" The certificate files are zero bytes (dobato.au.cer and dobato.au_ecc.cer have size 0). This means Let’s Encrypt failed to download the actual certificates. " - issue with vultr, keeps repeating. I dont think I like vultr now.
what i see as the problem here is that you are somewhat hesitant to spend some time debugging and learning how to fix your install. rather than say you don’t like this or that host server and switch to a new one every time you hit an issue, you would be best served to figure out the issue and fix it. i’ve walked through the standard install many times and yes .yml files can be tricky, but really, once you get the hang of it and the 
lights for you, it won’t be as difficult. but use the other topic for fixing this.
stop using google to solve this. it’s not helping you. honestly, unless you have legal reasons for doing otherwise, you can use a cloud server anywhere. i’m in Canada and i have sites hosted in EU.
you may be right, i was looking at simple installation, like phpadmin. I will go through the guide. thanks
no reasons at all. just wanted it to run faster.
you probably only need to worry about this if you have a busy forum serving mega-topics and lots of image uploads. if latency due to distance becomes an issue you can alway configure a cdn like cloudflare but i doubt you need it. one of my smaller forums easily serves over the atlantic and continental north america from EU without a CDN.
You have tons of experiences in this. thanks heaps.
I am a DO customer and use AWS for all outbound mail. It cost less than a $1 a month. There are multiple email providers that use api calls to avoid the smtp limitation.
this is a gold. thanks @LotusJeff . read somewhere discourse supports smtp set up than api. I thought of resend api for https. I’m going to try.
Discourse supports both smtp in and out. You will want to use the api model for both. To launch, you only need outbound. Get the site up and running.
Once out of the DO sandbox, setup inbound smtp.
Avoid vultr like the plague. A few years back, they tried to sneakily roll out a TOS change that claimed ownership over all hosted content. They did eventually roll it back reluctantly, but they initially resisted it and took pot shots at the community instead. It took a ton of consumer backlash to get them to fix it. Really slimy company.
But yes, generally VM providers are often also not SMTP providers / they block port 25. It’s pretty common to have your VM in one provider and get a cheap SMTP provider elsewhere as it’s a specialized skillset to get good e-mail deliverability. No need to move the VM.
still with DO. could not even set up in vultr. kept getting error - can’t load SSL certificate, ngix. I dont understand these. only issue i have with DO is smtp set up which is a trust issue for my site from DO.
I think, If you are looking for the best infrastructure in this segment, 100% Vultr High Frequency (HF) is the way to go.
When it comes to running Discourse, single-core processor performance is what matters most, and Vultr HF absolutely dominates here with their 3GHz+ CPUs. It makes a massive, noticeable difference in how snappy the forum feels.
I’ve been using Vultr HF for years, and I haven’t run into a single issue. It just works great.
thanks Don. I have a new site, sticking with DO for now.