Cost of running a mastodon instance

how much does running a mastodon instance of 1000 users costs? Disabling Images and allowing only text is one of my condition. So if I do that, will that change cost? I am thinking of a VPS so that i can have greater control over instance functionality

How much Storage and RAM will be required roughly?

54 points · 16 comments · view on lemmy.world

16 Comments

rglullis@communick.news · 15 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Why do you want to run an instance for that many people? Do you have 1000 people already, or is that just a number that you decided to work with? Why would people be interested in joining an instance with less functionality than the bigger ones?

Also: does it have to be Mastodon, or would you consider other alternatives? Pleroma and GoToSocial would be a lot easier to manage.

sartaj@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y (1 reply)

It is number of people necessary for instance to be functional as intended. I am trying to run an instance where only people verified using legal Documents should be able to post, comment, vote. That is to increase transparency and keep spammers away. I Intend it to be a political website I will read about GoToSocial and Pleroma

rglullis@communick.news · 9 pts · 1y

I'd guess that whoever would be willing to give you copies of legal documents just to join an "exclusive" instance would also be okay with contributing a few bucks per month to pay for its costs.

poVoq@slrpnk.net · 12 pts · 1y

https://masto.host/

To give you ballpark figures. Self-hosting will not save you much compared to that.

Software like Akkoma or GoToSocial will save you some CPU and RAM costs, but are more optimized for smaller instances.

roofuskit@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1y (8 replies)

Storage costs should be pretty low for an instance very few would want to use.

sartaj@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y (7 replies)

suppose I kidnap 1000 people and force them to use mastodon without images, how much will it cost then? jk

roofuskit@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y (6 replies)

In all seriousness, we can't really give a cost estimate because you haven't given us your hosting scenario. Are you hosting on your own hardware, on a VPS, or using a provider that specializes in hosting Mastodon servers?

sartaj@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y (5 replies)

I am thinking of a VPS so that i can have greater control over instance functionality

roofuskit@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y (4 replies)

https://paulstamatiou.com/hosting-your-own-mastodon-server#choose-how-youd-like-to-host

Digital Ocean is used as an example because they have a quick setup Mastodon option. It looks like $14/mo minimum if you're going to run Elastisearch. Without that tool in memory you might get away with 1GB of memory which is $7/mo. But the author also notes that with Elastisearch his VPS uses about 2GB of ram so he's actually running the 4GB $21/mo plan.

Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com · 3 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Even without images, you'll still need quite a bit of space. I'm not sure 50GB would cut it for 1000 semi-active users. Also you'll need to pay for the domain name.

roofuskit@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y

@sartaj@lemmy.world important information above.

sartaj@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Thanks!!

roofuskit@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y

He also explains how to offload storage to another service for $5 a month if you want to add images back in.

OmegaLemmy@discuss.online · 4 pts · 1y (1 reply)

10 to 50 dollars, 400 GB, upgrade later if need be with other services, I think 4gb of ram is enough

OmegaLemmy@discuss.online · 3 pts · 1y

Oh no images? 4 dollars, maybe 2 with no space 2 or 4 cores and 1 or 2gb ram

MITM0@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y

Speaking of mastodon, any recommendations on lightweight & featureful Android apps for Mastodon ?? (I understand that this may not be the right post to ask, but still....)