So, how do I setup the website?
And what other host(s)? can you use?
AI-generated summary
The discussion revolves around hosting a Discourse forum for under $100/month. Jennifer_Carter asks about setup and hosting options, with Jonathan5 pointing to the official installation guide. Falco lists alternatives to DigitalOcean, including Vultr, Linode, and AWS LightSail. itsbhanusharma clarifies that Discourse is free and self-hosting is possible on any VPS with Docker support, while Timelord emphasizes the need for KVM-based virtualization. Jonathan5 recommends DigitalOcean and Mailgun for beginners. danb35 suggests Contabo as a cost-effective option. codinghorror mentions cheaper alternatives like LiteRateComputing and Communiteq. CaptainZac and JQ331 praise Communiteq for its affordability, ease of use, and excellent support. bwetherill questions the pricing, but renato explains that Communiteq offers managed hosting with support, unlike DigitalOcean’s self-managed approach. pfaffman notes that a $6/month droplet plus Mailgun is sufficient for small communities.
There are instructions here: discourse/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md at main · discourse/discourse · GitHub
Good luck 
So I have to host with DigitalOcean?
Digital Ocean is the most popular choice, yes. But there are hundreds of equivalents alternatives. Other popular ones are Vultr, Linode, AWS LightSail, Scaleway, Hetzner.
Would I be able to host with repl.it?
and do you know why hosting is like 100$ a month?
I guess it suits people with money but limited time or technical expertise, and companies who won’t quibble over price in exchange for a contract promising uptime, support etc.
Probably Not
That’s the price for getting your hosting from CDCK. Discourse itself is free & open source so you always have the choice to self host Discourse on a VPS
@itsbhanusharma Is it possible? Or what hosting software could I use?
That’s not digitalOcean?
I’d assume you meant hosting service. You can choose any hosting service that offers VPS with specs as mentioned in the install doc.
There were some recommendations made by falco
I would add that not all VPS providers are equal. Make sure the VPS you use is KVM, and not OpenVZ, or Discourse will not install.
If (like me) you aren’t hugely experienced then just go with Digital Ocean and Mailgun, as recommended.
What part of the docs made you think you needed to use Digital Ocean? They’re one example among many of providers who will give you a virtual Linux server; other examples were mentioned up-topic. I’ve been using Contabo for a while (for Discourse and other sites) and been happy with them.
Now, if you don’t understand “these steps will work on any Docker-compatible cloud provider or local server”, self-hosting your own Discourse instance may be a bit beyond you at this time.
If you need lower priced hosting options to fit your budget, you can look into literatecomputing.com (one time setup fee, plus $5/month) or communiteq.com for example.
I use communiteq.com for hosting my forum. I am happy to say that it was exactly what I was looking for. It is much cheaper than Discourse itself, easy, and the support there is phenomenal! I almost always get a reply in under 6 hours!
With Discourse’s own hosting the pricing is partcularly geard to commercial/enterprise clients that need their forums to just work without thinking about it, and come with enterprise level support.
Communiteq offer still-good quality hosting at a lower price entry point that negates the hassle of managing a server.
Or alternatively the previously-mentioned installation service with Literate Computing provides great value - I’ve not used it myself but I understand that it not only includes the inital setup of Discourse, but securing the Linux box properly as well which is imperative. $100.00 is excellent value for this sort of service.
If you’re not experienced with Linux it really would be best to go one of the mentioned services, as mistakes down the line can cost far more.
Of course if you want to learn then absolutely have a go for yourself - any VPS provider that a) meets the specs and b) uses KVM or another virtualisation platform that supports Docker should do the trick.
How much do they charge for emails? Do you get social logins?
Emails and everything is included with it, but you can use a Gmail address (or any ending) if you would like with it. To set up social logins, you have to do that just like he would with any other discourse community, and do that through an API key, but you can add google and many other large companies in as you wish.
That’s good. Is there issue due to shared IP addresses and spam?
Nope.