Forum hosting cost

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kreacher

kreacher

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A friend of mine asked me about the cost involved in hosting a forum. He got a quote from someone asking for 50k initial cost plus 15k per month for maintenance which sound quite a lot especially since he wants to start small.

  • Is it necessary to buy a forum license or are there hosted options available which provide the forum software and charge a monthly rental (perhaps with an initial customization fee)? Which one should be preferred?

  • There is no mention of number of users supported in the quote, shouldn't that be part of the quote?

  • Is there a forum maintenance charge separate from the site hosting? What sort of maintenance is required regularly?
 
Bullocks. If he is starting it, he can even start it for as low as 1000 bucks which is domain plus small time hosting. There are good forums scripts like phpbb, SMF, PUNBB, and vanilla.
 
^ Thanks for the replies guys, will tell him he's being taken for a ride.

He's not a techie though and would still prefer a all-in-one solution where he can get a website and forum started. Any suggestions?

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

^ Thanks for the replies guys, will tell him he's being taken for a ride.
He's not a techie though and would still prefer a all-in-one solution where he can get a website and forum started. Any suggestions?
 
the above said stuffs are for domain and hosting.

to make the up and running as a forum - you'd need to have some CMS installed in the web server.

vBulletin, phpBB are the most popular CMSes for forums.

Other CMS like drupal etc also contain options for forum.

Setting up and maintaining (at least basic stuffs) are very easy. Don't even require to read their manuals. :)

Google a bit on these stuffs - there ain't any rocket science in it. :D
 
vBulliten is very costly. phpBB is free and mostly used now-a-days. Setting Up is quite easy . Customizing them and adding plugins takes some experience.
 
Thanks for the replies but as I mentioned the guy planning to setup the forum isn't technical at all. That's probably the reason he got such a high quote from someone for setting up the forum (plus he's in a hurry too).

That's the reason I mentioned he would probably be best off with someone technical handling the website + forum (without charging an arm and a leg).
 
^I started RE with lowest money you'd ever imagine :P

It does not needs any technical knowledge & it is very simple. I suggest to get a basic decent shared host, which would cost some 3-4K / year. If traffic gets increased we can always upgrade to private server.

Either you can go with myBB, a free forum software or Xenforo [$140]. You can have free themes available in net or buy one customized.

Administration with myBB or Xenforo is very easy. Anyone can learn within just one day.

I suggest you / your friend to install forum by yourself, because it is better to learn & know about everything what software you are running. If shit happens, then he can solve the problems by himself.

I am saying again, it doesn't need any techincal skills to start one. All the best :congo:
 
Nah, its too expensive.

We pay like 149$ in x10premium (US servers) for 3 years which concludes like ~3.8$ per month, so its not much expensive.

Well, not necessarily that you get forum license, you can install phpBB which i think is best free forum software available, i use IPB though, costed 149$.
 
A Forum like TE requires A dedicated server with Following configuration( you can even run another small sites with this on the present config):
  • RAM 8GB
  • Hard disk drive 1 TB
  • Processor : Intel Quad Core
  • Bandwidth: unmetered

Would cost Between $210-$250 Per month.

even though you can manage it on a VPS with low costs, But it is safe to host this Vbulltein Forum on a dedicated server in order to avoid downtime.
 
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