Discourse Hosting and Space

Installation
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I am fairly certain I read this here but I can not seem to find it using the search function. If this has already been answered, please direct me to the link.

In the meantime, I am in the process of trying to set up my own discourse for a “Writer’s Forum.” Before I do, I need to know a couple of things. First, I already purchased a domain name - as I want to link the forum to my blog site. I am planning on hiring someone to manage the forum for me.

Before I fork out a great deal of money buying the wrong things, I need to know is there a certain type of hosting I need to get and how much hosting space do I need to purchase? Does it matter with whom I go with such as Bluehost, iPage, etc.?

Thank you/Gina

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Hi Gina,
The details you need can be found here.

That’s assuming you don’t want to go with one of our hosted plans (which makes life a lot easier). :wink:

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Awesome! Thank you for the link.

Pardon my ignorance, but by reading this, I am under the impression, I do not need to buy hosting space from one of the providers (bluehost, ipage), just a standard droplet from digitalocean, then sign up with a hosting plan or does the hosting plan include digitalocean?

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It’s all good. :slight_smile:

You have three options really:

  1. We can host for you in which case you choose a plan from the pricing page, sign up for the trial, and we configure everything for you. At the end of 14 days, if you’re happy you push the button and go onto monthly subscription.

  2. You go with DigitalOcean and follow all the instructions on that doc, in which case you don’t need one of our hosting plans. You pay DO to host but you are responsible for your own upgrades and keeping everything running.

  3. You get @pfaffman to do it for you. More info on that here.

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There are two kinds of hosting you are talking about, so let’s clear that up real quick:

  • Bluehost, et al., are web hosting companies.
  • DigitalOcean is a virtual server hosting company.

So your blog is fine at a web hosting company, but Discourse requires its own server. It is technically possible to host all your stuff on a server at DigitalOcean, but it is not practical, especially for your use case.

That means you will need web hosting for your blog, and separately a server for your forums. It is more expensive, obviously, but getting started you can get both for $10 or $15 a month, each. :slight_smile:

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Thank you for the clarification!! :grinning:

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