Is running a forum expensive?

[Alex]

Do you have any money issues when it comes to forums? For example: let's say you were running a big forum with a great amount of members, but you didn't have enough money to renew the domain and/or hosting. What would you do and how would you solve that problem? I'm not saying that happens now because most successful forum leaders have real life jobs and can pay for their forum without hesitation.

 

[Jason]

In a desperate situation you could get a loan. However, everyone doesn't have good enough credit. Well, as an emergency measure, perhaps you could do odd jobs on the internet to cover that VPS or other burden.

 

[dfarmer2001]

I have run several forums in the past and had got out of it for a while. I have recently started back and I now run FortniteChatter.com. In terms of expenses, I would say that forums are pretty manageable finance-wise due to the various hosting plans available. Of course, determining the size of your forum site and the users could definitely play a role in the website costs. As for me and the Fortnite Chatter, I got set up and running for the first full year for less than $50. That doesn't include advertising or customized work.

 

[Jason]

Running a forum that uses paid software can be expensive. It can also be expensive if, on top of that, you use expensive hosting like with a VPS or dedicated server. However, though, the idea of expensive is relative to what a person makes as an income.

 

[WebKitty]

$100 a year for hosting, $10 for a domain, paid software per year varies so say something like $40. That would be $150 per year. Most plugins you buy outright and do not get charged for more than once.

 

[Jason]

$100 a year for hosting, $10 for a domain, paid software per year varies so say something like $40. That would be $150 per year. Most plugins you buy outright and do not get charged for more than once.

$100 a year for hosting? Either you got a reseller thing going or there is a dedicated server. I'm sure this isn't the average cost for people.

 

[Jason]

If you have a big forum with a lot of members, you could try ads. However, if ad-blockers are a problem, you might set up some section where people could post ads, as a forum post, and bump their ad for money. Anyway, we are talking about only enough revenue to pay for forum expenses, whose to say if what you make will be profitable. Well, it depends on the amount of people and sort of people there.

 

[Kane]

I am running three forums, I do not pay extra for hosting as I already have hosting for other websites. My monthly expenses are mainly for paying content creators, my annual expenses are for domain renewal. I do not spend a lot of money on content creation, though. My expenses are under $60 per month for three forums

 

[Shortie]

Running a forum does not have to be expensive at all. It all depends on your reason for wanting to start the forum and what you want to achieve from the forum as well.

Some tend to go with free forum hosting as that is a great option if you are running a forum for fun.

If you want to run a forum more professionally, you can opt for free forum software such as MyBB and buy hosting and a domain for an affordable price as well.

 

[Cory1]

I'm on the Jcink software and the only payment I make on a yearly basis is to renew the domain. It's free all around basically if you're just wanting a site as a hobby and nothing more. I've seen a few boards on Jcink that are very active and alive, so using free forum software doesn't necessarily set you up for failure.

 

[Dilip]

Yes, I go for the best possible assets when I start a forum. It is indeed expensive. But we will have to live with it. Running forums requires some investment.

 

[Heatman]

Well, all I can say is that it depends on the kind of forum project that you're working with. Let's say that you want to run a paid to post forum, it's definitely going to be very expensive for you to run such a project. You will need to pay your forum members for their contents until you can be able to make more money from the forum or other side projects to sponsor the forum.

 

[Grant]

I never found it to be that expensive to run one. I mean it's not cheap, but I think most people can pay for a forum, domain, hosting, etc and be able to live a great life. Of course if your forum doesn't draw money, you will need a job outside of it, but I liken it to having a hobby like playing video games. That costs a lot of money, and running a forum can at times, but it's affordable is what I'm trying to say.

 

[Heatman]

$100 a year for hosting, $10 for a domain, paid software per year varies so say something like $40. That would be $150 per year. Most plugins you buy outright and do not get charged for more than once.

It's actually very expensive to pay $100 for hosting in a year. I have been making use of Namecheap hosting services and it's never anywhere near $100 for a year's hosting plan. You must be making so much money from your forum to stick with a hosting plan of that amount.

 

[Kane]

Running a forum does not have to be expensive at all. It all depends on your reason for wanting to start the forum and what you want to achieve from the forum as well.

Some tend to go with free forum hosting as that is a great option if you are running a forum for fun.

If you want to run a forum more professionally, you can opt for free forum software such as MyBB and buy hosting and a domain for an affordable price as well.

If you use open source content mangement systems like SMF, phpBB or MyBB, your cost of forums is only related to domain and hosting. UNless you plan on paid marketing or paying users to post, your operational costy will be almost zero. However, if you use paid software, you will have to pay subscriptions and other add on expenses so yor cost might be really high.

 

[glitch]

Not really. Starts at free. You can start a forum at no cost but assuming you want your own clean domain and running it off your own server, expect to pay around $10 a month. The cost of the software also factors in. I almost always use Xenforo and that will cost you $140 for the first year plus renewal fees after.