How do server upkeep costs look like for fediverse stuff?

pyreneer, 11 months ago

I see four options:

1. Server owner assumes all costs of the server. Possible if instance is not huge (ideal on a federated environment) or owner has money and will to do it.
2. Accept donations from users
3. Require paid subscription to access (and thus becoming private otherwise anyone could still access the server from a free instance)
4. Run ads on site. Same as 3, users would migrate.

So I only see 1 and 2 possible

BadlyHunt, 11 months ago

My personal (extremely small) instance with only a few users currently costs around $8 / month on a VPS. Still have plenty of headroom for more users as well I believe.

Mattchenzo, 11 months ago

Yeah, I have wondered also… Just like if I wanted Usenet access I would expect to pay for it… There are costs involved, so how much?

nbafantest, 1 year ago

Im on a different small mastodon server and our admin expects about $0.14 per user per month.

Which makes reddits api pricing disgusting

fubo, 1 year ago

Ruud who runs lemmy.world and mastodon.world publishes financial information on his blog: https://blog.mastodon.world/april-and-may-2023-financial-update

clif, 1 year ago

Wow, such transparency... that's awesome. I wonder (hope) if there will be a massive spike in donations in June.

/me sets alarm to remind me to donate after work since I keep thinking about it while I'm away.

LilLetDown, 1 year ago

Ya, no kidding. This piqued my interest, but I did not click expecting to see an actual cost basis! I have been looking at potentially setting up my own node, but at the same time... Perhaps contributing here, financially as well, could be the best option.

Still fun to play around with my own stuff though :) Thanks guys!