Want to create an online community with Discourse but find the cost of Discourse's official hosting too high and you're not up for the technical challenges to self-host? Let me do it for you!

I've installed and maintain multiple self-hosted Discourse forums with high uptime and blazing fast speeds. Pay me to handle all the backend stuff while you focus on making your community shine.

What You Get

• A fully managed Discourse community for AUD $75/m inc GST (US$50/m).


• CDN-enabled for super fast load times worldwide.


• No limits on users or page views, generous bandwidth & storage limits.


• On-going maintenance with responsive and friendly support.

What's Included

• Unlimited users


• Unlimited page views


• 1TB of file storage


• 1TB of bandwidth


• 10,000 monthly emails


• Any plugins you want


• Automated backups

What I Do

• Setup - create server, secure it, install Discourse.


• Configuration - ensure email works, CDN & object storage enabled.


• Install plugins - if there's specific plugins you'd like installed.


• Maintenance - daily backups plus regular updates to both the server and the forum software.

What I Don't Do

• Participation - I do not participate in the forum and do not moderate it.


• Customisation - I just set it up so you can do your thing. You need to set the forum rules, theme, etc.


• Development - custom made plugins or complex server modifications are out of my scope.

About me

My name is Anthony and I do this as a side hustle and to help online communities grow outside the walled gardens of our big tech overlords. My day job is writing Austraila's best technology email newsletter - The Sizzle.

I have almost 20 years of experience babysitting computers and running online communities. You can find more information about me at decryption.net.au

Some forums I administer include the Australian Computer Museum Society and The Sizzle's private members only forum.

FAQ

• What happens if I exceed the limits? If you manage to exceed them, your forum is likely insanely popular with thousands of daily users. If that happens we can discuss custom pricing. I won't cut you off!


• How do I pay? I send you an invoice each month that can be paid via bank transfer or credit card.


• How can I get in touch with you? Email is best (aagius@fastmail.fm), but you can also reach me on Telegram as @decryption. Paying customers get my phone number.


• Which services do you use? Hetzener Cloud for server hosting. Postmark for email. Bunny for CDN services. Backblaze for file storage. Tailscale for secure server access.