# Confused about Self Hosting

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/confused-about-self-hosting/407752>\
**Category:** Self-hosting\
**Tags:** server-resources, install, hosting\
**Created:** [July 15, 2026, 11:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confused-about-self-hosting/407752 "2026-07-15T23:53:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 15

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**Author:** ![Lilly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/lilly/32/575047_2.png) [@Lilly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lilly)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2026, 2:51am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confused-about-self-hosting/407752/15 "2026-07-17T02:51:15Z")

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> [@Gid](#):
>
> 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

not sure what this means but if you’ve clarified anything i posted, i don’t think i read it before posting. at any rate i tried to be as thorough as possible so there may be more info than you needed, i don’t know.

> [@Gid](#):
>
> **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](https://www.ionos.com/servers/vps)  
> vps mart [VPS Promotion 2026, Starting at $1.04/month](https://www.vps-mart.com/promo/vps-2026)

i don’t know anything about these VPS services, but i had a look…

myself, i would not attempt to run even a small forum on anything less than 4GB RAM and enough disk space to make a 2GB swap file.

but you need to read the terms and the details and understand what you are getting. Some of these services only offer a shared assigned IP, which won’t work for discourse - for example, [vps-mart.com](http://vps-mart.com):

 ![Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 7.39.02 PM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/c/0/5/c050efa9896a61f2f76a51c035f1aab98c266817.png)

thus, i would not use their services even though the other specs are reasonable for a small Discourse install. an official `discourse_docker` installation generally requires exclusive access to ports 80 and 443 to serve web traffic and automatically provision Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates. with their shared IP, you will only be assigned randomized non-standard ports.

on IONOS [VPS Hosting | Virtual Private Servers | Starting at $2/month](https://www.ionos.com/servers/vps) i see that the $4/month config requires a 12 month term and no details about IP, so it is important to _really read the terms_ of what you are wanting (i also notice they offer Plesk, which you don’t want 🤮) :

 ![Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 7.22.11 PM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/9/a/e/9ae50fcfe63e75ab4d8e6d93b1f933e3ea60ef12.png)

 ![Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 7.23.17 PM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/3/9/6/3966ba3d671b9905873690a7a1caf3a52be06de6.png)

this is the current Hetzner costs for similar Linux config that will work for Discourse, and it provides dedicated IP and root ssh access:

 ![Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 7.55.24 PM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/6/d/5/6d528059321fb81b9d93abc564879712a8b317d3.png)

what is also great about Hetzner is if you just want to test or try, you can rent servers by the hour:

 ![Screenshot 2026-07-16 at 8.14.36 PM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/f/7/6/f766871be8712b0fd1697f4fa2655870c5fcf142.png)

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