4.5m hits/mo too much for shared hosting?
 

My current host has warned me that my forum takes up 50% of the server resources on my shared plan. They want me to move to a dedictated server, which alone is $99/mo plus $29/mo for cpanel.

I don't know diddly about server management and my site would go from modestly profitable to slightly in the hole with such a change.

Anybody have any suggestions?

is 4.5million raw hits really that much? I only get about 400 non-unique daily visits.

depends on soo many things... who your host, what's your bandwidth limitations, what type of server is is, what are you paying, how much are you making, etc.

Hostrocket
50gb/mo, I only use about 10gb/mo
Its a linux server
Its $9/mo
I make about $150/mo gross, before any kind of taxes

My site was started with the intention of making money. Modest money but profit all the same. A dedicated server wipes that out entirely, plus I don't have the time to be administering it.

is your site just a forum? what hacks etc do you run?

Its just a forum.

I run PHPadsnew and vBpicGallery. The other hacks are just template mods and aren't resource intensive.

Move up to a VPS.

The best VPS provider these days would probably have to be PowerVPS check them out, and that is a tad much for a shared hosting environment