Returned asa i could. Took a while to carefully appreciate & digest all these highly thoughtful & detailed responses for each doubt I had. Replies so helpful, found myself smiling through them; clarified so much confusion, now I really understand what many things mean & what they entail. What a buncha special souls & a lovely community
Few remaining doubts;
1) Do VPS providers like DO also offer managed hosting for Discourse?
2.1) What kinda time/time & knowledge level does maintaining a vps hosting discourse entail for my kinda forum?
2.2) @tophee said “For various reasons, managed servers are rarely used by admins of discourse forums” Why’s this then? Cuz it takes some ad hoc work but not too much work?
3) Re managing SMTP & DNS, what kinda time/time & knowledge level do these entail for my kinda forum?
Not at all in this context. I’ve only minimally used the command prompt to install/fix stuff on my pc following tutorials, barely knowing what I’m doing.
@Andrew_Rowe said “Just bear in mind if the forum you run doesn’t get a lot of traffic, which it won’t all on it’s own”
This touches on a concern I had about SEO & discoverability;
4) Suppose forum content is constant. How will the forum’s SEO & discvbty compare with free Discourse hosting vs self hosting?
Is this a big factor causing major differences; is Discourse’s own free plan so optimized & ahead in this aspect than self hosted setup done well by a rookie using non-managed vps?
Or is this not even much of a factor causing much difference?
Does just updating a self hosted Discourse ensure this aspect is up to a Discourse’s free plan equivalent?
@Lilly I so appreciate this long explanation from you. Although some assumptions behind some comments in your response don’t apply to me & I’ve already clarified them in posts you’ve had to have read to reply
This was one of your many helpful insights which gave me a clearer picture
@Lilly said ‘i have used DigitalOcean before but it can be relatively expensive; however, it is the recommended starting point for those learning standard installs’
This touched on another concern I had; not re computing performance & specs, but re a proper setup & maintenance;
5) Does DO/Hetzner provide a significant difference compared to a very cheap (but ofc must be legit) vps? fr eg these: IONOS VPS Hosting | Virtual Private Servers | Starting at $2/month
vps mart https://www.vps-mart.com/promo/vps-2026?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=ads&utm_term=vps%20server&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23675520465&gbraid=0AAAAAD-bJXLz0SibdKWrWFSzZM7bpaTlH&gclid=Cj0KCQjwguLSBhDLARIsAH-yPrGdEkj0FDU47zyPimE4Vs8a0UQiRUCgwo3xcZVIRPtKY2ToAphsAAwaArTpEALw_wcB
Interserver’s $3/m for 2GB RAM
@darkpixlz Thank you for your reply. I’ve felt hosting on own hardware would be too much of another worm can for me so I didn’t consider it, & you further clarified how I’m not really equipped for this particular option