How can I estimate the necessary technical resources of a VPS for flarum?

Trombert

I would like to know if there is a way to estimate the resources needed for the proper functioning of a website with Flarum, I know there are many factors such as extensions and so on, but how can I estimate the technical resources needed (dedicated CPU or not, RAM) of a VPS on a website with about 50 or in another case 20 active users simultaneously?

tankerkiller125

Trombert Discuss runs on a very small VPS from DigitalOcean, Flarum requires very minimal resources overall to operate.

Trombert

Thank you very much for all your comments, they are really helpful.

tankerkiller125 I had no idea about this, it is a surprise for me, even without the real data there is a lot of constant activity here, I think I had a wrong idea of the resources that I was going to need...

clarkwinkelmann It's hard to believe how light Flarum is, from what I'm seeing as I gather information, it's amazing. As you say the key will be in the extensions and as a whole to make a decision. I didn't know this extension of yours, it will be very helpful for me to make initial tests before starting anything.

ChadJessen Of course it is helpful! this was precisely an option I was considering, hiring a larger VPS that allows me to have 2 sites with similar big workloads.

clarkwinkelmann

Because Flarum is so lightweight, extensions can often play a very big role in performance hits. And since we don't have extensive data on all possible combinations of extensions, you will probably need to make some load tests by yourself based on the features you plan to use.

But as said above, you probably won't need too much. You could start with a middle-level VPS of your choice and analyze traffic, then move to a larger or smaller VPS as necessary (most likely the latter).

https://discuss.flarum.org/d/21160-fake-data is a great extension to generate many discussions and users for a demo/load-test forum.

ChadJessen

I use digitalocean's $10 dollar plan with ALOT of extensions installed and don't see an issue with speed. Now I will also say that I pretty much don't have any users on the site either. You can check it out at https://whatsonyourscrubs.com. I also have a few other sites on the same droplet and have no issues with speed as well. One of them is a geneaolgy site using the TNG software. You can check that out at https://jessenfamilygenealogy.com. My wife has her website for her freelance journalism that is run by wordpress. There are no speed issues with that either. If you were to happen to start having some issues, it is very easy to upgrade to the next level for your droplet. I also have digitalocean do an automatic backup once a week that costs an extra $2 dollars.

Hope this helps.

*Not trying to advertise my websites, just wanted to show examples for OP to give them a better idea of the possibilities with a vps.

Trombert

There was something that caught my attention looking at different providers some advertise their VPS as "worldwide" and others even add other options with specific locations (usually more expensive) as in the case of Upcloud that offer "Finland" as well, I dont understand exactly why the specific locations are more expensive... the location is a factor to take into consideration? or is it really something indicated for large sites?

tankerkiller125

Trombert Location is something you should consider depending on where your core audience is. If your core audience is in say the UK then your going to want a VPS as close as possible to that location. Cloud providers may price locations differently due to the cost of resources in a particular location (hosting in say Hawaii would be WAY more expensive than say Tennessee due to shipping cost, electric cost, cooling cost, etc.)