hello,
What is the cheapest way to run a discourse forum with custom domain?
Hosting (DO/etc) ~15/month + smtp (mailgun/etc) ~15/month.
Why is discourse hosting 100/month?
Thanks
AI-generated summary
The discussion explores the most cost-effective methods for running Discourse with a custom domain. Micah_hoffmann asks why managed hosting is so expensive compared to DIY estimates (~$30/mo). Architect clarifies that self-hosting can be much cheaper, potentially around $7/month on DigitalOcean or even less on Hetzner, especially if email limits are low enough to use free tiers like Mailgun or Brevo. JammyDodger explains that managed hosting prices reflect the value of automated updates, support from the core team, and included email services, noting that Basic plans start at $50/mo and Standard at $100/mo. They also point to pricing details where features vary by plan, not just domain support. Micah_hoffmann expresses confusion over extra costs for custom domains and troubleshooting email issues. Architect directs them to troubleshooting guides and notes that downgrading to “flex” billing can reduce costs if email volume is low. curiositry shares that they found a $15-25/year VPS option via Linveo after trying various free tiers without success. pacharanero and denvergeeks strongly recommend Hetzner for its low cost (~€7/mo) and reliability, with denvergeeks arguing that Discourse Hosted is often superior for production sites despite higher costs. curiositry also investigates ultra-cheap NAT VPS options like TierHive (~$0.85/mo), though NateDhaliwal and curiositry acknowledge significant technical hurdles, including static IP requirements, lack of direct port access, and potential verification issues, suggesting tools like Cloudflare Tunnels might be necessary.
Discourse can still run on a 1gb memory server, which is about $7 a month with DO/digital ocean.
If you’re sending less than 1,000 e-mails a month with mailgun then that is free. Alternative free smtp sender is Brevo.
With discourse hosting you have team support + discourse mail.
In addition you will have domain registration fees.
There are some other less expensive server options, believe Hetzner may be one of the lowest cost ones in Germany.
Probably about $2 u.s.d. a month might be the minimum but there may be even less expensive servers than that in Indonesia or The Philippines.
oh mailgun works with free version?
I must have it configured wrong… sorry
For our hosting, the Basic plan currently starts at $50 a month, though Standard is $100/mth.
Managed hosting suits a lot of people who don’t want the hassle of manual installation and updates. The level of support you get (from the team who build the software, no less) is also something of a draw. 
You have to contact support to downgrade to “flex” billing option, which WILL bill you if there are more than 1,000 e-mails sent a month but no bill for less mail than that.
Standard account is $35 a month.
I appreciate that.
But 50 extra for custom domain?
This is how to make the free version “work”?
I get to congratulations you installed discourse, but don’t receive email.
The different plans have an increasing range of supported features, so not just that particular one. You can check out what’s available on each plan here:
Though self-hosting is also an option. 
There is a guide for troubleshooting here:
Would recommend opening help ticket with your mail sender to diagnose problem.
I spent a lot of effort trying to minimize Discourse hosting costs, including trying Oracle Cloud, Fly’s free tier, and others. I haven’t found a way to run it for free. The most affordable way of self-hosting Discourse that I have found is $15-25/year:
Just use a free VPS provider.
Hetzner have some very low cost VPSs on offer. Some as low as €7 a month, for decent capability that runs Discourse fine for me.
Yes Hetzner. Considering all of the factors involved in self-hosting, there is no better legitimate value to be found IMO. Also look at Contabo.
Aside from Discourse $20/month hosted, that is! I would ALWAYS choose Discourse HOSTED for a production site.
I’m curious if anyone has had success running Discourse on a NAT VPS? I heard about TierHive from a Bradley Taunt blogpost, and was immediately intrigued. It looks you could satisfy Discourse’s minimum requirements (10gb disk, 1gb ram) for ~$0.85 / month.
Do you need to have your globally accessible static IP address already, from someone else?
Might need something like Cloudflare Tunnels, from what I’m seeing, unless I’m misunderstanding.
I’m looking at the site and it says that servers with more than 2GB RAM are given 2 vCPUs. So no configurable CPUs there. But looks interesting…
@Ed_S @NateDhaliwal I know very little about NAT. When I first looked it up, the first non-AI answer I got was “If you don’t know what NAT is, you should not get a NAT VPS” 
I gather most people use a reverse proxy (I already have one I could use), and it appears that TierHive includes a reverse proxy. It would probably take some effort to make Discourse work with their infrastructure (mail relays on port 587; no direct access to port 80 or 443; potential issues with domain based verification).
Their about page is hilarious, and very frank, and goes into a good amount of detail on what they do (and don’t!) offer:
There’s also a ShowHN with some info about the developer: