How to Fix a 500 Internal Server Error

Quick first checks (1 minute)

• Did you just change something? A new plugin, theme update, .htaccess edit or PHP version change? Undo it first — that fixes most cases.
• Is it the whole site or one page? One page points to that page’s code; the whole site points to .htaccess, PHP settings or a site-wide plugin.
• Did your account hit its limits? Check cPanel’s statistics panel for CPU/Entry Processes in red (see Cause 5).

Step 1: Read the error log

1. In cPanel, go to Metrics → Errors. It shows the latest errors from the web server, newest first.
2. Also open File Manager → public_html (with Settings → Show Hidden Files ticked) and look for a file called error_log — PHP writes its errors there. Right-click → View, and read the last lines.

Match what you see to a cause below.

Cause 1: A broken .htaccess file

Log says “Invalid command”, “RewriteRule: bad flag” or nothing useful at all.

1. In File Manager, open public_html, find .htaccess, right-click → Rename → .htaccess-broken.
2. Reload your site. If it works, the file was the problem.
3. For WordPress, create a fresh .htaccess with the default rules (or go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save — WordPress rewrites it):

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

4. Copy any extra rules you need from .htaccess-broken back in one at a time, testing after each.

Cause 2: PHP code error (plugin, theme or custom code)

Log says “PHP Fatal error”, “Parse error: syntax error” or “Call to undefined function”.

• The log line includes the file path. If it is inside wp-content/plugins/plugin-name/, rename that plugin’s folder (e.g. to plugin-name-off) to disable it.
• If it is inside wp-content/themes/theme-name/, rename the theme folder — WordPress falls back to a default theme.
• If you edited a file by hand, restore your previous version or fix the line mentioned.

Full WordPress walk-through: Fix the WordPress white screen of death.

Cause 3: PHP version mismatch

Log mentions functions that “do not exist” (create_function, each, mysql_connect) or syntax that older/newer PHP does not understand.

• Old code on new PHP → update the plugin/theme, or temporarily switch to an older PHP version while you fix it.
• New code on old PHP → switch to PHP 8.2/8.3.

Go to Software → Select PHP Version — see Change your PHP version.

Cause 4: Wrong file permissions

Our servers refuse to run PHP files that are writable by everyone (777) or folders with unsafe permissions.

• Folders → 755, files → 644, wp-config.php → 600 or 640.
• In File Manager, select the item → Permissions, set the numbers, Change Permissions.

Cause 5: Memory or resource limits

Log says “Allowed memory size … exhausted”, or the 500 appears only when the site is busy (“Resource Limit Reached” / 508).

• Raise memory_limit to 256M in Select PHP Version → Options.
• Check Metrics → Resource Usage — if you hit CPU or entry-process limits regularly, enable caching (LiteSpeed Cache), block bad bots, or move up a plan.

Step 2: Confirm the fix

• Reload in a private window.
• Check error_log again — no new fatal errors should appear.
• Delete the old error_log once fixed so new problems are easy to spot.

Troubleshooting summary

Log message contains	Likely cause	Fix
Invalid command, RewriteRule	.htaccess	Rename and rebuild it
PHP Fatal error + plugin path	Plugin	Rename the plugin folder
Call to undefined function	PHP version	Update code or change version
Allowed memory size … exhausted	Memory	Raise memory_limit
Permission denied / is writable by group	Permissions	644/755
Nothing in the logs	Server-side issue	WhatsApp us with your domain and the time it happened

Still stuck?

WhatsApp +254 104 666 000 (8am–10pm EAT) or open a ticket anytime with your domain and the time of the error. We can read server-level logs you cannot see.