whatever tools you need. No artificial restrictions.
DirectAdmin provides better process handling than cPanel because it’s lighter, more scriptable, and doesn’t try to reinvent process supervision. You can integrate PM2 or systemd without fighting the control panel. DirectAdmin manages the hosting environment, you manage application processes – clear separation of concerns.
Resource allocation through CloudLinux LVE uses sensible limits designed for modern applications, not just PHP. Micro plan provides 1GB RAM and 2 vCPU cores – enough for development and small production apps. Pro plan delivers 2GB RAM and 4 cores – handles real traffic. Ultra plan includes 4GB RAM and 6 cores – serious production capacity. These aren’t marketing numbers – actual allocated resources your processes can consume.
Git repository integration enables standard deployment workflows. Push to repository, pull changes on server, run install scripts, restart application. DirectAdmin’s Git tools work with Node.js projects without special configuration. Use whatever CI/CD pipeline you prefer.
We’re transparent about limitations. Node.js hosting only available on paid plans – not the free 125MB tier. Running persistent processes requires resources we can’t subsidize in free hosting. High-traffic applications with thousands of concurrent WebSocket connections need VPS, not shared hosting. We’ll tell you honestly when shared hosting limits won’t support your requirements rather than letting you discover it through production crashes.
We don’t upsell Node.js as VPS bait. Our shared hosting legitimately runs Node.js applications for developers and small businesses who don’t need dedicated infrastructure. When applications outgrow shared hosting resource limits, we’re honest about it – your application succeeded, now it needs bigger infrastructure. That’s success, not failure.
The philosophy is straightforward: if we advertise Node.js support, it should actually work for real applications, not just hello-world examples. We designed limits, provided tools, and allocated resources making this possible. Other providers could do the same but choose not to because crippling Node.js drives VPS upsells.
Shared hosting has legitimate limits. Pretending otherwise wastes everyone’s time. Understanding when your Node.js application genuinely needs VPS prevents both premature infrastructure investment and catastrophic production failures from outgrowing shared environments.
Traffic volume presents the clearest upgrade signal. If your application consistently serves 10,000+ requests per hour with sustained load, shared hosting resource limits become insufficient regardless of how well-configured the environment is. The cumulative CPU usage from constant event loop processing exceeds what shared hosting can allocate without impacting other accounts. VPS provides dedicated CPU cores handling your load without noisy neighbor interference.
WebSocket connection count matters more than simple page views. Each WebSocket holds an open connection consuming memory and requiring active event loop attention. An application maintaining 500+ concurrent WebSocket connections needs the memory and network capacity VPS provides. Shared hosting RAM limits and connection management can’t sustain that load reliably.
Complex microservice architectures don’t fit shared hosting models at all. If your application runs as multiple Node.js services communicating via internal APIs – API server, background worker, real-time notification service, scheduled job processor – you need isolation and inter-service networking VPS enables. Running multiple independent Node processes on shared hosting quickly exhausts Entry Process and RAM limits.
Docker containerization signals VPS requirement immediately. If your deployment uses Docker Compose orchestrating multiple containers, you’re beyond shared hosting capabilities. Container orchestration needs root access, network isolation, and resource allocation shared environments don’t provide.
Database-intensive operations with connection pooling benefit from VPS network throughput. Applications maintaining 50+ database connections through pgBouncer or MySQL connection pools need the network capacity and database server proximity VPS can provide. Shared hosting database access through remote connections adds latency that compounds with high query volume.
Third-party API dependencies requiring webhook endpoints need reliable static IPs and 100% uptime that shared hosting can’t guarantee. If your application receives webhooks from payment processors, notification services, or external integrations, the reliability guarantees VPS provides prevent lost transactions or data.
Memory-intensive operations like video processing, PDF generation, image manipulation, or data analysis require RAM exceeding shared hosting limits. Operations consuming 4GB+ RAM need VPS regardless of traffic volume. Shared hosting RAM caps prevent these workloads from functioning at all.
Custom system dependencies indicate VPS need. If your application requires specific compiled libraries, system packages, or custom network configurations, shared hosting restriction on system-level changes makes deployment impossible. VPS root access enables installing whatever dependencies your application requires.
Development team size and workflow complexity justify VPS when coordinating multiple developers. Staging environments, CI/CD integration, automated deployments, monitoring infrastructure – these workflows work better with VPS control than fighting shared hosting limitations.
Compliance requirements around data isolation, audit logging, or specific security configurations might mandate VPS. Shared hosting multi-tenant environments can’t provide the isolation some industries require. Healthcare, finance, or legal applications often need dedicated infrastructure regardless of traffic volume.
The economic calculation becomes straightforward: WebHostMost shared hosting provides Node.js support from $2.5/month. When your application consistently exceeds Entry Process limits, hits RAM caps multiple times per week, or requires features shared hosting can’t provide, VPS makes sense. Not before. Don’t spend $50/month on VPS hosting a hobby project serving 100 users. Do upgrade when production requirements exceed shared hosting capabilities.
We’re honest when applications outgrow shared hosting. If your monitoring shows consistent resource limit hits, if uptime becomes unreliable due to shared environment constraints, if deployment workflows need VPS features – we’ll tell you. WebHostMost specializes in shared hosting done right. When applications need more than shared hosting can provide, we acknowledge that honestly rather than selling crippled services pretending they’re adequate.
The hosting industry’s dirty secret is that “Node.js support” on most shared hosting is marketing theater designed to check feature comparison boxes while providing infrastructure fundamentally incompatible with Node.js requirements. Entry Process limits that assume disposable PHP scripts break persistent Node processes. RAM allocations sufficient for WordPress become insufficient for modern JavaScript frameworks. Control panels designed for request-response applications can’t manage long-running processes properly.
This isn’t a technical limitation – it’s a business decision. Hosting providers could allocate adequate resources, provide proper process management tools, and support Node.js legitimately on shared infrastructure. WebHostMost proves this works. Most providers choose not to because crippling Node.js creates VPS upsell opportunities worth more than honest shared hosting would generate.
If you’re running Node.js applications, stop tolerating providers who advertise support they don’t deliver. Check actual resource limits – Entry Processes, RAM caps, NPROC restrictions. Verify SSH access on your plan tier. Confirm process management capabilities beyond basic start/stop. Test whether your application actually runs under production load without mysterious crashes.
WebHostMost provides Node.js 6.17 through 22.17 on all paid plans starting at $2.5/month with adequate resources, Web Terminal access, SSH included, and DirectAdmin integration that doesn’t fight against persistent processes. When applications outgrow shared hosting, we’re honest about it. Until then, your Node.js applications work without artificial limitations designed to force upgrades.
The future of web hosting shouldn’t require choosing between unusable “Node.js support” on shared hosting or paying $50/month for VPS to run a simple API. Honest shared hosting with proper Node.js infrastructure fills the gap for developers and small businesses who need something better than hobbled environments but don’t need dedicated servers.
Stop accepting “Node.js support” from providers who make it deliberately non-functional. Demand infrastructure that actually works or switch to hosting that delivers what it advertises.
Ready for Node.js hosting that actually works? Explore WebHostMost’s Node.js plans with real support starting at $2.5/month. No credit card required for 14-day trial.
