I really don’t know much about cPanel and it’s limitations, so let me just dump ChatGPTs assessment. Can’t verify it, but most of it sounds reasonable to me. You might get it up and running somehow, but I doubt the, most likely, hours of work are worth it compared to 5-10 bucks/month for a small VPS.
1. Process Management (Lifecycle & Stability)
Problem:
cPanel isn’t designed for always-on Node.js processes. Most shared hosts use Passenger (via CloudLinux) to start Node apps on demand — meaning:
- Your app may stop when idle.
- It only restarts when the next HTTP request arrives.
- Crashes aren’t automatically recovered (no process supervisor like PM2 or systemd).
Impact:
Admin API sessions or scheduled tasks can fail unexpectedly. WebSocket connections (used by Directus) can drop or never reconnect properly.
2. Memory & CPU Limits
Problem:
Shared cPanel environments usually impose strict per-account resource caps — often:
- 256–512 MB RAM
- 1 CPU core (or less shared)
Directus runs a fairly heavy Node process (with database connections, caching, and schema introspection), so:
- It may hit memory limits during schema sync or file uploads.
- Crashes (“out of memory”) or unresponsive admin UI can occur under modest load.
Impact:
Performance becomes unstable or the process gets killed by the host’s resource limiter.
3. No Container or Dependency Isolation
Problem:
cPanel environments don’t provide containerized isolation or dependency version pinning.
Directus relies on specific Node and dependency versions (e.g., Node 18+, exact knex/sqlite versions).
Impact:
- Dependency conflicts between apps.
- “Works locally, breaks on cPanel” issues.
- Upgrading Directus can break the environment because dependencies get rebuilt globally.
4. File System Permissions
Problem:
Uploads, extensions, and cache directories need writable access by the same user that runs Node.
But cPanel often uses different users for Apache/PHP and Node processes, with restrictive umask settings.
Impact:
- Image uploads or cache writes fail (
EACCES errors).
- File permissions need manual fixing via SSH after each deployment.
- Automatic migrations or logs may silently fail.
5. Database Connectivity
Problem:
Many shared hosts don’t allow local MySQL socket access from Node, or they throttle DB connections.
Remote MySQL access (if used) adds latency and connection timeout risk.
Impact:
- “Knex: timeout acquiring a connection” errors.
- Random disconnects during schema operations.
- Painful debugging since logs are limited in cPanel.
6. Upgrade & Maintenance Difficulty
Problem:
Each Directus upgrade involves npm install and sometimes schema migrations.
Without Docker or CI/CD, you must handle:
- Dependency updates manually.
- Potential version conflicts.
- Restarting the app by hand in cPanel.
Impact:
Upgrades are slow, error-prone, and often break the running instance until manually fixed.
7. HTTP Timeout & Proxy Issues
Problem:
Apache (the web server behind most cPanel setups) uses reverse proxy rules to route to your Node app.
If Directus runs on a custom port, Apache’s proxy can:
- Timeout long API calls (especially uploads or large responses).
- Fail to preserve WebSocket connections.
Impact:
File uploads or real-time updates in the admin panel can hang or drop.
You may see errors like 502 Bad Gateway or 504 Gateway Timeout.
8. Limited Environment Variable & Port Flexibility
Problem:
Directus needs multiple environment variables (KEY, SECRET, DB credentials, etc.), but cPanel’s Node app UI is basic — sometimes limited to a handful of vars.
Also, only one port is available per Node app, which can be restrictive if you need multiple instances.
Impact:
Workarounds (like .env files) become necessary and debugging configuration issues is harder.
9. No Background Jobs or Scheduling
Problem:
Directus can run background tasks (flows, hooks, cron-like operations).
cPanel doesn’t allow persistent background workers or daemons unless you set up a cron job to hit the app periodically — which is fragile.
Impact:
Automations or delayed tasks can fail silently or never trigger.
10. Logging & Debugging Constraints
Problem:
cPanel provides limited access to Node stdout/stderr.
You can view passenger.log or limited error logs, but not structured Directus logs.
Impact:
Diagnosing API crashes, hook failures, or DB errors becomes cumbersome — especially when multiple processes are spawned.
I’m not a dev and I have the first of several dummy questions.
