starting out.......

[judd dredd]

Good afternoon to you all, I am looking to start a forum for a couple of dozen friends and I. Sadly i have minimal experience and initially looked at wix as an all in one solution but was suggested by numerous people to get set up on xenForo.

I have just a standard desktop at home so any hosting would have to be online. Anybody have any suggestions where i can start and/or a checklist of things i need to get sorted before buying the xenForo forum software?

Any help is greatly appericated.

 

[Paul B]

You just need to purchase a domain (URL) and hosting - shared hosting will suffice for a new forum.

Once your host sets up the domain, you can then purchase and install XF.

 

[DarkGizmo]

May I recommend Hawkhost. I host my own Xenforo forum with them and they are pretty good. I've been with them for over 10 years now.

If you're interested in trying them out, please consider using my affiliate link when signing up - https://my.hawkhost.com/aff.php?aff=1537

If you would like to get an idea on speeds, you can check my forum out in my signature. As Brogan said, just starting out, Shared hosting is your best bet and with Hawk it's easy to migrate to something like a VPS later on if/when needed.

 

[judd dredd]

Thank you both

 

[judd dredd]

You just need to purchase a domain (URL) and hosting - shared hosting will suffice for a new forum.

Once your host sets up the domain, you can then purchase and install XF.

and the $50.00 installation service would cover putting xenforo onto the hosting platform?

 

[Paul B]

Yes, as long as the domain and server are configured.

 

[DotWeb]

Yes, you can start with shared hosting. SSD hosting with litespeed+lscache is perfect for the xenforo forum. Genius Host provides that kind of setup & if you need you can upgrade your hosting resources in the future.

 

[combatgamez]

If its just for you and a few friends to catch up and chat then you should just find a free forum host or use discord...

xenforo sounds like a bit of overkill possibly?