How much have you spent on your forum?

[CedricV]

On your current forum, how much have you spend? Considering the hosting, licenses, domain name, add ons, themes, etc. Do you think it's easy to over spend on a forum? Or do you keep costs very low and to a minimum? What do you do to keep costs low?

• Host your forum on a shared hosting plan as it is more affordable than dedicated servers and VPS hosting.
• Implement a content delivery network (CDN) to speed up your forum and reduce the load on your server, in turn, reducing costs.
• Optimize large images and videos to reduce file size and decrease bandwidth costs.
• Utilize caching and minification to speed up your forum and reduce server load.
• Add-ons, plugins, and third-party services that you don't need, think twice as they can add up to the cost over time.

 

[eL_]

So far... on ivvvi I didn't spend more than £££.9... but I spend on we-play a lot., and when I say a lot... I mean way over £2k .
I end on ivvvi using a nice Pixel Exit style, and I can't believe that I use just like 7 add-ons on it, and work great.
Had a problem with ivvvi just last week when my so-called "friend" end my hosting and I lost a lot of content and users from that, had to move back on hostico hosting.
I can use/transfer my licence from we-play for ivvvi if I need something... but so far... everything work great without tons of them.

 

[CedricV]

So far... on ivvvi I didn't spend more than £££.9... but I spend on we-play a lot., and when I say a lot... I mean way over £2k .
I end on ivvvi using a nice Pixel Exit style, and I can't believe that I use just like 7 add-ons on it, and work great.
Had a problem with ivvvi just last week when my so-called "friend" end my hosting and I lost a lot of content and users from that, had to move back on hostico hosting.
I can use/transfer my licence from we-play for ivvvi if I need something... but so far... everything work great without tons of them.

That’s unfortunate. It’s funny how you spend a lot of money without realizing it. Hence why I made this thread. Add ons, themes and licenses cost a lot of money, that’s for sure. I too have spend easily over 2000 USD in the last 4 months after opening Admin Junkies.

 

[eL_]

That’s unfortunate. It’s funny how you spend a lot of money without realizing it. Hence why I made this thread. Add ons, themes and licenses cost a lot of money, that’s for sure. I too have spend easily over 2000 USD in the last 4 months after opening Admin Junkies.

Well... you know what I mean.

 

[Forsaken]

Too damn much.

I purchased the majority of public add-ons to setup a separate site for a project, and I spent around $3k (this includes lifetime licenses/branding free when available).

If I include custom development, that's easily another $10k in the last year (possibly more, I don't fully keep track until I have to review it).

I do not pay for our server hosting as my business partner owns his own data center(s), and I've been making him supply me hosting for years, but hosting would easily cost $150-200k a year (not all of this is specifically for the forum server, but they're all related).

I'm just happy that none of it is out of pocket .

 

[Mendalla]

We run pretty lean on costs. Somewhere just under US$3000 over 9 years (I am including this year's budget) but that's just a quick mental calculation. Could be a bit higher.

Annually at present, we have the hosting, Xenforo maintenance, and maintenance on the theme that underlies our style.

We use shared hosting with a relatively inexpensive host. Though our plan is grandfathered so if they were to make us move to a current plan, our hosting costs would rise.

We have no add-ons requiring ongoing maintenance fees and only one paid add-on.

We have engaged an outside stylist twice, once to create our original style on XF1 and then for the upgrade to XF2. That's our biggest one-time cost.

Staffing is all volunteers, with me doing most of the work.

 

[Moshe1010]

This question should be split in two, or else it doesn't have the right context:

1. As a hobby
2. For business purposes

You can spend $100K on your forum/yr, but if you gain +$400K/yr from it then it's worth it.

So somebody who's maintaining a forum for his/her private hobby would feel like he's not investing enough and it's not true.

 

[Faust]

I am a hobbyist, and currently owning 1 personal website, 1 professional website and 3 forums.

I try to keep my budget low and not spending a lot.

On my first forum, I'm sure I spent more than 1000$ for premium addons, and styles, which I believe was a waste since it's a hobby, however I do get donations sometimes.

On my second forum I spent only for 1 styles which I'am happy with it.

And on my last forum, I haven't spent anything apart from hosting.

I will keep my budget very small, and works for me to be honest. If you are a hobbyist, I can't see reason investing on premium addons, however, It's good to have a niche style.

I've learnt that here you can find amazing premium forums, you don't need most of them. because people won't use them, the reason is Social Media sites.

 

[woody]

My hosting/software/management/backups/etc is about $30k yearly. It's been my fulltime gig since 2009.

 

[Old Nick]

My hosting/software/management/backups/etc is about $30k yearly. It's been my fulltime gig since 2009.

But it generates income I hope!

 

[woody]

But you have income I hope!

A bit

 

[Forsaken]

This question should be split in two, or else it doesn't have the right context:

1. As a hobby
2. For business purposes

You can spend $100K on your forum/yr, but if you gain +$400K/yr from it then it's worth it.

So somebody who's maintaining a forum for his/her private hobby would feel like he's not investing enough and it's not true.

My business forums finance my hobby forums, though my hobby forums will also have some monetization to help with costs.

 

[TPerry]

A couple of thousand a year... but for me it's a hobby... and ALL hobbies cost money (just ask... my other one of astrophotography is MUCH more expensive).

I run the site to have somewhere to post my thoughts, images and findings.... if others want to join, then that's simply gravy on the biscuits.

 

[Davyc]

I don't even think about it. I am running three XF sites at present, two are hobbyist the third I'm currently working on (not live yet) is a little diverse, not a hobby, not a business, more informational and educational. I don't monetize, don't have advertising, and not too bothered if anyone joins, I'm having fun and money doesn't really enter the equation because I can't put a price on having fun. I'm also in later years in life and retired so these sites help to keep my mind active and that's important because boredom can be a killer.

I also like to push boundaries, both with the software and within myself - again, it keeps me active and interested. I suppose over the decades since I got involved with forums the monetary costs have mounted up, but who cares lol? As with all things, if the fun stops, then I'll stop investing. You must enjoy what you do and do it because it's fun, so have fun and stop counting the cost.

 

[Mendalla]

We run pretty lean on costs. Somewhere just under US$3000 over 9 years (I am including this year's budget) but that's just a quick mental calculation. Could be a bit higher.

Guess I should specify, though it is probably obvious, this is very much a hobby site. No revenue stream, just donations.

 

[rdn]

I consider my own sites (custom PHP, Go, and other scripts) and forums (XF and Flarum) to be both a hobby and a full-time job.
I keep my monthly expenses (server rentals, domain, cdn, licenses, and custom addon requests) at 5% of my monthly total revenue.
I've been doing this since 2011.

 

[cdub]

I've spent probably $20 to 30k over the past 10 years. (A large chunk on a domain name). But the site is now actually making some money now (all via paid memberships - no ads) and might even one day be a real business and not an expensive hobby. Well technically it's been a real business legally the entire time but this is the first year it's been a profitable business. (although I haven't taken any money out yet - everything reinvested)

However, this is the first year I haven't had to put any of my own money into it so that's a huge plus.