Cloud vs Self Hosted

[JoelR]

One of the growing options in the last several years is the option for Cloud.  Certainly for IPS, it's the default option - you almost need to go out of your way to find the pricing for self hosted.  

This matches the reality of the wider web.  Cloud hosting isn't a trend that is starting. It's the trend that's already established. When you think about Reddit, Discord, Slack, Facebook Groups, Amino Apps, MeWe, Substack, etc. they are all "cloud" platforms. No one self hosts their own instance of Facebook, you just start a group on the Facebook cloud platform. The reality is that most online communities on the wider web are cloud hosted. Most group owners want plug and play functionality at this point. 

My personal thoughts are that you can be more intentional in leveraging your time, skills and money in choosing between the two options.  

[opentype]

I don’t care much about the (technical) difference between cloud and self-hosted. Both options have their pros and cons, but get you essentially the same outcome. 

But I have to care a lot about paying $16,59 a month (for self-hosted) vs. $169 a month (for a comparable cloud offer). It’s literally 10 times as much. 

[JoelR]

When Charles was asking the community about what was stopping clients from choosing cloud, there were a lot of suggestions ... remove limit on page views, increase storage, and cost. 

Cost seems to be the one thing IPS didn't want to budge on.  They revamped their cloud plans for virtually all of the other suggestions.  

[dismalbliss]

Cost will keep me off the Cloud indefinitely. I have multiple websites and multiple communities. I have a VPS that hosts them all for a fraction of just a single Cloud package. 

[Toni]

I find that as much as I know self-hosting my own forums, cloud hosting makes things a lot easier for me and as long as I can afford the price each month or year, I am quite happy to use cloud hosting. 

Cloud hosting is quite costly though and I can understand why some would prefer to self-host to cut those costs. 

[Nomad]

I am running multiple websites and all of my websites are self-hosted. Cloud hosting is an expensive service, therefore, I have never considered hosting on the cloud. I know the benefits of cloud hosting, but as a wonder of multiple websites that do not get a lot of traffic and do not generate a lot of revenue, I also have to think about the cost. I will continue to self-host until I have enough money for cloud hosting.

[Square Wheels]

I wrote a custom email newsletter where I query my database.  I would not be able to do that with cloud.

Also, the silly costs.

[IC Essentials]

7 hours ago, Square Wheels said:

where I query my database

You could use the REST API or GraphQL to get the data.

[Square Wheels]

5 minutes ago, IC Essentials said:

You could use the REST API or GraphQL to get the data.

Or hire someone to do it for me.  🙂  That is way beyond me.

7 hours ago, Square Wheels said:

Also, the silly costs.

and then there is this...

[Shortie]

I find that cloud hosting is quite expensive which has been offputting for me. Being able to purchase hosting and a domain name and then a license for the software I wish to use has been cheaper for me than using cloud hosting. 

If I was new to forums and running them, cloud hosting would be an option for me but knowing what I am doing, I much prefer self-hosted. 

[Destiny]

I have always gone for self-hosted when starting a forum. I like the idea of being able to do things myself and learning along the way and I feel being cloud-hosted takes that away from you. 

Cloud hosting can also be very expensive too.