Forum Owners' Insights: Have You Made the Leap from Free Hosting to Paid Software?

[Cedric]

In regards to my latest article:

https://freeforumhosting.com/boost-your-forums-success-upgrade-to-paid-forum-software/
I’ve seen it happening many times, community leaders are not satisfied with growth on free forum hosting.

We all know the journey of building an online forum community is both exciting and challenging. One crucial decision many of us face is where to host our forum. Some of us start with free hosting services, while others jump right into paid software. But here's the question of the day: Have you made the leap from free forum hosting to a paid software platform?

We want to hear your experiences, insights, and any advice you have for fellow forum owners. What prompted your decision to migrate to a paid platform? Were there any specific challenges or benefits you encountered during the transition? How has it impacted the growth and engagement of your community?

If you haven't made the move yet, what's holding you back, and what questions do you have about the process?

Let's share our stories and help each other navigate this critical decision in the world of online forums. Your experiences can be incredibly valuable to others on this forum. So, don't hesitate to chime in!

Looking forward to your insights and discussions.

 

[joelr]

For most hobbyists, I actually think the better upgrade is free forums --> social media to build their audience.

 

[Clarice]

I myself can't afford to upgrade at the moment since my husband was laid off and is currently receiving unemployment. I depend on my SSI to pay most of the bills in my apartment which is a royal pain to me.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I've done this in the past before. On my old Mighty No. 9 forum, we started on a free forum host and eventually made our way to paid software. Though I probably shouldn't have taken that leap since my budget wasn't the best. This was when I was younger and was making minimum wage at Walmart.

 

[Dismal_Bliss]

I will only do paid software now.

In 2006 I started with MyBB and ended up being disappointed. I then moved to Phorum because they supported threaded view, which I loved back then. Eventually the community voted on linear view, and I was outnumbered, lol, so we turned off threaded view. When the community got popular, HostGator kept shutting us down for using too many of the shared servers resources, so we got a VPS. Phorum wasn't compatible with the VPS because the VPS was running much more modern software, so we converted to Invision after much consideration. We almost went with Xenforo but we're glad we didn't. Invision has kept up with security and development non-stop while the rest of the scripts, both free and paid, have remained pretty stagnant.

Anytime I have a not-so-bright idea, I'm willing to hand money over to Invision, lol.

 

[Empire]

I went to paid hosting right away back then and stuck with it, I started with free forum software before then went to IPB. Since then price has changed and gotten more or less depending on the year and the renewable terms and times. I do not think that I'll change hosts or even move away from shared as it's the cost factor for me