# Free Hosting for Open Source v2
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940
**Category:** Blog
**Created:** [November 13, 2018, 1:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940 "2018-11-13T13:45:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2018, 1:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/1 "2018-11-13T13:45:28Z")
Originally published at: [Free Hosting for Open Source v2](https://blog.discourse.org/2018/11/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/)
Nearly two years ago we started very carefully experimenting with free hosting of open source projects. Today we’re announcing the next iteration of our free hosting program, casting a much wider net this time. Free Discourse Hosting For Your Open Source Project Do you run a popular open source project? Then you might be eligible…
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### Author:  [@brianhicks](https://meta.discourse.org/u/brianhicks)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2018, 4:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/2 "2018-11-13T16:06:25Z")
How will this affect communities in the V1 program?
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/3 "2018-11-13T18:35:55Z")
Projects on the legacy plan will continue to be hosted under the terms that applied when they signed up, meaning they will not need to change their domain names.
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### Author:  [@coderberry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/coderberry)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2018, 7:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/4 "2018-11-23T19:38:08Z")
This is incredible!!! Thanks so much @erlend_sh and Discourse team!!!
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2018, 7:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/5 "2018-11-23T19:54:50Z")
All credit to @erlend_sh he has been driving this forward!
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### Author:  [@coderberry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/coderberry)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2018, 6:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/6 "2018-12-04T18:08:45Z")
@erlend_sh We’d like to move Gitcoin to use the free version possible. Does this allow for a custom domain? If not, how do we qualify for the 50% off?
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/7 "2018-12-04T20:22:14Z")
The free plan no longer allows for custom domains. The 50% discount is generally for not-for-profit open source projects, which puts Gitcoin in a bit of a grey area. But since it literally exists for the purpose of supporting open source that tips the scale in your favour 😉
I’ll send you a PM to discuss specifics.
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### Author:  [@rw\_grim](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rw_grim)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2019, 9:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/9 "2019-08-15T21:07:27Z")
When you say you can’t help import existing mailing lists and the like, does that mean it’s still possible for us to do it manually or only if we self-host? We have 17 years of mailing lists to not lose and we’re really not trying to self host anything anymore 😉
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2019, 10:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/10 "2019-08-15T22:23:54Z")
You can absolutely do it yourself. All our [import scripts](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/tree/master/script/import_scripts) are open source, so you can set up a local dev site and run the import. From there, you can take a backup of your dev site, upload it to your free hosted site, and shoot us an email. We’ll work with you to restore the backup.
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### Author:  [@rw\_grim](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rw_grim)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2019, 3:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/11 "2019-08-17T15:43:24Z")
Awesome, guess I know what I’ll be doing this weekend 😃
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### Author:  [@maphew](https://meta.discourse.org/u/maphew)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/12 "2019-08-28T15:52:13Z")
Are you sure? The opening post explicitly says:
> [@erlend\_sh](#):
>
> We do not support imports. See the FAQ for more.
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2019, 4:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/13 "2019-08-28T16:07:46Z")
Yes, I’m quite sure 😃. We will not assist with imports, but we’re happy to restore a Discourse backup, whether that backup is from an import, another hosting site, self-hosting, etc.
Let me see if I can edit the copy there a bit to be clearer.
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2019, 6:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/16 "2019-08-28T18:32:15Z")
> [@jomaxro](#):
>
> Let me see if I can edit the copy there a bit to be clearer.
FAQ in the linked blog post updated.
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### Author:  [@myoan](https://meta.discourse.org/u/myoan)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/17 "2020-02-24T17:11:50Z")
> [@jomaxro](#):
>
> Let me see if I can edit the copy there a bit to be clearer.
Hello 🙂 This is unclear to me why `allow_restore` parameter is disabled in these opensource discourses.
Although it looks natural that no support is provided for custom imports requiring ssh-ing the server and doing the technical work, moving from `old.discourse.example.org` to `new.discourse.group` is basically a file save/open operation requiring no technical knowledge. Am I missing something?
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/18 "2020-02-24T19:10:00Z")
Restore is disabled across our entire hosting. Free, standard, business, enterprise, everything. This has nothing to do with our open source hosting. We handle restores for our customers, even the free ones, for security and support reasons.
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### Author:  [@myoan](https://meta.discourse.org/u/myoan)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/19 "2020-02-24T22:10:38Z")
Ah OK thank you @jomaxro, the reason wasn’t clear to me.
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2020, 5:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/20 "2020-04-07T17:37:21Z")
Just setting up one of these. We want to enable logging in by github, twitter and google. Is this going to be possible and can we set it up in the usual way? Or is this something discourse would be able to do for us because it’s on your discourse.group domain?
If I recall correctly, setting up the apps on one or more of these requires authenticating with the TLD.
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/21 "2020-04-07T17:40:54Z")
> [@tobiaseigen](#):
>
> If I recall correctly, setting up the apps on one or more of these requires authenticating with the TLD.
Which one?
We have plenty of users using social logins under discourse.group. First site I tested is using GitHub and Google.
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/22 "2020-04-07T17:45:26Z")
OK, cool! Thanks for confirming. I haven’t done many of these and tend to forget steps I haven’t performed in a while. I will take a look and get back to you if I run into any trouble.
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### Author:  [@ofnusa](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ofnusa)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/free-hosting-for-open-source-v2/101940/24 "2020-06-18T14:31:33Z")
Thank you team! It looks like this is also available from the Admin panel. Sorry for the newbie question, and thank you very much for your help!
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