# Running the EP Suite on shared hosting — LLM Prompt > **How to use this file:** Paste the entire contents into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or any LLM as your opening message. It gives the model the whole guide, so it can walk you through it, ask where you have got to, and help when something does not behave. > > *Source: [https://documentation.elmspark.com/guides/ep-suite-shared-hosting/](https://documentation.elmspark.com/guides/ep-suite-shared-hosting/)* --- You are helping me with the following. Use this guide as your reference. Work through it with me, ask what I have already done, and help me troubleshoot. Where a step changes something on a live site, a domain, or a server, tell me what it will do and wait for me to confirm before we go on. If something here contradicts what I am actually seeing, say so rather than guessing. **What this covers:** Tested for real: the EP Suite runs on budget shared hosting like GoDaddy. Only outbound email is blocked, and it has a simple fix. AI, payments, bookings and licence activation all work. # Running the EP Suite on shared hosting Short version: it works. We tested the EP Suite on real GoDaddy shared hosting, the cheapest tier, and almost everything runs exactly as it does on a VPS. There is one genuine limit, email, and it has a simple fix. ▶ The whole picture in 3 minutes 53 seconds, narrated, with captions — what we measured on a real budget box, the one thing that is genuinely blocked, and the two-part fix. **Read the narration instead** **The short version.** It works. We tested the suite on real GoDaddy shared hosting, the cheapest tier, and almost everything runs exactly as it does on a VPS. There is one genuine limit, and it has a simple fix. **The headline is the reverse of the fear.** The worry is that a shared host firewalls everything and breaks any plugin talking to an outside service. On the box we tested, only SMTP was blocked. Outbound HTTPS was wide open to every service the suite uses, each reachable in well under a tenth of a second. **The one real limit** is outbound SMTP, blocked as a matter of policy. Point a plugin at Mailgun, SendGrid or Brevo and it simply times out, on every port. It trips up nearly everyone, because the usual advice — just use SMTP through Mailgun — is written for VPS hosting and quietly fails here. **The fix has two halves.** Send through the server's own mail system: host `localhost`, port 25, no encryption, no authentication — or the `PHP mail()` transport, which uses the same local system with nothing to configure. Then add SPF and DKIM records, because without them Gmail and Outlook silently drop the mail. It does not bounce; it disappears. **What actually works** is most of it. The AI features reach their providers. Stripe checkout, memberships, class passes and bookings all run. Zoom and Printify work. Fonts, SEO, analytics and breadcrumbs work. And licence activation and plugin updates reach ElmsPark, so a plugin you bought activates normally. You are not locked out. **The real constraints are resources, not the network.** Upload size capped at 32 MB and memory at 128 MB on the box we tested, a 1,000-field form cap, and usually no object cache, so a busy site is a little slower than the same site on a tuned VPS. **A normal site will never notice.** Business sites, portfolios, small shops, courses, memberships and booking sites. The EP Suite runs on shared hosting, AI and payments included, for the price of a coffee a month. **Test your own host rather than guess.** Quickest signal: set EP Email to SMTP through an outside service and run Test Connection — a timeout on every port means your host blocks it. Fuller picture: EP Host Check shows SMTP, outbound connections, upload and memory limits and the MCP checks, each with a plain fix. **When a VPS earns its place:** external email through Mailgun with the best deliverability, heavy bulk operations or large media, traffic high enough that the resource caps bite, or simply wanting full control. When that day comes, everything you built carries straight over. **Nothing here is assumed.** The email limit, the open HTTPS and the resource caps were all measured on a live GoDaddy cPanel box, not inferred from documentation. ## The one real limit: outbound email Shared hosts, GoDaddy included, **block outbound SMTP to external mail services**. Point a plugin at Mailgun, SendGrid or Brevo on a shared host and it will simply time out, on every port, because the host firewalls it as a matter of policy. This is the single thing that does not work, and it trips up nearly everyone, because the usual advice (“just use SMTP through Mailgun”) is written for VPS hosting and quietly fails here. The fix is to send through the server's own mail system instead: - In EP Email, set the transport to the local mail server: host `localhost`, port `25`, no encryption, no authentication. Or choose the PHP mail() transport, which uses the same local system with nothing to configure. - Then add **SPF** and **DKIM** DNS records for your domain. Without them Gmail and Outlook silently drop the mail (it does not bounce, it just disappears). EP Email warns you about this directly, and the [Mailgun guide](https://documentation.elmspark.com/guides/mailgun-email/) shows the exact records. ## What works, and it is most things The worry with shared hosting is that the host firewalls everything and breaks any plugin that talks to an outside service. On the box we tested, that was not true. **Only SMTP was blocked. Outbound HTTPS was wide open to every service the suite uses**, each reachable in well under a tenth of a second, with full secure requests completing normally. In plain terms: - **AI features** (the Architect assistant, ep-agent, ep-assistant) reach the AI providers and work. - **Payments** (Stripe checkout, memberships, class passes, bookings) work. - **Zoom bookings** reach the Zoom API and work. - **Print-on-demand** (Printify checkout) works. - **Fonts, SEO, analytics, breadcrumbs** work. - **Licence activation and plugin updates** reach ElmsPark and work, so a plugin you bought will activate normally on shared hosting. You are not locked out. So the headline is the reverse of what people fear: the whole network side of the suite runs on budget shared hosting. Email is the exception, and it has a fix. ## The limits worth knowing before you start The real constraints on shared hosting are not the network, they are resources. None of these stops the suite working, but they are worth knowing so nothing surprises you: - **Upload size is capped** (32 MB on the box we tested). Large media, big design or theme imports, and large plugin files can hit this. Split big imports, or ask your host to raise the limit. - **Memory is modest** (128 MB on our box). Very image-heavy or bulk operations can feel it. Fine for normal sites; something to watch on large batch jobs. - **Form field count is capped** (1,000 fields). A normal site never reaches this, but a very large bulk-import or settings form could quietly truncate past it. - **No object cache** (no Redis or Memcached on shared, usually). Plugins fall back to standard caching; a busy site is a little slower than the same site on a tuned VPS. ## How to check your own host Hosts differ, and the cleanest way to know is to test rather than guess. - **The quickest signal:** install EP Email, set it to SMTP through an outside service, and run Test Connection. If it times out on every port, your host blocks external SMTP (most shared hosts do), and you should use the local mail server as above. - **The fuller picture is one plugin away:** [*EP Host Check*](https://documentation.elmspark.com/plugins/ep-host-check/) inspects your host and shows you, in one panel, exactly what it can and cannot do (SMTP, outbound connections, upload and memory limits, and since v1.2.0 the five MCP / Claude connection checks), each with a plain fix. It turns guesswork into a green-and-amber report. ## When shared hosting is the right call, and when it is not **Shared hosting is a good fit** for most PageMotor sites: business sites, brochure and portfolio sites, small shops, courses, memberships and booking sites. The EP Suite runs on it, AI and payments included, for the price of a coffee a month. The only thing to set up differently is email, and the [GoDaddy guide](https://documentation.elmspark.com/guides/pagemotor-godaddy/#email) covers that. **A VPS earns its place** when you want external email through Mailgun with the best deliverability, when you run heavy bulk operations or large media, when traffic is high enough that the resource limits or the missing object cache start to bite, or when you simply want full control of the box. When that day comes, the [Vultr guide](https://documentation.elmspark.com/guides/vultr-hosting/) is the move, and everything you built on shared hosting carries straight over. --- *Generated from the guide above. If something here looks wrong, the guide is the source of truth: https://documentation.elmspark.com/guides/ep-suite-shared-hosting/*