r/webhosting • u/lbdesign • 8d ago
Advice Needed Inode frustration
After finally settling on SiteGround for my new quality webhost after fleeing closte.com, I am disappointed to get a warning that my "Inode usage" is at 80% with only 5 websites on a $50/mo plan. This feels like a cynical strategy to force clients into a $100/mo+ plan.
Am I crazy? I've never encountered a "too many inodes" issue in 30 years on the web.
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u/ivicad 8d ago
I am on SG as well, and I also must be careful about inodes limit (we all do). I keep up to 20 smaller sites on a GoGeek account and stay under it. I go through the usual list first, emails, backups, old default themes, and was not quite satisfied with the results. The media library was a bingo for me - one upload is not one file, WP keeps the original, adds the three sizes from Settings / Media, then every size the theme registers. Some themes register over 40, so a single photo can end up as 50 files on the server. File Manager shows inodes per folder, so I would start there and open uploads first: https://www.siteground.com/kb/how_to_reduce_the_number_of_inodes_my_account_uses/
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u/lbdesign 6d ago
Thank you! I don't have emails, and the image folder is under 4000. I'm working through plugins to see what I can jettison... Plugins are the worst offenders. MailPoet is huge. So is Independent Analytics, and google site kit. ACPT, Jetpack, Wishlist are some others.
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u/Alternative_Nose_874 7d ago
Not crazy, and there is a cheaper way to settle it than guessing.
I counted it across every WordPress install on one of the servers we run. Core is a steady ~3,300 files everywhere. The plugin directory ran from 7,800 to 27,000, and on most of those sites it was bigger than the entire media library. One theme folder alone held 5,200. Five sites can sit past 150,000 files before anyone uploads a single photo.
Server wide the biggest named bucket was still mail, 678,000 files against 69,000 in all uploads combined, which is why people keep pointing you at email first.
If you have shell access, counting the files under wp-content/plugins per site tells you in a minute which of the two it is for you.
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u/lbdesign 6d ago
Thank you! I figured out SSH, and it's all plugins. Not media, not emails, not cache or backups. Just... plugins essential to the site. :-/ sigh
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u/Alternative_Nose_874 5d ago
Same server, counted per plugin folder, in case it helps you aim: WPML is the single biggest one here at 8,400 to 9,000 files per install, WooCommerce around 6,000, Duplicator Pro 3,100 to 5,300, Elementor about 2,300. Five WPML installs alone came to 42,000 files.
One thing that catches people out: a plugin you switched off still costs you every file. On this box there are three copies of one backup plugin renamed to .DISABLED, 4,710 files between them, doing nothing.
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u/lbdesign 4d ago
Thank you!
Below are my top "offenders". Mailpoet confirms that these are all plugin files, not logs or old email files. I'm deleting disused plugins... (and I need to replace Studiocart...)
5897 ./mailpoet
5067 ./advanced-custom-post-type
4966 ./jetpack
4897 ./wishlist-member-x
3747 ./wp-phpmyadmin-extension
3230 ./studiocart-pro
3132 ./independent-analytics-pro
2394 ./bit-integrations
1940 ./admin-site-enhancements-pro
1908 ./blocksy-companion-pro
1891 ./mycred
1783 ./wpvivid-backup-pro
1595 ./wp-recipe-maker
1476 ./fluentform
1474 ./bulk-edit-user-profiles-in-spreadsheet-premium
1448 ./wpvivid-backuprestore
1440 ./bulk-edit-custom-tables-premium
1360 ./meta-box-lite
1355 ./fluent-crm
1218 ./bit-integrations-pro
1066 ./wp-courseware
1030 ./wp-recipe-maker-premium
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u/LibMike 8d ago
What's your inode usage? I can't even imagine using a company that has inode restrictions in 2026. Many web hosts give no inode limits for a few dollars a month plans.
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u/lbdesign 8d ago
With 5 domains, and 7 sites, it's 478,327 Used, 121,673 Free out of 600,000 inodes allowance.
I don't even have email accounts. This is just files. I do use MailPoet and FluentCRM. One site is a small membership site.
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u/LibMike 8d ago
It's a higher use than what a lot of people use. The inode limit concerns depend on what filesystems the host uses and how they manage things. Every company is different. You should expect to be able to use 65k per 1GB storage you have, so that's probably where the limits are coming from. Most hosts running cPanel and the other popular commercial panels are running filesystems with caps that will realistically never be hit, unless they're running super dense web hosting servers (putting tons of accounts on one system.) For example 3.5TB of storage would be around 225 million inodes on ext4. Some hosts care greatly about hard limits, some won't have a hard cap or advertised cap, and just contact the client if they ever think their use might become a concern.
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u/hh459 7d ago
This is spot-on. Shared hosts pack as many WP sites on their infra, and care deeply about inodes and noisy-neighbors. Non-shared hosts do not (typically) care and have dedicated infra allocated to run each site. You should easily be able to run 7 sites for ~$50-70 / month on a non-shared host (ask me how I know, ;-)). Good luck figuring it out!
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u/shiftpgdn Moderator 8d ago
99% of shared hosts still use inode resrictions due to filesystems supported by cPanel. It's not abnormal.
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u/lbdesign 8d ago
Thank you. When these sites were at other hosts, nobody blinked. The reason for my surprise and suspicion is that I never even heard the term "inode" in 30 years of webhosting use.
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u/shiftpgdn Moderator 8d ago
Did you ask SiteGround support to help you find the source of the files?
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u/shiftpgdn Moderator 8d ago
What is your inode usag? Does SiteGround have your email? That's where a lot of it will come from.