Free vs. Paid hosting

[Randy]

Which is the best way to run a forum?

 

[Ashley]

Well, if you really don't have that much time to be on the computer, yet you really want to run a forum, and are determined to stick with it, then I would go with free hosting. Free is especially good if you're not good at installing mods or anything like that. However, if you're good at installing mods, and you like having full advantage of your forum, then advanced would be the best way to go. At the end of the day, it's all up to the forum owner, really.

 

[Nuke]

Paid isn't worth it in my opinion.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Paid by far. On a free forum host, you aren't the actual owner of your forum.

 

[Kasynlie]

Paid for the exact reasons already mentioned.

 

[Keaton]

DONT go on a free forum host. I posted a good hosting service that's free, in Websites, and if you get free it will be fine until your forum becomes big. Once your forum becomes big you will find you will need more space, which means you can upgrade to paid hosting.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I do agree free forum hosts are good only if you have a busy schedule and don't feel like fixing every single darn php and mysql error.



I like Forumotion and prophpbb.com because they're both good .

The problem with forumotion is they refuse to give out backups even if people offer money. So your forum will be trapped there forever. If they ever go out of buisness, your forum will be lost forever. Too much of a gamble I'd say.

 

[Peaceful]

Paid, way more flexibility and more control.

 

[sbfc]

I prefer paid hosting, much more options, better reliability and higher Disk Space/Bandwidth limits.

 

[Xtron]

If your just making a forum for fun to see what happens, go with free hosting and if it takes off, get paid hosting. If your actually serious about it, definitely get paid hosting, Free hosts may seem really good, but they NEVER are, ever.



Free hosts aren't reliable, slow, and spammer / hackers are attracted to them.



Just kep that in mind.

 

[TayneC8]

Best thing to cheat forumotion is using crawlers

I definitely rather paid hosting.

 

[Mr. Perfect]

They way i did it was! When I decided to open my own forum like 4 years ago, i started out with a free forum from Invisionfree. Then when as the board became larger and more active I switched over to the Paid Hosting! Unfortunately I went off to the Navy and had to close it!



I'm back now! and that same board that had more than 300 members will be reopening

EDIT: I have been in free forum hosting for a long time and pretty much everything everyone is saying about free hosting is true. However, Invisionfree is a great one, and Zetaboards is a good one too, one of the best if not the best free forum hosting! I LOVE IT! Try it!

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I started out on a host that offered backups (for a small fee), so I could move my existing forum into paid hosting and have full control.

You cant do that on IF or ZB, you would have to start all over again.