Hosting is a want or need?

Discussion in 'Domains, Hosting and Servers' started by BlazingBlue, Mar 23, 2011.

  1. BlazingBlue

    BlazingBlue Regular Member

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    Is Hosting a want or need for your site? what I mean is does your site need paid hosting? Or could it do well with free hosting? Meaning is it a want or a need?
     
  2. SpacewardAsh

    SpacewardAsh Lurking From Space

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    I guess it all depends on what your community wants, e.g. if your on a free forum host, and suddenly your community may desire a load of mods that your free host does not offer, you may consider a move to free or paid advanced hosting to bring those features to your community.
     
  3. BlazingBlue

    BlazingBlue Regular Member

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    True, I guess it depends on the subject of your forum.
     
  4. Ashley

    Ashley Regular Member

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    Paid hosting for us was definitely a need. Because I used to be on ProPHPBB at one time, and we've gotten lots of requests, almost half of which we've had to refuse because the host wouldn't add them because they wouldn't benefit all forums hosted with them. So in 99 cases out of 100, if you want to be able to add any feature you and your members want/need, paid hosting is definitely the way to go. I would not go back to the limitations of free hosting for anything at this stage.
     
  5. timestandstill

    timestandstill Regular Member

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    Paid hosting is an absolute must. Free hosting is usually unreliable, they can take your site down for dumb reasons, and ~$10/mo isn't exactly a fortune.
     
  6. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Like Ashley Said it depends, but I would say paid hosting would be the right choice.
     
  7. Azure

    Azure Regular Member

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    An absolute must need for my site. I need full control to take advantage of my forum software. I was actually using phpBB at one point and my members did not like it. I made the move to IPB and after a few months, I can see how well it is paying off. Don't forget about SEO. If you're planning on creating a behemoth of a site that expects at least half a million hits per month, you'll need your own domain and server for sure.
     
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  8. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Yep IPB is a good choice, im glad you didnt choose vB. Im a vB hater :P
     
  9. Darthmaul

    Darthmaul Regular Member

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    I would definitely say Paid Hosting is a must. As long as you plan on having a good active site, then you need paid hosting.
     
  10. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Yes, its mostly needed if your site is very active, and grows. So you need that freedom which paid hosting gives you.
     
  11. Darthmaul

    Darthmaul Regular Member

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    Absolutely, otherwise you'll never really make it big ;)
     
  12. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    There are free hosted forums out there that have made it big, but that doesn't happen often.
     
  13. Darthmaul

    Darthmaul Regular Member

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    Yeah, i guess that was an inaccurate comment, but you are correct. There aren't very many big forums from free hosts.
     
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  14. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Your comment was fine, but its very rare to find a successful forum on a free host.
     
  15. Darthmaul

    Darthmaul Regular Member

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    Agreed. I do remember forumansion doing quite well.
     
  16. SpacewardAsh

    SpacewardAsh Lurking From Space

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    Again, I'm going say it all depends on what your community wants, if your community desire lots of mods and you have the money & experience to go with paid hosting, then do it but if your happy on your current free forum set up, then why move?
     
  17. Darthmaul

    Darthmaul Regular Member

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    I guess i have to agree with you there Ashley
     
  18. David

    David Regular Member

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    It's a need. I don't think you can find any decent free hosts out there, and you'd be running into downtime issues and speed issues on many free hosts. Needless to say, I don't want to be running my paid software on a free host which may shut down the next day. There is an added sense of security with paid hosts as you are in a contract.
     

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