Your Discourse 2026.7.3 forum, open source and with its own PostgreSQL and Redis, lives on one server that Selfhost.dev provisions, secures and runs, across six locations on three continents. No plan meters staff seats, members or pageviews.
Discourse, the open source forum software, on a server of your own that we provision and watch. It is threaded, searchable discussion, not a chat app like Discord.
Communities, product teams and support teams that want the forum's data and domain under their control. Especially anyone who has outgrown Discourse's Free plan but not the price of Pro.
Pick it when the forum needs its own domain, more than a couple of staff accounts or its data on a server you control. The whole bill is the server, by the hour.
A Discourse deployment here is three containers on one project server: Discourse's official image, PostgreSQL with the pgvector extension and Redis for the job queue and cache. Discourse is pinned to 2026.7.3, Postgres stays on 16 and Redis on 7. All three start together. Mail goes out through the SMTP provider you enter at deploy.
Discourse's own install runs a launcher script on a server you maintain. This template runs Discourse's official web-only image instead, which Discourse does not yet call production-ready, so the console shows it as Beta.
Discourse AI's related topics and semantic search store their embeddings with pgvector. The extension ships in this template's PostgreSQL, so the database side is ready when you turn those features on.
Your members and moderators
TLS and routing
Discourse 2026.7.3
Postgres 16 + pgvector
Redis 7
Your SMTP provider
| Component | Version | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Discourse | discourse/discourse:2026.7.3 | The forum itself, served over HTTPS |
| PostgreSQL with pgvector | pgvector/pgvector:pg16 | Topics, posts, members and settings |
| Redis | redis:7-alpine | Discourse's job queue and cache |
| Your SMTP provider | Sign-up confirmations, notifications and digests |
Discourse's install guide starts with a Linux server, a hostname, an installer script and a setup wizard over SSH. On this template each of those steps is done before the forum first loads: the server is provisioned and firewalled, mail is set and the forum answers on its own HTTPS address.
| What Discourse's install guide has you do | On this template |
|---|---|
| Get a 64-bit Linux server with Docker and SSH | A project server, provisioned and firewalled |
| Point a hostname at the server before installing | A generated HTTPS address from the start; your own domain later |
| Run the installer and answer its setup wizard | One click; the console asks for the admin email and SMTP |
| Enter SMTP details for sign-up and notification mail | Set on the container before the first boot |
| Run PostgreSQL and Redis for Discourse | Both run as their own containers, wired to Discourse |
| Get a Let's Encrypt certificate | A certificate per hostname, renewed for you |
| Keep the database and Redis ports off the internet | The server firewall opens only 22, 80 and 443 |
| Pin a version rather than a moving tag | Pinned to Discourse 2026.7.3 |
Discourse's installer needs a hostname before it runs, your own domain or a discourse.diy name. Here the forum answers on its own HTTPS address first; your domain follows when you are ready.
Discourse hosting here needs one 8 GB server, which the console recommends for Discourse, PostgreSQL and Redis together, plus the SMTP details the console asks for at deploy. Everything else, from the HTTPS certificate to optional daily backups and the six locations, comes with the server.
That sizes its launcher install, which packs Discourse, PostgreSQL and Redis into one container. This template runs them as three. The whole template counts as one heavy workload. An 8 GB server fits three heavy workloads and one light, so there is room beside the forum.
Deploying Discourse here takes four steps and no SSH: pick the template, enter your mail settings and admin email, wait for the first boot, then sign up as the administrator. The console tracks every stage.
Launch opens the console with Discourse already selected. Pick a server size and one of six locations.
Enter your SMTP server, port, username, password and sender address, plus the email address that will own the forum.
The template deploys in about 30 minutes while the first boot migrates the database and compiles assets. Then the forum answers on a generated HTTPS address.
Sign up on the forum with the admin email you entered and confirm the message Discourse sends. That account becomes the administrator.
Discourse hosting costs the server and nothing else here: there is no fee for Discourse, its database, its cache or your staff accounts. The server is billed by the hour at a rate set by the location you pick. The table below gives the 8 GB rate in each region.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Discourse, PostgreSQL and Redis | $0 |
| HTTPS and a custom domain | $0 |
| Staff seats and members | $0 |
| Bandwidth | $0, no traffic metering on a template project |
| Backups | Optional, +20% of the server rate |
| Server | RAM, cores, disk | Where | Rate | About a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
cx33 (recommended) | 8 GB, 4 cores, 80 GB | Europe | $0.03/hr | $23.36 |
cax21 (ARM) | 8 GB, 4 cores, 80 GB | Europe | $0.04/hr | $29.20 |
cx43 (one size up) | 16 GB, 8 cores, 160 GB | Europe | $0.06/hr | $43.22 |
ccx13 | 8 GB, 2 cores, 80 GB | US | $0.16/hr | $119.28 |
cpx32 | 8 GB, 4 cores, 160 GB | Singapore | $0.19/hr | $135.63 |
Monthly figures assume 730 hours. The console picks the cheapest server in stock that fits and shows it before you confirm.
A server with a card on file or a past top-up is powered off and held for 24 hours. A top-up in that window starts the forum again. Welcome-credit-only servers are deleted at zero, backups included.
Try another size or region in the calculator, no signup.
Discourse runs three ways: on Discourse's own hosting, with a managed host or on a server of your own. Discourse's plans are Free, Pro at $100 and Business at $500 a month, each with a staff seat cap. On your own server, the bill is the server.
| Option | Price | What you get | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discourse Free | $0 | Hosted forum on a discourse.group subdomain, 5 GB storage | 2 staff seats, no custom domain |
| Discourse Pro | $100/mo | Custom domain, API and webhooks, 15+ plugins, 20 GB storage | 5 staff seats |
| Discourse Business | $500/mo | SSO, automation, 20+ more plugins, 100 GB storage | 15 staff seats |
| Communiteq Starter | From $20/mo | Managed Discourse, 10 GB storage, standard plugins | 250k pageviews a month |
| Communiteq Professional | $49/mo | Five extra plugins of your choice, 20 GB storage | 500k pageviews a month |
| Selfhost.dev, a European 8 GB server | $0.03/hr, about $23 a month | Your own server, your own domain, 80 GB disk | The server's RAM and disk |
Prices as each vendor lists them on its own pricing page. Discourse's plans also cap monthly emails and pageviews.
Most guides treat self hosting as a server you install, secure and watch alone. Here the forum still runs on a server of your own, but we provision it, open only three ports and health-check it every 60 seconds.
A small community that is happy on a discourse.group address with two staff accounts pays nothing on Discourse's Free plan and never touches a server. This template earns its place once you need your own domain, more staff or the data on a server you control.
Discourse's template deploys in about 30 minutes. That is the platform's own budget, not an estimate.
None of these a dealbreaker? The template deploys in about 30 minutes.
Launch DiscourseDiscourse hosting here has two layers of backup. The optional daily image covers the whole server with the last seven kept. Discourse's own archive holds the database and uploads in one file you can download. Keep a downloaded copy off the server, because server images go if the server is deleted.
| Method | What it covers | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Daily server backup (optional, +20%) | Discourse, PostgreSQL, Redis and every upload in one image, last 7 kept | With the server |
| Discourse backup (Admin, Backups) | The database and uploads in one archive | On the server until you download it |
pg_dump over root SSH | The database only | Wherever you copy it |
Tell us your members, monthly pageviews and how much you upload. We reply with the server size and the monthly cost.
Yes. Discourse is open source under GPL v2 and free to run on your own server. Its own route is a launcher script on a server you set up and look after. This template runs Discourse's official image on a server of your own that we provision, firewall and health-check every 60 seconds.
Discourse's hosted plans are Free, Pro and Business, each a flat monthly fee with a staff seat cap. Enterprise is quoted separately. The pricing table above lists them. Self hosted, the software costs nothing. You pay for the server by the hour, with no staff seat limit.
Two. Discourse's Free plan hosts a forum at no cost on a discourse.group subdomain, with two staff seats and 5 GB of storage. The software itself is also free to run anywhere. On a server of your own you add a custom domain and as many staff as you like. You pay only for the server.
No. Discord is real-time chat organised in channels. Discourse is a forum: threaded topics that stay searchable for years, which is why companies use it for support and product communities. Discourse includes a chat feature too, but its core is long-form discussion that search engines can index.
Discourse's install guide asks for 1 GB with swap at minimum and 2 GB or more recommended, for its launcher install that packs everything into one container. This template runs Discourse, PostgreSQL and Redis as three containers. The console recommends an 8 GB server for the set.
On this template, yes. The console asks for your SMTP server, port, username, password and sender address at deploy. The admin account is confirmed by email. Any transactional mail provider works. Discourse's own installer can skip mail by using Discourse ID logins instead. If no email arrives, check your SMTP settings first, then the Logs tab.
Selfhost.dev is a managed self hosting platform for developers and small teams. Open source apps and databases on dedicated servers you control, billed by the hour with no subscription tiers.
Best for: Discourse, Chatwoot, BookStack, n8n and managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, ClickHouse, OpenSearch and Kafka.
