It seems that you already know the solution to your problems, but don't want to do it. NGINX! Nginx may be confusing to people that are long-time apache users,

It seems that you already know the solution to your problems, but don't want to do it. NGINX! Nginx may be confusing to people that are long-time apache users, but I actually find it to be easier, once you get the hang of it. On another note, if you're filling up 50 processes and can't afford better than Slicehost, you should seriously reconsider your business model as it's obviously not working. Another option would be to speed up the execution of whatever code is being executed in those processes. Final Word: nginx+FastCGI