Hello,

I am starting my own community forums. I plan on buying the following...

-Vbulletin 5 Connect + Mobile Suite Bundle: $399.00
-Annual Phone & Ticket Support: $199.00/One Year
-Professional Install/Upgrade: $149.00(Saves Me Time)
-Branding Free: $169.00

-Ultimate Web Hosting Windows Package: Godaddy: $449.40 - 5 year plan

My issue is I found out that goddaddy doesn't support the latest mysql that vbulletin 5 requires. Now Godaddy seems to be the top of the line hosting with unlimited everything. I need help should i just go with godaddy and use vbulletin 4 until they upgrade and then i just upgrade to vbulletin 5 or should I try to find another company.

Please keep in mind I want to buy a package deal with top of the line specs for a few years at one time. Price is not a issue for me. I just want to make sure that a year down the line when I am holding 500 members or more online the forums at once that I will not have lag and issues.

Any suggestiond would be great, please don't tell me to go cheaper or to not go with vbulletin, I have the money and vbulletin is what I want. As far as hosting aswell I don't wish to get a lower speced host for cheaper. If this project does happen to fail at some point before my package deal is up i will just give the hosting account and vbulletin forums away.

I'd say look at other hosts and see which offer the features needed. I enjoy Bluehost. Could you post what specs you need?

Beware hosting packages offering "unlimited" features -- they rely on the fact that the majority of users end up only using minimal resources, and very rarely actually mean "unlimited", and if you end up using more resources you may end up getting a nasty surprise -- I'm sure you can turn up more information on this with some Google searching. You might also consider looking for some reviews of GoDaddy, as a lot of people have had bad experiences with them, especially if you need a lot of support or later decide you would prefer to migrate to another host -- I'm not saying don't use them, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who like the service as well, but do your research!

I always recommend Media Temple to people who are willing to spend the money for a top-of-the-line host -- the're blazingly fast, fully featured, and have some of the best customer support I've ever worked with -- although I've also heard only very good things about the above mentioned Bluehost.

...and just in case anyone finds this in search results but has slightly different needs, in my opinion Synthesis can't be beaten for WordPress hosting, especially if you're using the Genesis framework. They're a specialist host though, and won't meet your current needs AT ALL.

Hope that helps!

So once you've sunk the $500 into the project, how exactly do you intend to build a big enough community to recover that cost?

I don't really care about the details of your business plan, but the Internet is not usually a "build it and they will come" place. Advertising, either paid or word-of-mouth, takes time and effort and frequently money.

Do you have a realistic business plan that will recover that much money and ultimately turn a profit?

There are many free hosting systems available. There are also many full-featured hosting systems that offer LAMP and other configurations for under $10/year that are quite likely to meet your needs for several years worth of growth. Have you considered those with your business plan?

I am not looking to make a profit off of this. I can cover the cost of this forums for decades to come with no issues.

Anyways, I will check out Media Temple

As I said I want a top of the line hosting company with highest specs possible.

I am not looking to make a profit off of this. I can cover the cost of this forums for decades to come with no issues.

Anyways, I will check out Media Temple

As I said I want a top of the line hosting company with highest specs possible.

While you're throwing away money, send some my way ;)

Well i just looked at Media Temple and I must say they look professional but is 1tb bandwidth and 100gb space going to cut it say 5 years from now if I have over 500,000 members, over 9000,000 threads on the forums and 500 members online at once. Plus 25 dollars monthly seems fine and I would be willing to buy a few years if someone can prove that his is good enough and the top of the line and highest specs I can get.

is 1tb bandwidth and 100gb space going to cut it say 5 years from now if I have over 500,000 members, over 9000,000 threads on the forums and 500 members online at once.

Hard to say -- it might cut it just fine, or you may quite possibly need an upgrade -- but they also offer larger packages than that, so (assuming you're still willing to pay for it) there's no reason you couldn't simply upgrade the plan -- and you'll actually get what you pay for, unlike many supposedly "unlimited" plans where you're suddenly hit by extra charges or have your site throttled when you start using more resources. You might find out more from the operators of larger vBulletin based sites on what sort of resources it uses under different traffic loads if you really want to be more sure about potential future growth.

Honestly, you'll be doing really well if your site actually gets that busy, so I wouldn't let it be a huge concern right now -- you can always deal with it if and when it happens, as long as you choose a host that a) offers viable upgrade options, and/or b) isn't a pain-in-the-ass if you later decide to migrate to a different host, which is unfortunately a known issue with GoDaddy.

I don't know if Media Temple are the highest specs you can get, but their infrastructure and support are both top-notch. You'll have to shop around more yourself if you want to look for alternative options -- let us know if you find any!

What version of MySQL do you need? (Disclaimer- I work for Go Daddy and would like to look into this for you)

Bill

vBulletin 5 requires MySQL version 5.1.5 or greater.