# What entry processes are
Source: https://docs.webgee.com/en/performance/entry-processes-ep-what-is-an-entry-process



Your plan includes an **entry process** limit, and exceeding it produces a 503
error. Applies to shared and reseller hosting.

An entry process is a request currently being handled inside your account. The
limit is how many can run **at the same moment** — not per hour, and not per
visitor.

## Why it is not a visitor limit [#why-it-is-not-a-visitor-limit]

This is the most common misunderstanding, and it works in your favour.

A PHP request typically completes in a fraction of a second. The moment it
finishes, the process ends and its slot is free. So a plan with 30 entry
processes does not cap you at 30 simultaneous visitors — it caps you at 30
requests being *processed* at once, and each occupies its slot only briefly.

A site serving pages in 200 ms can handle far more than 30 concurrent visitors
without ever approaching the limit.

## Why slow sites hit it and fast ones do not [#why-slow-sites-hit-it-and-fast-ones-do-not]

The corollary matters more:

> **The longer each request takes, the fewer visitors it takes to hit the
> limit.**

A page taking 5 seconds holds its slot 25 times longer than one taking 200 ms.
So the same traffic that a fast site absorbs comfortably will exhaust a slow
site's entry processes — and once requests start queuing, pages get slower still,
which holds slots even longer.

That feedback loop is why sites tend to fail suddenly rather than gradually.

Long-running work is the usual trigger:

* A cron job that takes minutes and runs every minute
* WP-Cron firing on page loads — see
  [Replace WP-Cron with a real cron job](/en/hosting/wordpress/enhancing-wordpress-performance-disabling-wp-cron-for-faster-load-times)
* A plugin making a slow external API call on every request
* A database query with no index

## What happens at the limit [#what-happens-at-the-limit]

Requests above the limit are terminated by the kernel with `SIGKILL`. The visitor
sees a **503 Resource Limit Reached** error.

## Fixing it [#fixing-it]

Making pages faster raises effective capacity more than raising the limit does,
because it frees slots sooner:

1. **Enable caching.** A cached page never becomes an entry process at all —
   [LiteSpeed Cache](/en/hosting/wordpress/how-do-i-install-and-enable-litespeed-cache).
2. **Find what is slow** — [PHP X-Ray](/en/performance/diagnose-slow-site-php-xray).
3. **Check Resource Usage** in cPanel to see when the limit is being hit.

Full diagnosis in
[Fix a 503 Resource Limit Reached error](/en/performance/understanding-and-resolving-the-503-error-resource-limit-reached).

## Related [#related]

* [CloudLinux and LVE limits explained](/en/performance/understanding-cloudlinux-and-lve-limits-enhancing-server-stability-and-performan)
* [You received a resource usage alert](/en/performance/i-have-received-an-email-about-lve-resource-usage)