I think Communiteq do great work, and I’d probably refer to theirs as ‘the perfect service’ if all of the plugins made by the Discourse team themselves were included in every plan.
I’m not sure about the “less expensive” bit, though.
I’ve browsed their website (including their FAQ and somewhat anemic Knowledge Base), and they don’t seem to be super transparent regarding the specs of the hardware on offer. They also curiously claim to be based in the EU and yet omit VAT from their prices (is that legal?).
As a rough example;
| Self-host | Communiteq | |
|---|---|---|
| €0 | ||
| Akismet | ~ €3 | |
| Server | $6 | |
| Total | ~ €10 | $20 or $29 (excl. VAT) |
For email I chose Sendinblue which offer 300 free emails per day. This might not be enough for all communities, but it is definitely sufficient for smaller communities.
For Akismet, I made the assumption the forum is not commercial and doesn’t show ads. This results in choose-your-own-price pricing, with them suggesting €36 / year.
For the server itself, I went with the cheapest option provided by DO. This includes more than double the storage offered by Communiteq. It may be more stingy in terms of CPU or RAM; DO offer that information, but Communiteq don’t, so your guess is as good as mine.
When it comes to fairness - well, it isn’t fair. I don’t think any such comparison will ever be entirely apples-to-apples, and an obvious caveat of my comparison is that one option is a managed solution and the other is a do it (and figure it out) yourself approach - a fundamental difference. Part of that difference is more freedom in terms of plugins. Pros and cons… no right answer.
My goal was to roughly replicate what they offer (in terms of functionality, not convenience) and see how the prices compare. For me, factoring in VAT, they come in at over three times the DIY pricing. That seems quite far from “less expensive”, and allows for multiple upgrades for the self-hosted solution without Communiteq price-matching or becoming the more affordable choice.
This probably reads as being very anti-Communiteq; that honestly isn’t my intention. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect them to offer more convenience and lower prices - particularly given that every plan of theirs appears to include access to a support team, who naturally need to be paid. I’m only responding to a statement which I believe takes the hyperbole a bit too far. FWIW, depending on where people live & which plugins they want, I would probably recommend Communiteq to them.
(Though I would love to know the story behind a based-in-Europe company charging nearly 50% more for customers choosing the EU data centre, and that price not even including tax…)