I've done all three. I've self-hosted open-source forum software, I've paid for commercial forum software, and between 2016 and 2018 I built a complete community platform from scratch, alone, and moved CrazyEngineers onto it.
So when a founder asks me whether they should build their own community platform, I don't answer with a pricing table. I tell them what each option actually cost me.
I run Jatra, which is one of the options here, so read this with that in mind. I'll tell you when building or self-hosting is the right call.
The four options
You have four real choices:
- Build it yourself. Custom software, made for your community.
- Self-host open-source or licensed software. Discourse, XenForo, phpBB and the like, on your own server.
- Buy a hosted platform. Circle, Bettermode, hosted Discourse and others. You pay monthly and they run the servers.
- Buy a managed platform. A hosted platform plus a team that helps you set up, seed and grow the community.
The license or subscription is the smallest part of the cost in every one of them.
Self-hosting: cheap until something breaks
CrazyEngineers started on phpBB in 2005, which was free. I learned hosting, domains and installation by asking on other forums, and didn't sleep for 48 hours getting it live.
Then, in early 2007, we got hacked. I had no backups. Our host's best advice was to delete everything and start from scratch. I spent three or four days and nights reading about security, cleaning out the malicious code and restoring the whole site. That's when I learned that at some point, you need professional support.
Self-hosting looks cheap. By community estimates, a small Discourse server runs on less than $30 a month, and a XenForo license costs $195 once. But somebody has to apply updates, keep backups, watch security and fix things when they break. If that somebody is you, it's your evenings. If it's a contractor, it's a bill that never stops.
Self-hosting makes sense when you have an engineer on the team who enjoys it and has time for it. Otherwise, the free software is the expensive option.
The developer trap
Paid software doesn't remove the problem. It moves it.
On vBulletin and later XenForo, every feature I wanted that wasn't built in meant a paid add-on or a developer. The best XenForo developers were always booked by the big forums. The rest charged specialist rates, and what came back often broke: blank pages, errors, things that stopped working after the next upgrade. Every small fix meant chasing a developer who wasn't around.
In 2012, when a plugin problem took most of our traffic overnight, I tried to hire help and couldn't find good developers I could afford. The ones available charged $20 to $30 an hour, more than I could pay at the time. I felt helpless.
That's the hidden cost of self-hosted and plugin-based platforms: every change depends on someone else's calendar.
Building your own
In 2015, out of frustration, I started learning to code. It took eight months before I shipped my first WordPress plugin. Between 2016 and 2018 I built a full community platform on Laravel, alone, and in May 2018 I moved CrazyEngineers onto it. That code became the early seed of Jatra.
So I'm not against building. But be honest about what it took: three years of learning and building, from someone who'd already run a community for a decade and knew exactly what he wanted.
Build your own platform only if all of these are true:
- The community is your core product, not a side channel.
- You have engineers who can keep building it for years, not just launch it.
- You need something no platform does, and you've checked.
- You're willing to own security, spam, search and performance forever.
For almost every business, the honest answer is no. Your engineers should be building your product, not a forum.
The cost nobody puts in the spreadsheet
Here's what I'd add up before choosing, whichever option you pick:
- License or subscription. The number on the pricing page.
- Hosting and maintenance. Servers, backups, updates and security, if you self-host.
- Development. Custom features, add-ons, fixes and upgrades.
- People. Someone has to run the community every week: seeding discussions, answering questions, moderating. This is usually the biggest cost of all.
- Migration. Moving content, members and URLs from wherever you are now, and the search traffic you could lose doing it.
- Opportunity cost. Every week your team spends on the platform is a week they don't spend on the community itself.
The people line matters most. Jatra's early customers loved the product and still left after five or six months, because nobody had time to run the community. That's why I wrote a separate guide on who should run your community. Price that in before you price software.
Hosted vs managed
A hosted platform gives you software that someone else keeps running. That solves the servers. It doesn't solve the empty community.
A managed platform adds people who help you set up, seed and grow it. That's what we do at Jatra: every plan includes working sessions with us and migration support. It costs more than a plain subscription, and it's worth it only if you don't already have someone experienced to run the community.
If you do have an experienced community manager, a good hosted platform may be all you need. Compare them in how to choose a B2B community platform and the best community platform for B2B SaaS.
My advice
Don't build. Don't self-host unless you have an engineer who wants to own it. Buy a platform that fits the job, and put your money into the people who'll run the community.
If you're building the business case for your team, the community business case guide shows how to lay out the full cost. And if you want a second opinion on your options, book a call. If self-hosting is the right answer for you, I'll tell you.
