# CWP Hosting Requirements Calculator

> Work out what kind of hosting your site really needs. Six questions on traffic, stack and requirements, and an honest answer on whether free hosting is enough.

Source: https://cwp.sg/tools/hosting-calculator/  
Last verified: 2026-08-04

**In short:** CWP Hosting Requirements Calculator is a free browser-based tool at https://cwp.sg/tools/hosting-calculator/ — no signup, no rate limit, and it works with no network connection.

## What this is actually calculating

The number that decides whether a hosting plan works is not disk space. It's **concurrent PHP processes** — how many pages your site can build at the same time.

The arithmetic:

```
requests per second  =  process slots  ÷  seconds per page
```

Ten slots and a two-second page gives you five requests per second. The eleventh simultaneous visitor gets a [508 error](/errors/508-resource-limit-is-reached/), no matter how much disk you bought.

That's why the calculator asks about caching before it asks about traffic. Caching serves a saved copy without running PHP, so cached requests don't consume a slot at all. Turning it on routinely moves the ceiling by 10× or more — further than any upgrade, and free.

## Why a VPS usually isn't the answer

A VPS is not better hosting. It's *less* hosting — an empty Linux box where security patches, web server config, PHP, MySQL, TLS certificates and backups all become your job.

That's a fine trade if you want the control or need a runtime shared hosting won't run. It's a bad trade if you want a website. The calculator only recommends one when your answers genuinely require it.

## The things that rule free hosting out

Regardless of traffic, free hosting is wrong if any of these apply:

- **Outbound email has to work.** Free hosts block SMTP as an anti-spam measure. An HTTP email API works around it; nothing else does.
- **You need real cron**, SSH, or a language other than PHP.
- **Downtime costs money.** There's no SLA on something you didn't pay for.
- **You can't take your own backups.** Free plans don't back up your data.

If none of those apply, free hosting is genuinely the right tool and paying would be a waste. [The full breakdown is here](/guides/how-to-host-a-website/free/), and if you're still working out what any of this means, start with [what is web hosting](/guides/how-to-host-a-website/what-is-web-hosting/).

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Content Website Platform (cwp.sg) operates the free hosting it writes about; see https://cwp.sg/about/ for the methodology and the commercial disclosure.