Advice asked for forum hosting

Hello all,

Im pretty new at this all and frankly have lost my way in the hosting jungle...

I am looking to have a new forum (likely going to be a MyBB forum) hosted but have some specific needs, and many hosters arent really clear on that.

What I am looking for:

- 10GB or more space
- 100GB or more bandwith
- Able to backup at least 1-2 times a week
- Ad free

This forum will be about a game and thus has hundreds of post in FAQ pages alone.
- 200 Threads in FAQ
- 500 postings in FAQ (with lots of pictures and gif files)
- 200 messages posted by users daily in other threads
- 1000 users and 50 online at any given time with peaks to 250

As the FAQ pages are updated several times a week we would appreciate at least a weekly backup of the forum. Now I have read somewhere this requires something like inodes and not all hosting services allow to make backups at all

Current budget althought is not high, free hosting would be nice, about 5-10 dollars a month at most.

Thank you

 

Don't choose your host based on backups. You always, always, always want to make your own backups anyway. You don't want to rely on a host's backups.

 

I do understand that of course, but we have lost a forum already once and dont like to see that being repeated. It was a server fire and all data was lost.
Of course we do have our own file backups, but it is a pain to remake such an extended FAQ and we still lost all user data on strategy talk and all that.
Players really got to know each other and its painfull to loose all that community talk.
So ideal situation would be to have everything on a backup in case of a crash/deletion/failure I would think. I dont see any other way to have that done other that the ability to backup the data.

 

Right...you should be making those backups yourself, so you don't have to remake the FAQ, etc. You should have your own backups of all of it. Even on a host that makes backups, things happen. Files get corrupted, backups don't work properly (notorious with certain versions of R1Soft), etc. You always want your own backup of everything just in case.

 

Well, your demands are very basic and any host nowadays can handle that, just visit marketplace section and get more names

 

In summary, just giving my personal point of view when it comes to forum hosting, it is best that you choose a reliable web hosting service provider - giving my recommendation to either Bluehost or Justhost, both of which are low cost yet provide a good service level.

Now, having said that; you wouldn't know what is going to happen down the road when your forums began to grow exponentially. When this happens, it is almost going to trigger the service providers' CPU throttling management. In other word, because of the package is a shared resource, some incoming traffic will be throttled, and therefore resulted in poor visitor experience, e.g. Delay and latency.

By then, I would strongly urge you to upgrade your web hosting service provider to a premium one, whereby monthly cost is going to be higher. Nonetheless, assuming you are attracting the RIGHT audience, you should be able to generate reasonable amount of revenue to cover web hosting costs.

 

Thank you all for posting.

Yes the CPU is a thing I in the first place never considered. And some hosters throthle and others even disable script or your account. If the visitor amount is high one can have unlimited bandwidth but it would crash day one if there are too many at the same time. Learning along the way here

Generating revenue wasnt the focus as it is a fan site. But it seems we can not go around it to ask donations or subscribtion

 

some hosts dont throttle cpu as such, but rather have clear cut limits in place that prevent going over the predefined limits. Most hosts now use cloudlinux. This does put limits on ram, cpu, but also CONCURRENT connections in place. This helps reduce the impact that other sites can have on yours, which in most cases is fantastic, but it also means that there are limits on what you can do. I would prefer to have these limits in place, as without them, all the other sites on the server can use excess resources, and heavily impact on your site. Hosts that dont have this in place, will often suddenly suspend, or even terminate your site for excess resources. With cloud linux, once you hit your resource limit, simply ask your host to upgrade your plan to the next level, which would have more ram, more cpu and more concurrent connections.

With the number of members you have online, there is no host under $10 per month that I can recommend. As this will possibly be triggering your concurrent connection limit. I would err on the side of recommending a VPS, but this is outside of the budget you specified.

Im curious, can you mention what game it is that your fan site is for?

Regarding monetization, it is something worth thinking about (doesnt have to be a top priority for you, and I know in gaming communities, it can put members, and admins offside if they think your "making a million") however, as nearly all sites have the potential to outgrow shared hosting and need to move into vps / dedicated hosting. This is why it is always worth thinking of how it can be monetized. I have a fansite myself, and used to make a bit as an affiliate promoting another game (owned by the same company that my fan site was for) and it worked out well. Or if its a site relating to a PS3 game, offer amazon affiliate links on your site for the latest version (if your members are going to buy it anyway, why not buy it using your link)
Or something like selling footer 5 x footer links on your forum at $20 each per year, might cover pretty much all of your hosting expenses. I know you mentioned you cant ask for donations or subscriptions, but look into small ideas of generating enough to cover costs. The more money the site makes, the more you can afford for hosting, backup solutions, running competitions, artwork and everything else a fansite does.

Also with backups; WSWD is right. You need to have your own backups, at home on your own pc. You can do this yourself, by using the backup option from within cpanel. The reason having your own backups is critical is, well, besides the server fire that your host had, is that in the last 2 weeks, 2 large hosting companies vanished overnight. All backups they had on behalf of clients were lost. Try to backup and download the backup once or twice a week.

 

TSOHost is a great host and within your budget

I use them myself for a new site I have developed and it is great.

This month alone we have had 1.5 million page hits and 99% uptime and peeked 700 users on the site at one time.

They also offer daily backups by the looks of it, I don't use their backups myself as I have my own system for that.
Their "pro Hosting" plan comes with 10GB of storage and 150GB of b/w for around $6.50

 

You may want to look at a SSD MySQL or pure SSD host, this will improve writing and reading the database much faster.

 

I know the hosting provider which will suit your needs, how much are you planning to spend for web hosting per month?

 

I would personally look for an amount of space/traffic that exceeds your requirements. Always think in perspective and as if your website plans would go the way you want them to go. As OP said, they currently need 10 (or more) gigs of space, so if you choose an account with 10-12GB space you will outgrow it pretty soon and would have to think about upgrades again. Never go with a package that covers your minimum demands, give your project some breathing space

 

I agree with Rado_ch if your forum grows with traffic then you will outgrow a small account before you even get really started. Plan on a budget for a VPS and you won't be faced with unexpected needs.

 

I agree with JPC-Sabrina you should make a budget for VPS now days Starter VPS plans are very cheap.

 

OP to be frank reliable free hosting you can't find and $5-$10 per mo* for hosting may not be not enough, maybe is for first 2-3 months, but as soon as your forum grows you have to move to a VPS.

I'm building a forum as well and plan to go with $30/mo* VPS from beginning because I plan some advertising that get specific numbers for a VPS so..., but when things get busy I must upgrade server or ..., the thing that hold you is your budget for hosting buddy, thing that is crucial for any website.

Let us know your project phase, maybe we can give more suggestions. Kind regards!