The software itself is $140.00 and this includes 1 year of updates after that it's $40.00 a year. As far as hosting goes pretty much any host can run xF some better than others. If you don't mind spending some money you can contact @Mike Edge for hosting or check out other companies like Nimbus, A Small Orange, etc. xF is very easy to install. You can buy a domain name from either the hosting company you choose or go to sites like Godaddy or Namecheap to register your domain name.