Can I run a forum via my iPhone?

[RollingPin224422]

Good evening all,

I have been an active member of two successful and thriving XenForo forums for a number of years and have grown to really adore the platform.

I am very seriously considering embarking on a new adventure and opening my own forum. My apologies if this is naive. Do I require a desktop computer/laptop in order to run my own forum, or can I simply purchase a license and build the forum via my iPhone? I’ve had a play with a demo and found the admin controls very smooth and easy to navigate via my phone.
Secondly, is it a one off cost of $160 or does this need to be renewed annually?

Any advice greatly appreciated

 

[⭐ Alex ⭐]

Well if you don't want to purchase a domain yet to save on costs, you could use a free hostname from a provider such as no-ip.com. The hosting will assign you a server with an IP address that may look somewhat like this: 90.223.157.99 and your forum would be accessible by typing that IP into your web browser instead of Rollingpin22442.com. Then when you're satisfied with your forum, you can either purchase a domain name or grab a free hostname from no-ip.com which would let you access your forum from let's say rollingpin224422.ddns.net

 

[Cooking Ketogenic]

So just to confirm I can go and obtain a hosting from a few dollars a month and register my domain name. Once that’s done I then return to XenForo and purchase my license. Once that’s done it’s like the Demo and I can built the forum?

Yes for starting out, you'll be fine with a cheap host like godaddy or host gator or a cheap $5-10 month vps from digital ocean.

 

[alternadiv]

Good evening all,

I have been an active member of two successful and thriving XenForo forums for a number of years and have grown to really adore the platform.

I am very seriously considering embarking on a new adventure and opening my own forum. My apologies if this is naive. Do I require a desktop computer/laptop in order to run my own forum, or can I simply purchase a license and build the forum via my iPhone? I’ve had a play with a demo and found the admin controls very smooth and easy to navigate via my phone.
Secondly, is it a one off cost of $160 or does this need to be renewed annually?

Any advice greatly appreciated

I know you got a lot of responses already but I want to give you my experience too.

I'm probably 70% iPhone and 30% MacBook when working on my forum.

The iPhone works for almost all of the routine stuff. You can edit code in templates, upload images for your styles (as of XF 2.2), edit all of the style properties (to create a custom style), upgrade your forum software, download or upload styles. You can essentially do everything the admin control panel has, albeit slightly handicapped due to the small screen on the phone.

I use DirectAdmin for my server control panel and Google Domains for my domain. Everything in DirectAdmin is usable on my phone. Creating and managing MySQL databases, uploading and downloading files, moving files, creating / uploading / downloading backups, etc. It all works on the phone. That means you could manage everything server related on your phone.

At this point you essentially have everything covered. XenForo, your domain, and your server - all on your phone.

However, if you want to create a custom style that is more than just basic recoloring of the default XF style, maybe with some small CSS edits as well, it would be pretty difficult on the phone. Especially if you're going to go deep into adding your own CSS / HTML or use Photoshop to create graphics. For those things, a computer is definitely much easier.

Overall though, I think you could literally only use a phone to run a forum. It would just slow you down and be uncomfortable at times.

 

[Cupara]

Thank you guys for the prompt and clear replies, I really appreciate it. Clear and unambiguous explanations really do help.

So, hosting. How does one obtain this and is this a separate purchase outside of XenForo? Essentially if I were to simply click purchase license and pay the $160 via my iPhone would I not be good to go? I assume there are a few more hoops to jump through?

If you want, I'll host your site for free until you're comfortable enough to go out on your own and get hosting or you can stay with me for a very cheap price. But my offer of free still stands. I'll even handle setting up your account, uploading XenForo if you want and making sure it installed then you can go to town on your phone customizing and I'll give my work number if you have any questions.

Fantastic, thanks guys.

So continuing with this simplified explanation- hosting? This is a separate service and something I need in place prior to buying a XF license? I assume in the process of buying it will ask me for a domain name etc?

In terms of a server, I assume I don’t need a physical server. This will be something I pay for via the hosting?

Not really, you need a domain first, then you need hosting. If you Google "$0.99 domain" the first site in the search is GoDaddy. Click that and you will go to a page that will allow you to search for your desired domain. It will cost you $1.67 total. Then you have to set nameservers to point to your new host whomever it may be.