Very confused about hosting needs for a small forum

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  • Almaviva
    New Member
    • Nov 2011
    • 13
    • 4.0.x

    Very confused about hosting needs for a small forum

    Hi. I've just purchased my very first vBulletin license with CMS publishing suite. I intend to use it to run a web site that will have several pages with articles and reviews. I'll probably do this page initially with the vBulletin publishing capacities but may go later for a fancier look. Then, the page will have a link to the forum area, where I'll initially probably have some 100 forum members. I expect that initially no more than 10 people will be logged in at the same time. I'm talking about registered members, I don't have how to anticipate yet how many visitors I'll have.

    I also want some storage capacity. Among these articles and reviews, many will have pictures and links to YouTube videoclips. The forum itself will have posts that will be long, and we don't want to have to delete old threads to make space for new ones, since some of this material will be permanent content.

    I just came from another forum community in which I was a moderator, not an owner. Now I'm starting my own site, which of course will take a while before it reaches the richness of the established community I have left. But since we'll talk about the same content, here is an idea of what their forum looks like (they exist for several years so it will be a while until I reach their size): a forum with 864 threads and 30,636 posts, and a sub-forum with 66 threads and 7,466 posts.

    These forums are part of a larger site with several forums and 12,000 members (although only 800 active) which has had as peak, 488 users online at the same time (members + visitors). They have a total of 13,350 threads and 228.930 threads.

    I won't be addressing the content of their other forums, I'll just overlap with the one I've mentioned above (864 threads, 30,636 posts after several years). The stats on their site however don't mention peak users by forum, but since the area I'll be overlapping with is some 8 to 15 times smaller, I assume the peak users for the smaller forum for them should be at most about 488 divided by 8, which is about 60.

    I hope the above is not too confusing. Let's recap:

    I should start with some 100 members, 10-15 simultaneously at peak. I may get after a good while to, say, 300 members and 60 simultaneously. With time, I should reach, say, a storage need for some 400 threads, 15,000 posts. I'll also need space for articles, blogs, reviews, attractive front web page maybe with some animation (like a 3-picture slide show).

    So here is why I'm so confused.

    I've been reading this hosting forum carefully, and have found the most striking variation in people's opinions about hosting needs for a site/forum of my size.

    I've seen someone saying that he/she has a forum with 100,000 members and it runs just fine on URLJet's smallest shared hosting plan vBPro.
    Another member said he runs 7 forums simultaneously in his domain hosted at URLJet's intermediate shared hosting plan, the vBGold.

    So, I'd conclude that a forum my size would be comfortable there with shared hosting (although I don't know about storage needs).

    However, elsewhere in this hosting forum, I found very different opinions, that such sizes would require at the very least VPS, if not a dedicated server.

    I want to start small but want to be able to grow without having to be switching hosting providers all the time (apparently it is a pain).

    Apparently URLJet is a great way to start since they are vB specialists and optimize their servers for vB, and have the LiteSpeed technology that makes vB run faster. But then, when I look at their VPS plans for future growth, they are a lot more expensive than the competition. For example, their best shared plan runs for $50, which is what another provider such as WiredTree charges for their entry level VPS which has three times more storage and bandwidth than the URLJet much more expensive entry level VPS.

    Please, help. How much storage and bandwidth am I likely to need for my site, given the numbers above? Please tell me, how much do I need initially, and how much after I grow to the projected numbers above?

    Should I start with shared hosting? If yes, what should be the minimum requirements I should aim for? Should I invest more upfront in order to build up a reliability and speed reputation, and get an entry level VPS? (Apparently for someone who is not very computer savvy like me, a VPS may be too hard to manage). If yes, what sort of storage/RAM/Bandwidth?

    Thanks in advance for helping a very confused newbie.
  • wat3v3r
    Senior Member
    • Jun 2008
    • 273
    • 3.8.x

    #2
    The big factor here is that you are anticipating the number of users you will get online. There is a big difference between the number of user you expect to be on and the actual number. Always start with a shared host first and if you grow switch to a VPS and so on. You can always switch hosts, if one does not suit your expectations.

    Do some search on webhostingtalk forums, go through some reviews and take your pick.

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