FORUM OWNERS - Hosting Requirements?

[Shaolinsteve]

Hi Guys,

Apart from my design work and typical day job, one of my greatest passions is to learn Chinese and therefore as a side project I want to start working on making a forum. I am from the UK, however learning languages is a worldwide thing, so I would highly appreciate any insight as to what is required and if you can recommend any good hosting companies that are appropriate for hosting and any advice as to how much space is required for a forum as the hosting prices will differ.


I have done a lot of affiliate marketing in the past and always used Hostgator for hosting and Godaddy for Domains. I have never had a problem with these but if there are things I need to be aware of for "Forum Purposes" so to speak, I would appreciate it.

Whether I eventually get enough traffic to offer advertising for this I don't know but I believe that everyone has a project of their own they means something to them


Thanks Guys and I look forward to your answers!

[hpgoodboy]

For the beginning it does not really matter. Get the thing going and then get a dedicated server.

[Lloyd Buchinski]

As hp mentioned, it doesn't matter in the beginning. Any shared hosting account should be able to handle it. In addition there is a very high failure rate in forums, so you might want to start off without extra expenses.

Out of the free forum choices, here is the result of a forum owner's survey.

Vote for the best forum software of 2012

If the forum takes off and you do want to go with a paid version, they can import the members and data from the popular free forums.

[JDIZM]

What the guy above me said..

Don't get bogged down with the little bits at the start, worry more about how your going to add valuable content, not speeding up load time for only 1 user

[David Keith]

I use a company called togglebox.com. The scalability they offer is off the charts. Its way better than even having a dedicated server or 2.

[micksss]

I agree start off with shared hosting and move up as your forum grows (vps, dedicated). If you start out with a free forum platform like phpbb you can migrate everything over to vBulletin with some work. However if you are serious about this site and can afford it now you might want to start it up with vBulletin so you don't have to transfer/convert everything over later. Just something to think about... Best of luck to you!!!

[tpw]

You will definitely over-estimate your needs when you get started.

Look at the forum software that you want to use and get an overview of the minimum requirements, then match that.

You will not need more potential, until you can bring steady traffic and regular users to your forum, then you can play it by ear to see if you need to upgrade your account.

Once you reach some high volume, a dedicated server will be strongly recommended.

[Josh Fulfer]

I've got a forum that runs on vbulliten that gets around 3k uniques a day now and have it running smoothly on a VPS from hostgator for about $50 a month. When I first started out it was on a shared plan but they kept shutting me down and kicking me off. I then went to a fully dedicated for about 2 years that I was paying $230 for but that's way too much. I wish I had of switched to the VPS a lot sooner.
So yeah, I'd probably start with a shared plan and make sure you do regular backups, then when you start having problems with that move to a VPS.

[Shaolinsteve]

Originally Posted by hpgoodboy

For the beginning it does not really matter. Get the thing going and then get a dedicated server.

Thanks. I think that's where I lacked in the past. Too much reading and less action

[Shaolinsteve]

Originally Posted by Lloyd Buchinski

As hp mentioned, it doesn't matter in the beginning. Any shared hosting account should be able to handle it. In addition there is a very high failure rate in forums, so you might want to start off without extra expenses.

Out of the free forum choices, here is the result of a forum owner's survey.

Vote for the best forum software of 2012

If the forum takes off and you do want to go with a paid version, they can import the members and data from the popular free forums.

Hey Lloyd thanks for that mate. Very interesting indeed.

I am very comfortable working with Wordpress. I want to put my own spin on the standard look of forums and it needs to be attractive for sure. I can do some coding but JEEZE what a headache lol.

Definitely bookmarked for reference. Thanks again!

[Shaolinsteve]

Originally Posted by JDIZM

What the guy above me said..

Don't get bogged down with the little bits at the start, worry more about how your going to add valuable content, not speeding up load time for only 1 user

Haha, Indeed!

I have SEO experience and considering the latest updates and all, I want to be able to take a forum and really make something of it. This is why I am considering using Wordpress as my platform to produce something unique whilst giving enough appreciation for Google's heart

[Shaolinsteve]

Originally Posted by David Keith

I use a company called togglebox.com. The scalability they offer is off the charts. Its way better than even having a dedicated server or 2.

Interesting David.

Never heard of it before, but as soon as I get some time I will look more into it thanks.

[Shaolinsteve]

Originally Posted by micksss

I agree start off with shared hosting and move up as your forum grows (vps, dedicated). If you start out with a free forum platform like phpbb you can migrate everything over to vBulletin with some work. However if you are serious about this site and can afford it now you might want to start it up with vBulletin so you don't have to transfer/convert everything over later. Just something to think about... Best of luck to you!!!

Thanks for your thoughts. I have been an admin and moderator for several big forums in the past for various niches. If anyone has any experience with Wordpress Forums i..e running forums via Wordpress, I would love to hear your views. I want the forum to stand out, as a language forum it needs to be appealing as opposed to many standard looking forums out there.

[Kingfish85]

Let me just say this, don't be fooled by "get a dedicated server". In a lot of cases, a correctly configured & optimized VPS can be more powerful than a lot of dedicated servers.

what David Kieth says is 100% correct. This is good for scalability as well as portability. We can move VPS's from host to host very easily. In fact, even though we maintain our own servers, our entire shared & reseller hosting runs on lots of VPS's. We don't run them directly on the hardware.

[Shaolinsteve]

Originally Posted by tpw

You will definitely over-estimate your needs when you get started.

Look at the forum software that you want to use and get an overview of the minimum requirements, then match that.

You will not need more potential, until you can bring steady traffic and regular users to your forum, then you can play it by ear to see if you need to upgrade your account.

Once you reach some high volume, a dedicated server will be strongly recommended.

Thank you for the advice Bill.

I guess the challenge will be my fair share of traffic however I do have something in mind that I hope will generate that steady flow of traffic. But like anyone, I will be starting at the very bottom.

[Shaolinsteve]

Originally Posted by Josh Fulfer

I've got a forum that runs on vbulliten that gets around 3k uniques a day now and have it running smoothly on a VPS from hostgator for about $50 a month. When I first started out it was on a shared plan but they kept shutting me down and kicking me off. I then went to a fully dedicated for about 2 years that I was paying $230 for but that's way too much. I wish I had of switched to the VPS a lot sooner.
So yeah, I'd probably start with a shared plan and make sure you do regular backups, then when you start having problems with that move to a VPS.

Highly appreciate sharing your experience and advice!