Cost of running a forum?

[HBZSoftware]

How much does it cost to run a forum that's as popular as this one?

Hosting, software, and cost of support staff is all I'm interested in.

My guess is <$400/month, although I've heard otherwise from the management of some other webmaster forums that are nowhere near as popular as this one.

[geodvs]

I don't know for WTF, but I would say $20/month for hosting for the beginning and a vBulletin license for $160 once, than $30 for renewal annually. I have a forum with around 1,300 members visiting per day, and 14,000 registered members and the server costs me $120/month. I don't know about support staff.

So It depends...

[WNAlex]

Surely it couldn't be that much

You got your figures right?

[grim]

If we had to actually pay out for the design, admin time, etc WTF would be pretty pricey.

[Dr Teeth]

$400 is just too high.
You can start with any shared hosting package worth $6-8, also you can choose any free available forum softwares, later you can upgrade to vBulletin.

[grim]

$400 is just too high.
You can start with any shared hosting package worth $6-8, also you can choose any free available forum softwares, later you can upgrade to vBulletin.

He stated one that's already busy, not 'just starting'

Plus many shared accounts will not handle a forum with any decent traffic.

[Dr Teeth]

He stated one that's already busy, not 'just starting'

Plus many shared accounts will not handle a forum with any decent traffic.

oh i didn't see it properly, feeling sleepy :eek:
if the forum is as good as WTF, then you need a good VPS or a dedicated, that should cost you anywhere between 25-40 bucks per month.
And if you are hiring moderators, you can pay them $75-100 per month.

[grim]

oh i didn't see it properly, feeling sleepy :eek:
if the forum is as good as WTF, then you need a good VPS or a dedicated, that should cost you anywhere between 25-40 bucks per month.
And if you are hiring moderators, you can pay them $75-100 per month.

The forum like this is going to take a bit more than a $25-$40 VPS

[unr]

The forum like this is going to take a bit more than a $25-$40 VPS

This forum doesn't run on a VPS,
We all know it runs on Grim-Juice!

[Dr Teeth]

This forum doesn't run on a VPS,
We all know it runs on Grim-Juice!

i need one for my forum too, how much does it cost

[grim]

i need one for my forum too, how much does it cost

Depends on the deal you get, this server however runs me about $160 a month. I however got a hell of deal on it..

[LeenkzMike]

People!!!

Grim and Colleen are obviously not going to release any Official Financial details, and they shouldn't have to! Why not lay it to rest?

[i13]

I have a Vb forum with 1K unique daily on 4$/month .... only prob is i get a lot of sql error emails daily.

[Hostlayer]

Your host must have you on a low usage server then, if they had more then a few customers on it your site would most likely be yanked for resource abuse...not to mention the SQL errors show that the server can't handle it, and the other requests.

I take it your reaching the maximum allowed number of concurrent connections?

[grim]

I have a Vb forum with 1K unique daily on 4$/month .... only prob is i get a lot of sql error emails daily.

That appears to be a pretty BIG problem to me.

[i13]

Your host must have you on a low usage server then, if they had more then a few customers on it your site would most likely be yanked for resource abuse...not to mention the SQL errors show that the server can't handle it, and the other requests.

I take it your reaching the maximum allowed number of concurrent connections?

It's hosted on a Oct core (8 CPU) Xeons with 8GB RAM

i13 added 2 Minutes and 32 Seconds later...

That appears to be a pretty BIG problem to me.

Actually I myself never had problem while surfing the site so never considered it.
Time to open a ticket for this.

[grim]

Putting a site on a server/host package that can not keep the site up, errors, risks the site being pulled at any moment is not a 'savings' in my eyes.

Now I run and for some time only dedicated servers, my own 'reseller' package is only because of proxies.

[Skuxta]

A pretty popular trafficed forum would be looking at $25+ minimum for hosting. Then include the cost of the license for the forum software you are running. Depending if that software is a Pay to use.

[guppyman]

Hmmm... seems like running a forum is more expensive than a more static site.

[Skuxta]

It all depends on the forum stats and software though guppyman

[FastSubmitArticl]

To start a forum definitely needs to consider more than just hosting. Marketing and posting during the early days of the forum can "eat up" quite a bit of cash...

[asian sensation]

Running a forum like this one could probably cost $750+ a month because of server and SEO.

[swastik]

<100$ in my opinion. When you start the forum, you've lots of work to do, like to invest in forum software, it's advertising etc.

When it grows big, you've to pay for the server bills.

[midlandi]

The truth is that a Forum that is popualr will not cost you a penny to run, as the income you make will out weigh any expenditure. If you do it right of course!

[grim]

The truth is that a Forum that is popualr will not cost you a penny to run, as the income you make will out weigh any expenditure. If you do it right of course!

Even if you make a profit their are still 'costs' involved.

[midlandi]

Even if you make a profit their are still 'costs' involved.

I was merely viewing the subject as an overall view, sure there are costs but a Forum like this will run on profit

This size could still run on a decent shared hosting costing no more that $10 per month.
Other costs could easily be zero if you are able to code and design yourself.

[Zap]

I was merely viewing the subject as an overall view, sure there are costs but a Forum like this will run on profit

This size could still run on a decent shared hosting costing no more that $10 per month.
Other costs could easily be zero if you are able to code and design yourself.

You're joking, right?

This forum couldn't possibly run on some $10 a month reseller hosting.
If it was, you (and most of the rest of us) wouldn't be able to post.

[grim]

$10 a month would never work for this site.

As it is it's running on a dual xeon server with HT 'shows 4 cpu's' 2 gigs of ram

[LooseChange]

That appears to be a pretty BIG problem to me.

If you're getting a lot of mysql errors, you should probably start by logging slow queries with the mysql option

--log-slow-queries[=file_name]

You might need to set some additional indexes. I'm not familiar with vBulletin but I do run several popular SMF forums (10k+ members) and the members table can be a kludge as the size of the forum grows unless you keep the indexes up to date.

I see from your last post you're using a dual Xeon with hyperthreading. I have a dual quad-core server with 8Gb ram and hyperthreading. Xeon's are made for database driven apps.

btw, there's no way somebody could run a forum of this magnitude on a $10 shared hosting account. Just the spikes from mysql alone would get you tossed off any host.

[flamey]

I can't tell for the hosting, but you can successfully not pay for everything else. there are a few very good free forum engines, and moderators will grow from community's enthusiasts

[Purple Rain]

Running a forum like this one could probably cost $750+ a month because of server and SEO.

Whilst running a forum can be costly as already mentioned. $750 a month is not a normal running cost for a well established forum as SEO costs would be down a little if its well established.

[Big Dan]

Good points already mentioned in this thread.

For the technically adept running a forum isn't too expensive as you can do the design and maintenance work on your own. In this case you're only out of pocket is hosting and ads.

For the most part the biggest expense of a forum is time. Forums are probably the most time consuming websites to run. There's promotion, moderation, maintenance, member emails, and then time just posting to add content. If you put a per hour dollar amount on your time spent it can run into a lot of money.

[netridge]

For a forum starting out a cheap plan is more than sufficient but when it starts to grow you will need to migrate to a more dedicated server to accomodate new members and a growing community.

Any forum can be started with low over head but when it gets popular it will cost a little more but you can profit in the long run.

[mojo]

Good discussion. It is inspiring to hear these things as i am just kicking off my own forum.