XenForo Cloud discussion

I wish you all luck with XenForo Cloud, but this is not for me and unfortunal the last thing in a very long list of popular demands of additions for the XenForo software.
We’re not necessarily targeting existing customers though it is fair to say that I’m sure many existing customers - as some comments imply from the replies so far - will be pleased to have a fully managed service by us.

And you’re absolutely right. A lot of thought has gone into this. You shouldn’t need to worry about how it is going to be managed. Our focus continues to be on developing the product and (hopefully) bringing it to more customers at the same time.
 
Will the XenForo team be expanded with server engineers?

Is XenForo cloud optimized for speed and SEO?
The team will be expanded as required to meet the demands of the business although with the platform we’ve built it should be incredibly hands off.

The software is optimised for speed and SEO as-is and if required further improvements will be added to the software as time goes on.
 
Congrats, I look forward to hearing more. Just need add-on support for myself.

billy mayes set it and forget it GIF
 
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Of course I welcome any new option for customers. As long as we can do the old way, there is no problem for me.

IMO no XF board can live without any addons, so I don't think the "no-addon" policy will be useful to many people. It is so limiting.

Not to mention there is no info about how much storage will be available in this cloud.

For 60$/m you can get a real good dedicated server. Or a high-quality managed VPS. Though there still will be people who would prefer the XF cloud option, I don't think any experienced board owner would like the limiting cloud where you don't even have any server access,

But I like that XF tries to offer something. Always nice to have options.
 
The team will be expanded as required to meet the demands of the business although with the platform we’ve built it should be incredibly hands off.

The software is optimised for speed and SEO as-is and if required further improvements will be added to the software as time goes on.
Will it have a good score for all aspects of Google page experience?
 
Cool news and congrats on taking the first steps. I love self-hosting so it's not for me but I can see this help the overall development of the software which is a win for everybody.

Will Cloud sites still have REST API available?
 
IMO no XF board can live without any addons, so I don't think the "no-addon" policy will be useful to many people. It is so limiting.
Many do, although we have already acknowledged that a later focus on add-ons is part of the plan.

Not to mention there is no info about how much storage will be available in this cloud.
This will be announced in the future.


For 60$/m you can get a real good dedicated server. Or a high-quality managed VPS. Though there still will be people who would prefer the XF cloud option, I don't think any experienced board owner would like the limiting cloud where you don't even have any server access
If you have a dedicated server and are capable of managing it yourself and prefer to have full autonomy over the server then it’s likely XenForo Cloud isn’t for you. Sometimes it’s a case of being able to afford to, but you just don’t have the time or would prefer someone else to do it for you.

We also see an unfortunate number of people who want to use the software but barely know what a domain name is, let alone FTP, or a database. This opens up an avenue for those too.

Always nice to have options.
Absolutely. This is about opening doors to customers who want to run a forum but may otherwise be unable or unwilling to run a server or lack what we might consider to be the basic knowledge required to run one. It’s a good thing 🙂
 
Had this been around 7 years ago, we might have gone for it. We are a small board and only have a couple people who have IT backgrounds (me being one). Even at that, we've stayed with shared hosting rather than a virtual private server or similar since we both have real lives to deal with. Absent me and the other admin, I think the board would have to go for something like this.
 
@Chris D

Yep, different people, different needs and demands. So, good thing to have such an option now.

My only concern is maybe in future we all get "cloud-locked", like if we want to run XF, we need to get the cloud subscription. That would be a nightmare. I have seen businesses doing that, like once they become big, they get extra greedy and lock their service to their own offered platform. (Which in the end kills their business imo). But that kind of scenario is unlikely with XF as I find XF very customer-friendly. You guys would never do such a thing. Nevertheless I wanted to mention this, just in case. Another thing is not everyone lives in a 1st-world-country and can afford 60$/m.
 
cloud-locked", like if we want to run XF, we need to get the cloud subscription. That would be a nightmare. I have seen businesses doing that, like once they become big
I’ll take Apple for $500.

(Jk — I think in Apple’s case it makes them better.)
 
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Valid concern I suppose but we have already ruled that out in our original announcement. I don’t believe there’s a good reason to ever stop offering a self hosted version.
Ruled it out... for now. I was talking about the future. Not implying XF would do such a thing ever, but many businesses do this baiting. They bait the people in the beginning and promise not to do such a thing ever. And then once they have a nice major customers, they just say "we can no longer afford the old ways and now require everyone to subscribe". The promise they gave never matters. Business as usual they say. So there is always greed and more greed as a "good reason" :).

My last questions, what about backup solutions? Will the customers be able to download their files/database since they own it but have no server access? How will they do that? And will you backup their stuff periodically for them, too?

What about domains? Will the domain acquisition be provided from XF cloud, too? Or do they need to do that on their own first before subscribing?
 
My last questions, what about backup solutions? Will the customers be able to download their files/database since they own it but have no server access? How will they do that? And will you backup their stuff periodically for them, too?
We manage and monitor the backups which are performed daily and stored off-site away from the server.

There isn’t currently a process by which you can download the files and database on an adhoc basis but you’re absolutely correct that the data is owned by the subscriber and therefore will be made available in circumstances where it is required, such as the subscription being cancelled.


What about domains? Will the domain acquisition be provided from XF cloud, too? Or do they need to do that on their own first before subscribing?
Every site will choose their own sub domain on one of our domains. If you have your own domain you can point that to the server instead. Instructions for this are provided to cloud subscribers through the customer area.

Naturally we sort out the SSL certificate and all of the technical stuff so that once everything is propagated it just works ™️
 
I don’t know what you mean by multi site install. Are you asking if we’re cramming multiple sites onto the same server like shared hosting? No, that’s not an approach we’d take.
 
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