For what it’s worth, I’ve been a happy Communiteq customer for over six years now. We pay anually so it is less than $17/month – and they include email and Askimet anti-spam. They’ve taken care of all the updates and there has never been any problem at all. Unless you’re planning on a super busy forum, or need to use more than the basic plug-ins, it seems to me that Communiteq is actually less expensive than trying to host Discourse yourself (since email and anti-spam is included).