Check Website Overload Cause on cPanel, website overload is a common issue that can lead to slow page load times, unresponsive services, or even downtime. This usually happens when your website exceeds the allocated server/VPS resources such as CPU, memory, or input/output operations. Identifying the root causes of website overload is essential for maintaining optimal performance. Fortunately, cPanel provides tools to help monitor and diagnose these issues. Below is a detailed guide on how to Check Website Overload Cause on cPanel’s Resource Usage feature.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Accessing Resource Usage in cPanel
To begin investigating your website’s performance, log in to your cPanel account. After logging in, navigate to the Metrics section, where you will find the Resource Usage option. This tool allows you to monitor the server resources consumed by your website. If you are unable to find it manually, you can use the search bar located at the top of cPanel’s dashboard by typing “Resource Usage.”

Once you access the Resource Usage Dashboard, you’ll be presented with a general status report. This report will indicate the current state of your website in terms of resource consumption:

- No issues in the past 24 hours: Your website is running smoothly without any resource overload.
- Your site has been limited within the past 24 hours: This warning means your website has experienced overload, and specific server resources have exceeded their limits.
- Your site might hit resource limits soon: This indicates that your website is nearing its resource limits, meaning it is likely to become overloaded if additional strain is placed on the server.
Step 2: Check Website Overload Cause on cPanel
Once you are on the Resource Usage Dashboard, you can check Website Overload Cause on cPanel by clicking the Details button or switching to the Current Usage tab. Here, you will find detailed information about your website’s resource consumption, including CPU, memory, inodes, and I/O (input/output) usage.

The resource usage is displayed in graphical format, making it easy to see where the bottlenecks are. By default, the graphs show hourly resource usage, but you can change the settings to show data by minute, day, or month using the Timeframe and Time Unit drop-down menus. This allows you to Check Website Overload Cause on cPanel.
Some key factors to check website overload cause on cPanel in the details:
- CPU Usage: If your website is frequently reaching the CPU limit, it could be caused by resource-intensive scripts, plugins, or high volumes of traffic.
- Memory Usage: High memory usage might indicate inefficient code, large databases, or memory leaks.
- Inode Usage: Inodes represent the number of files and folders on your server. If your inode limit is being exceeded, it could be caused by a large number of small files, such as logs, emails, or cached data.
- Input/Output Operations: High I/O usage could indicate that your website is frequently reading and writing data to the server’s disk, often due to database queries or file uploads.
Step 3: Using Snapshots to Identify Problematic Processes
To gain further insights check Website Overload Cause on cPanel via snapshots in resource usage, click on the Snapshot tab. The snapshot feature provides a list of active processes during a specific timeframe, allowing you to see what was running when the overload occurred. The snapshot shows four columns:
- PID (Process ID): The unique identifier for each process.
- CMD (Command): The name of the process or script that was running (e.g.,
script.php
orhttpd
). - CPU: The percentage of CPU used by each process.
- MEM: The amount of memory consumed by the process.

For example, if a process like script.php
shows CPU usage of 103%, this indicates that this particular script is using more resources than it should, which is a clear sign of inefficiency or poor optimization. This can help you identify whether a specific script, plugin, or application is causing the problem.
You can also select different timeframes by using the date selector at the top of the snapshot page. This is useful for analyzing different periods of the day or week when the overload might have occurred. In many cases, website overloads are caused by spikes in traffic or automated tasks running at specific times, and this feature allows you to zero in on those events.
Step 4: Analyzing Database and HTTP Queries
In addition to checking general server processes, cPanel also allows you to analyze specific types of queries that might be causing the overload. Under the Resource Usage page, there are tabs for Database Queries and HTTP Queries.

- Database Queries: If your website relies heavily on databases (e.g., MySQL), resource-heavy queries could be slowing down your site. The Database Queries tab shows a list of recent queries, allowing you to identify poorly optimized or slow queries.
- HTTP Queries: This section helps track web traffic requests and might reveal if your website is being flooded with too many requests, either from legitimate users or potentially harmful bots.
Step 5: Optimizing Your Website
After check Website Overload Cause on cPanel, the next step is to take corrective actions. Here are a few suggestions:
- Optimize scripts: If certain scripts are using too much CPU or memory, consider optimizing the code or disabling unnecessary plugins.
- Use caching: Implement caching solutions to reduce the load on your server by serving static versions of your web pages.
- Upgrade hosting: If your site is consistently exceeding resource limits, it may be time to upgrade your hosting plan to a higher-tier package that offers more CPU, memory, and bandwidth.
By following these steps and regularly monitoring your website’s resource usage in cPanel, you can check website overload cause on cPanel and resolve website overload issues, ensuring that your site runs smoothly and efficiently.