Fatal error from this plugin

Hi Tina,

Sorry that you ran into issues here!

That particular error is coming because your web hosting company has restricted your memory usage to 67MB (about 3% of what a normal desktop machine has these days) That usually comes from shared hosting. We have an article on why shared hosting is a problem for BD (especially if you’re trying to have a reasonable amount of traffic or data, or you run a lot of other plugins) here: https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/support-forum/faq/what-kind-of-hosting-should-i-use-for-wordpress-and-why-is-shared-hosting-a-problem/

The only solution I’m afraid is to upgrade hosting packages.

I’m in communication with my host, Host Gator…apparently I can get up to 256 and it’s set to that but for some reason there’s an issue with the php.ini and it’s not allowing it to be accepted so they are opening a ticket for me to figure it out.

Crossing fingers it gets sorted out soon!

256MB is definitely the lowest I’d ever go with BD. Once you get real traffic and have a fair number of listings, you may still see errors with that, just FYI, because it’s not the only limit shared hosts add to you. I hope you get it worked out as well.

Ok I got my 256, but now I’m wondering if I should not use the directory at all if it’s true that I’m just going to run into problems in the future.

I am not using it for a true directory, but just wanted to use it to format pages I have on my website that lists local resources…I have struggled with formatting at https://www.FresnoFamily.com and I was thinking that using the directory to format the local pages would make everything look nicer.

For example:
https://fresnofamily.com/local/birthday-parties/
https://fresnofamily.com/local/classes-for-kids-in-the-fresno-area/
https://fresnofamily.com/local/local-kids-sports-activities/

These are my busiest pages and with the most info….I only actually have like 15 or 20 local pages currently (which would translate to categories, I think?)….and none of them are that big…each category only has like 20-40 listings, the biggest has only 77…so it wouldn’t be a huge directory….do you think I’d still run into problems like you said?

15-20 pages should not be a problem on shared hosting in general, but please keep in mind that it’s a combination of traffic + data that dictates the limits. It’s not strictly speaking a memory issue. It’s about responsiveness of the site under moderate loads.

In my experience, those running on shared hosting have the greatest number of problems because BD isn’t a trivial plugin that just adds a little something to a page like a widget or control. We’re pulling a fair amount of data when you call a link and trying to do rendering/formatting of that, which is a lot more than most plugins do. I can’t guarantee you’ll be problem free at 256MB, but that is the minimum we recommend to run it so it may be OK for awhile. “It just depends” unfortunately. According to your calculations, 20 categories * 40 listings per category = 800 listings. That’s not huge, but if you get a lot of traffic to those listings, then it might be enough to trip the resource limits.

Hmmm, it may be more than I need, then. I am thinking I may just skip it and work on just cleaning up formatting within the page. I really don’t need a whole directory. I just thought it would look nicer with the formatting. And I cannot afford to up my hosting at this time. Maybe in the future.

Well, good to know this now, rather than after I go to all the work to set everything up with the business directory. That was going to be a LOT of work manually adding everything! Thank you!

You’re welcome. We’re definitely not a one-size-fits-all solution. Your case may be better served with just plain pages here.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or issues!

So now I’m rethinking things again because I am thinking about reviews….and how much they would add to my site…and your business directory does reviews too, doesn’t it?

So, back to the original topic of this post….if I did go ahead and convert my pages to directory pages with listings and it did get to the point of tripping the resource limits….the same thing would happen that started this thread, right? The fatal error message about memory size? And then I’d have to change my hosting plan to solve it? Is that the gist of it?

And if that’s the case, what is the recommended memory to run the directory then?

And while I’m asking….what do most people using your plugin use for their hosting if shared hosting isn’t going to be sufficient because of the memory limits? I have no experience with anything but shared hosting. I’m currently with Hostgator.

Hi Tina,

The minimum we recommend with BD is 256MB, but again, that limit and whether it works for you depends very much on how much traffic you get and data you have. There’s no magic formula here, unfortunately.

But to answer your question above, yes–you may trigger that limit again if you stay on Hostgator.

Other hosting services tend to be a whole lot less trouble–services like Hostgator, GoDaddy, and Dreamhost probably represent a good 80% of the shared hosts out there that we hear about (and users having issues). If you have a serious site that is more than just a hobby or interest, we recommend more serious hosting.

Places like Page.ly and WPEngine are good choices, but can be pricey for some folks. A service that minimally supports VPS hosting will let you scale the site’s resources as you grow without necessarily breaking your wallet. We talk about all of this in our article here: https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/support-forum/faq/what-kind-of-hosting-should-i-use-for-wordpress-and-why-is-shared-hosting-a-problem/

There’s a review (unbiased) of the hosting options out there so you can better weigh your options here. Personally, I like Page.ly and WPEngine (they are both reliable, with great service and very little downtime)