Self-Hosting vs. Managed Hosting: Which is the Smarter Choice for Forums?

[Shawn Gossman]

Is self-hosting forums (on your own server) worth the effort, or does it create unnecessary headaches?

Do managed hosting platforms (like Vanilla Cloud or ProBoards) stifle creativity and control in exchange for convenience?

Have you had issues with downtime, security, or scalability that influenced your hosting decision?

Which is more cost-effective in the long run: self-hosting or managed hosting?

For self-hosters: How do you handle backups, updates, and server management without issues?

Are managed platforms exploiting admins with expensive subscription models for features you can DIY?

Horror stories or success stories: What’s your hosting experience, and what would you recommend to others?

 

[Nomad]

If you have time and skills, self hosting is better but for those who do not have time to manage and do not have website management skills, managed hosting is better. I started with self hosting even though I did not have skills, I learned by trial and error

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I didn't have any skills with servers either when I started using them.

Now, I can usually get by but I'm no expert by any means.

But still, self-hosting is what I'd rather do.

 

[Cedric]

Self-hosting is what I prefer and find logical personally. But it's a dying breed. People are more looking for cloud options and it's a rising trend.

 

[JoelR]

There's a philosophical point about self hosting which is that you control more. You control the server, php, MySQL, the ability to host other sites, when and how often you conduct backups, your ability to tinker. There's a sense of greater ownership and control.

One of the philosophical changes happening in forums is from server admins with technical skills to community managers with people skills. You don't necessarily need to have technical skills anymore to run a highly successful forum, but you will always have to have great people skills.

 

[Tracy]

Depends on several factors. If the admin has the knowledge and the time, they can end up with a better server for the same price as it would cost getting a server/vps and then paying for management services.
I personally have been doing it for well over 10 years and still don't mind it. Very rarely do I come across an issue I can't resolve. There may reach a point that I decide I don't want to do the server management/maintenance myself and then I'll hire it done. But it's simple enough that if I get to that point, I probably won't be wanting to run a site either.

 

[JoelR]

Depends on several factors. If the admin has the knowledge and the time, they can end up with a better server for the same price as it would cost getting a server/vps and then paying for management services.
I personally have been doing it for well over 10 years and still don't mind it. Very rarely do I come across an issue I can't resolve. There may reach a point that I decide I don't want to do the server management/maintenance myself and then I'll hire it done. But it's simple enough that if I get to that point, I probably won't be wanting to run a site either.

I think a better question to re-frame the scenario for someone like you (and myself and most of the community admins here) is, if you were to start an online group for the first time without any prior experience, would you go self hosted or managed?

Most of us look at this question with 10+ years of experience running our own VPS or server environment for our existing forums, but the future of community building is not going to be people like us who are already in the game, but new people who will be launching new communities.

 

[Cedric]

I remember when I started having interest in owning one of those cool forums where it was mine. I started as many of us did, with free forum hosting. And as the years go by, so does your experience grow. From free forums, you go with a mate who has hosting and there you see how easy it actually is. So for us who experienced that, it’ll be damn hard to go to cloud.

 

[Tracy]

if you were to start an online group for the first time without any prior experience, would you go self hosted or managed?

I came into running websites with no prior experience (other than BBS related on OS/2 & Desqview). I did start out with shared hosting... which I kept for about 2 months (HostCrapper) and grabbed a VPS with RamNode, who I used until I decided I wanted to play with ProxMox and creating my own VPS's and ended up grabbing a few dedicated servers (about 6 months after my first VPS).
I was able to do that because of my prior experience with Linux (like, when it first came onto the scene and was on a TON of 3.5" diskettes to install). But that experience was not based upon hosting websites but day to day management of it.
For someone with zero experience with Linux admin or Windows admin (depending on which HTTP server poisons you prefer) a managed service is going to pretty much be a requirement until they get some experience. And I consider shared hosting a managed service as the site admin has no interaction with the underlying system running the panel that they use.
There are those that do decide to jump feet first into the self-managed pool on the deep end. Many of them made me some nice pocket money over the years until I quit doing that type of side job.

 

[Cpvr]

I think a better question to re-frame the scenario for someone like you (and myself and most of the community admins here) is, if you were to start an online group for the first time without any prior experience, would you go self hosted or managed?

Most of us look at this question with 10+ years of experience running our own VPS or server environment for our existing forums, but the future of community building is not going to be people like us who are already in the game, but new people who will be launching new communities.

When I first started, I chose self-hosting with managed options, and I’d make the same choice if I could go back.



The trial-and-error process is invaluable for learning as a first-timer. Building a community is all about growth and adaptation—without those challenges, you miss out on key experiences. Success in community building requires persistence and a willingness to learn, which is why many forums don’t make it past their first 6-12 months.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I'd still go self-hosted as well. That's how I started out. I could had easily stuck to platforms like Pro Boards and BlogSpot but I chose to get my own thing and join forums with folks that could help me learn it.

Maybe that's what we need... A forum that teaches people how to use self-hosted platforms instead of going with "rented space" and SaaS.

 

[Tracy]

Maybe that's what we need... A forum that teaches people how to use self-hosted platforms instead of going with "rented space" and SaaS.

Those exist in some support sites for the various scripts sometimes.

Server Questions

Self-hosted and shared assistance to help with your server questions.

xenforohelp.com

Server configuration and hosting

This forum is for questions about configuring your server for XenForo and how to meet your XenForo hosting needs.

xenforo.com

are two examples.
Woltlab and Invsion do not have nodes for that. I imagine those type questions get folded into general support ones.
I think it would generally would be better to have something like that for the different scripts as sometimes the vhost (and server) configurations are frequently different.
Some may require ruby on rails, others are set up as docker images, then others use a standardized LAMP/LEMP stack.