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"Resource Limit Is Reached" (Error 508): What It Means and How to Fix It

Your website suddenly shows a plain page saying "508 Resource Limit Is Reached", sometimes with the words "The website is temporarily unable to service your request as it exceeded resource limit". A few minutes later it works again. Then it happens again.

  • Troubleshooting fix
  • Difficulty: Moderate
  • 7 min read
  • Updated
  • Extrion Knowledge Center

Your website suddenly shows a plain page saying "508 Resource Limit Is Reached", sometimes with the words "The website is temporarily unable to service your request as it exceeded resource limit". A few minutes later it works again. Then it happens again.

This error comes from CloudLinux, the operating system many shared hosting servers run under cPanel. CloudLinux puts each hosting account in its own "lightweight virtual environment" (LVE) with fixed limits, so one busy website cannot slow down every other site on the server. When your site hits one of those limits, visitors see an error instead of your page.

The good news: it is your account being limited, not the server failing, and the cause can usually be found and reduced.

Symptoms

  • Visitors see "508 Resource Limit Is Reached", often at busy times.
  • The site, or its admin area, is very slow before the error appears.
  • 500 or 503 errors, or PHP "out of memory" errors, appear alongside it.
  • The error clears on its own after a few minutes.
  • Your host emails you about resource limit faults.

Likely causes

CloudLinux limits several resources. The CloudLinux documentation on limits describes them:

Limit What it controls What you see when it is hit
Entry processes (EP) How many requests to PHP scripts can run at the same time The 508 page
CPU (SPEED) How much processor time the account can use The site slows down rather than erroring
Physical memory (PMEM) RAM used by the account's processes 500/503 errors or PHP memory errors
I/O and IOPS Disk read/write speed and operations per second Slow pages, slow backups
Number of processes (NPROC) Total processes in the account Errors starting new processes

The 508 is tied to entry processes. CloudLinux describes entry processes as roughly the number of concurrent connections to dynamic scripts, and notes that cron jobs and SSH sessions also count. If your limit is 20 and 21 requests are waiting for PHP at the same moment, the 21st visitor gets the 508.

What fills those slots:

  1. Bots and crawlers. Aggressive search engine crawlers, SEO tools, AI scrapers, and attacks on login pages (on WordPress, wp-login.php and xmlrpc.php).
  2. Slow pages. A page that takes five seconds holds its slot five times longer than one that takes one second. Slowness makes the limit easier to hit.
  3. Heavy plugins. Page builders, related-post plugins, statistics plugins that write to the database on every visit, broken links checkers, and security scanners running during the day.
  4. No caching. Every visit runs PHP and queries the database, even for pages that never change.
  5. Cron jobs. WordPress's built-in scheduler (WP-Cron) runs on page visits. Backup plugins, email queues and imports scheduled at busy times use CPU, memory and I/O.
  6. Genuine traffic growth. The site has simply outgrown the plan.

Safe checks you can do

These checks only read information.

  1. Open the Resource Usage page in cPanel. It is usually in the Metrics section. Depending on your theme it may be called Resource Usage or CPU and Concurrent Connection Usage. cPanel's documentation notes it exists only on servers running CloudLinux.
  2. Look for faults. The page shows whether the account hit any limit in the last day or week, and which one. Note the limit (EP, CPU, memory, I/O) and the times.
  3. Check the visitor logs for the same times. In cPanel, Metrics > Raw Access or Visitors shows requests. Look for one IP address or user agent making hundreds of requests, or repeated requests to login pages.
  4. Check scheduled tasks in Advanced > Cron Jobs. Note what runs and how often.
  5. Check your plugins (on WordPress): which ones were added or updated recently.
  6. Note when it happens. Daily at the same time points to a cron job or backup. Random spikes point to bots or traffic.

Warning Before disabling plugins, editing .htaccess or changing cron jobs, take a full backup of the files and the database. A wrong line in .htaccess can take the whole site down. If you are not sure, ask your host or developer.

Solutions

Block or slow down bad bots

  • If your visitor logs show one IP address or a small range hammering the site, block it using cPanel's IP Blocker or your host's firewall.
  • Protect login pages: limit login attempts, use strong passwords and two-factor authentication, and disable XML-RPC if nothing you use needs it (some apps and Jetpack do).
  • A robots.txt crawl-delay is respected by some crawlers but ignored by Google. Use it as a hint, not a fix.
  • A content delivery network or web application firewall in front of the site can stop many bots before they reach your hosting account.

Turn on caching

Page caching is the single biggest fix. A cached page is served without running PHP or querying the database, so it barely touches your entry processes.

  • If your server runs LiteSpeed, use the LiteSpeed Cache plugin for WordPress. Otherwise, use a well-maintained page caching plugin.
  • Enable browser caching and compression.
  • Optimise images, so pages finish faster and release resources sooner.

Find and remove heavy plugins

  • Deactivate plugins you do not use, and delete them.
  • Replace plugins that do heavy work on every page view with lighter alternatives.
  • Run scans, broken link checks and statistics reports at night, or use external services for them.
  • Test changes on a staging copy if your host offers one.

Fix cron jobs

WP-Cron runs on visitors' page loads, and on a busy site it can fire many times. A common improvement:

  1. Add define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true); to wp-config.php (above the line that says to stop editing).
  2. Create a real cron job in cPanel that calls wp-cron.php every 15 minutes or so.

Also move backups, imports and newsletter sending to quiet hours, and make sure two copies of the same job cannot overlap.

Warning Editing wp-config.php incorrectly can take a WordPress site offline. Keep a copy of the original file, and change one thing at a time.

Speed up slow pages

Every second you save frees entry processes sooner. Use a current PHP version supported by your site (in cPanel this is often under Select PHP Version or MultiPHP Manager), keep WordPress, themes and plugins updated, and clean up a bloated database (old revisions, expired temporary data, spam comments).

When to upgrade the plan

Upgrade when the Resource Usage page shows regular faults after you have added caching, removed heavy plugins, fixed cron and blocked abusive bots. That means real visitors need more resources than the plan gives. Signs include faults during genuine busy periods (a sale, a booking season, results day) and steadily rising traffic.

Options include a higher shared hosting plan with larger limits, or a VPS for sites with heavy, constant use. See our hosting plans and our comparison of shared hosting, VPS and cloud.

Upgrading without fixing the cause often just moves the problem: a bot that fills 20 slots will also fill 40.

When to call a professional

Contact your host or developer if the site is down for long periods, you cannot find the cause in the Resource Usage page, faults continue after the basic fixes, or you suspect the site is hacked (unknown files, strange admin users, spam sent from your domain). Before contacting them, collect:

  • Your domain name and hosting plan.
  • Screenshots of the Resource Usage page showing the faults and times.
  • Any IP addresses or user agents you saw repeating in the logs.
  • Your CMS (WordPress, Joomla or other), its version and the list of plugins.
  • Recent changes: new plugins, theme updates, marketing campaigns.
  • A list of cron jobs.

Frequently asked questions

Is the 508 error my host's fault?

Not usually. It means your account reached the limit set for your plan. The host sets the limits, but what uses them is your site, its plugins and its visitors, including bots.

Will the 508 error hurt my search ranking?

Occasional short errors rarely matter, but frequent ones mean search engines and visitors see errors. Fix the cause rather than waiting for it to clear.

Why does the error clear on its own?

The limit is about how much you use at once. When the burst of requests ends, usage drops below the limit and the site works again until the next burst.

Can my host just raise the limits?

Usually only by moving you to a plan with higher limits. Shared servers keep limits so every customer gets a fair share.

Does caching really make that much difference?

Yes. A cached page is served without running PHP, so it uses almost none of the entry process limit. For most small business sites it is the biggest single improvement.

When to call Extrion

Extrion Tech provides cPanel hosting with CloudLinux, and can help find what is using your resources and whether a bigger plan makes sense. See our hosting plans or contact us with your domain name and a screenshot of your Resource Usage page.

This guide is general information to help you plan. Prices, product features and regulations change, so confirm the details for your own site before you buy.

Still stuck, or want more detail?

Ask for clarification, tell us a problem this did not solve, or suggest a topic. An engineer reads every message, and we use them to improve the Knowledge Center.

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